Bramble

אחד , a prickly shrub, Jdg 9:14-15; Psa 58:9. In the latter place it is translated “thorn.” Hiller supposes atad to be the cynobastus, or sweetbrier. The author of “Scripture Illustrated” says, that the bramble seems to be well chosen as the representative of the original; which should be a plant bearing fruit of some kind, being associated, Jdg 9:14, though by opposition, with the vine. The apologue or fable of Jotham has always been admired for its spirit and application. It has also been considered as the oldest fable extant.

Bramble. See Thorns.

(atad). Not our English trailing blackberries; but the Paliurus rhamnus aculeatus, a lowly stunted tree with drooping jagged branches, from which project sharp stiff thorns, affording no shade, but only scratching those who touched it; fit emblem of the self important, petty, but mischievous speaker (answering to Abimelech) in Jotham’s parable (Jdg 9:8-20), the oldest fable extant.

The "bramble bush" (Luk 6:44) is probably the same as Christ’s thorn (Zizyphus spina Christi) supposed to be the kind of which Christ’s crown of thorns was platted; a shrub about six feet high, producing an acid fruit as large as the sloe; the prickles grow in pairs, the one straight, the other curved back. The nebk of the Arabs, common everywhere, easily procurable, and pliable for platting, the leaves a deep green like the ivy; so suited to be a mock crown in imitation of the garlands or crowns with which emperors and generals used to be crowned.

is, in Isa 34:13, the rendering of the Heb. חוֹחִ, cho’ach, a thorn in general (rendered elsewhere "thistle" or "thorn"), as in Luk 6:44, it stands for the Greek βάτος, in the similar sense of any prickly shrub; but in Jdg 9:14-15, it represents the term אָטִד, atad’ (Psa 58:9, "thorn"), which is generally thought to denote the Southern buckthorn (" spina Christi," or Christ’s thorn, from the tradition that it furnished the thorny crown for our Saviour before his crucifixion), the Rhamnus paliurus of Linn., a brier-bush indigenous in Egypt (Cyrenaica according to Pliny, 13:33) and Syria, shooting up from the root in many branches (10 to 15 feet high), armed with spines, and bearing leaves resembling those of the olive, but light-colored and more slenuer, with little whitish blossoms that eventually produce small, black, bitter berries (see Prosp. Alpin. Plantt. Eg. c. 5). The Arabs still call it atad (more commonly ausuj), a name that appears to have been in use among the Africans (i.e. Carthaginians), according to Dioscorides (Gloss. i, 119, ῤάμνος, Α᾿φροὶ Α᾿ταδίν). Rauwolf (Trav. p. 460) found it growing at Jerusalem.

It was employed for hedges; the Hebrews used it for fuel (Psalms 58; Psalms 10). In the apologue or fable of Jotham (q.v.), which has always been admired for its spirit and application (Jdg 9:8-15), and has been considered the oldest allegory of the kind extant, this thorn-bush is the emblem of a tyrant. The word elsewhere occurs only in the name ATAD (Gen 50:10-11). See.generally Celsii Hierobot, i, 199 sq.; Sprengel, ad Dioscor. ii, 397; Kitto, Phys. Hist. of Palest. p. ccxxxvi; Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v. Paliurus. SEE THORN.

By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Gerson B. Levi

A prickly shrub. The word serves as a translation for two Hebrew terms and a Greek one, all of which, however, should receive other renderings.

(1) "Aṭad" ( = the Assyrian "eṭidu") figures in the parable of Jotham. It is the last tree to which the other trees came in quest of a king for themselves (Judges ix. 14, 15). In Ps. lviii. 10 "aṭad" is translated "thorns" (compare Gen. l. 11, "goren ha-aṭad"). The plant is one of the rhamnus group.

(2) "Ḥoaḥ" () is only once translated "bramble"; elsewhere it is rendered "thorns."

(3) Bάτος, out of twelve times that it occurs, is once translated "bramble" (Luke vi. 44). See Thorns and Thistles.

BRAMBLE.—See Thorns.

bram´b’l. See THORNS.

Jdg 9:14 (b) Jotham used the bramble as a type of Abimelech, presenting him as a little, insignificant, inconsequential man who would be untrue to them and would be a sticker in their sides.

Isa 34:13 (b) This is a graphic picture of the deserted and forsaken land when GOD’s curse fell upon it. In figure, it represents the wretched, unhappy, miserable condition of one who shuts GOD out of his life. (See under "THISTLE").

See Thistle Thorns

The Palestinian bramble (Rubus sanctus) and the closely related elm-leaf bramble (Rubus ulmifolius) are prickly evergreen shrubs that spread by growing new shoots from their roots. The stems and young shoots are covered with a characteristic whitish powder or bloom and short hairs. The prickles are strong, stand upright, and have hair on them.

The flowers of these brambles can be white, pink, rose, or purple in color. The fruit is round and black. In the Bible, "bramble" is a translation of several different words that describe shrubs with prickly stems and runners. These plants often form tangled masses of vegetation.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.