רֹאשׁ
rosh (H7219)
poison
AI Word Study
# Analysis of רֹאשׁ (rosh) — "Poison" The Hebrew word *rosh* appears twelve times in the biblical text with the primary meaning of "poison." This term denotes a toxic substance capable of causing harm or death when ingested or applied. The consistent designation across its occurrences suggests a specific and recognizable category of dangerous material in ancient Israelite understanding, distinct from general harm or injury. The limited frequency of *rosh* in the biblical corpus (12 occurrences) indicates that poison was not a dominant concern in the texts' primary narrative or theological focus. However, its repeated appearance suggests the phenomenon was real enough to warrant linguistic attention. The word appears in contexts ranging from literal poisonous substances to metaphorical applications, indicating that ancient Hebrew speakers understood poison both as a concrete physical threat and as a concept applicable to abstract harm, particularly in wisdom literature and prophetic speech. The significance of this term lies in its specificity: Hebrew writers chose a dedicated word for poison rather than relying on general terms for harm or death. This lexical distinctiveness suggests that poisoning represented a particular category of threat or wrongdoing in biblical-era society, whether as a method of harming enemies, a natural danger requiring awareness, or a metaphor for moral corruption and spiritual toxicity.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;