Gourd

(1.) Jonah’s gourd (Jonah 4:6-10), bearing the Hebrew name kikayon (found only here), was probably the kiki of the Egyptians, the croton. This is the castor-oil plant, a species of ricinus, the palma Christi, so called from the palmate division of its leaves. Others with more probability regard it as the cucurbita the el-keroa of the Arabs, a kind of pumpkin peculiar to the East. “It is grown in great abundance on the alluvial banks of the Tigris and on the plain between the river and the ruins of Nineveh.” At the present day it is trained to run over structures of mud and brush to form boots to protect the gardeners from the heat of the noon-day sun. It grows with extraordinary rapidity, and when cut or injured withers away also with great rapidity. (2.) Wild gourds (2 Kings 4:38-40), Heb. pakkuoth, belong to the family of the cucumber-like plants, some of which are poisonous. The species here referred to is probably the colocynth (Cucumis colocynthus). The LXX. render the word by “wild pumpkin.” It abounds in the desert parts of Syria, Egypt, and Arabia. There is, however, another species, called the Cucumis prophetarum, from the idea that it afforded the gourd which “the sons of the prophets” shred by mistake into their pottage.

GOURD. Jon 4:6. Probably the plant which shaded the prophet was either the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis), which in the East grows rapidly to the height of even 15 feet, or, according to rapidly-prevailing opinion, it was a vine of the cucumber family (Cucurbita pepo), similar to our gourd, and still used for shade in Palestine. " In the gardens about Sidon many an arbor Castor-Oil Plant. (Ricinus communis) of gourds may be seen. But the plant withers as rapidly as it shoots, and after a storm or any injury to the stem its fruit may be seen hanging to the leafless tendrils which so lately concealed it-a type of melancholy desolation."-Tristram. Some have regarded the expression, "It came up in a night and perished in a night," as literal, others as indicating merely rapid growth. The declaration that the Lord prepared a gourd, and prepared a worm, and prepared an east wind, indicates the direct and special interposition of his providence to teach the prophet a lesson of submission to the divine will. Gourd, Wild. The wild gourds eaten by the sons of the prophets, 2 Kgs 4:38-41, were doubtless the handsome yet poisonous fruit of the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis), from which the medicine of that name is obtained. This vine is not common in Palestine, yet may be found about Gilgal, and bears a fruit resembling an orange in size and shape, but very hard and having its yellow rind marbled with green and Colocynthus, or Wild Gourd. (Citrullus colocynthis. After Tristram.) white. The plant resembles the watermelon, and belongs to the same family. For various reasons it is thought that the "knops" used in the ornamental work of Solomon's temple were imitations of the colocynth. 1 Kgs 6:18.

GOURD. Jon 4:6. Probably the plant which shaded the prophet was either the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis), which in the East grows rapidly to the height of even 15 feet, or, according to rapidly-prevailing opinion, it was a vine of the cucumber family (Cucurbita pepo), similar to our gourd, and

still used for shade in Palestine. " In the gardens about Sidon many an arbor Castor-Oil Plant. (Ricinus communis) of gourds may be seen. But the plant withers as rapidly as it shoots, and after a storm or any injury to the stem its fruit may be seen hanging to the leafless tendrils which so lately concealed it-a type of melancholy desolation."-Tristram. Some have regarded the expression, "It came up in a night and perished in a night," as literal, others as indicating merely rapid growth. The declaration that the Lord prepared a gourd, and prepared a worm, and prepared an east wind, indicates the direct and special interposition of his providence to teach the prophet a lesson of submission to the divine will. Gourd, Wild. The wild gourds eaten by the sons of the prophets, 2 Kgs 4:38-41, were doubtless the handsome yet poisonous fruit of the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis), from which the medicine of that name is obtained. This vine is not common in Palestine, yet may be found about Gilgal, and bears a fruit resembling an orange in size and shape, but very hard and having its yellow rind marbled with green and Colocynthus, or Wild Gourd. (Citrullus colocynthis. After Tristram.)

white. The plant resembles the watermelon, and belongs to the same family. For various reasons it is thought that the "knops" used in the ornamental work of Solomon's temple were imitations of the colocynth. 1 Kgs 6:18.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A fleshy, three-celled, many-seeded fruit, as the melon, pumpkin, cucumber, etc., of the order Cucurbitaceæ; and especially the bottle gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) which occurs in a great variety of forms, and, when the interior part is removed, serves for bottles, dippers, cups, and other dishes.

2. A dipper or other vessel made from the shell of a gourd; hence, a drinking vessel; a bottle. Chaucer. Bitter gourd, colocynth.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

A false die. See Gord.