Bible Dictionary
Bitter Herbs
Bitter herbs were eaten with the Passover lamb and unleavened bread. They recalled Israel’s bitter slavery in Egypt and may have included lettuce, endive, cress, or other available plants.
Definition
Bitter herbs were vegetable accompaniments eaten with the Passover lamb and unleavened bread. They may have included lettuce, endive, water-cress, parsley, chicory, cresses, hawkweeds, sow-thistles, or other available plants.
Biblical Usage
The Passover command required the lamb to be eaten with bitter herbs. The observance recalled Israel’s bitter bondage in Egypt, and later Passover practice emphasized the symbolic meaning of bitterness.
Historical Background
Originally the herbs may have been simple salads prepared with the roasted lamb. In the supplied material, modern Palestine practice chiefly uses lettuce and endive, while more strongly bitter plants are also suggested for the word’s use in Lamentations.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The Israelites were commanded to eat the Paschal lamb “with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.” (Exodus 12:8) These “bitter herbs” consisted of such plants as chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds, sow-thistles and wild lettuces, which grow abundantly in the peninsula of Sinai, in Palestine and in Egypt. The purpose of this observance was to recall to the minds of the Israelites their deliverance from the bitter bondage of the Egyptians.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>hurbs, or urbs (merorim): Originally in the primitive Passover (Ex 12:8; Nu 9:11) these were probably merely salads, the simplest and quickest prepared form of vegetable accompaniment to the roasted lamb. Such salads have always been favorites in the Orient. Cucumbers, lettuce, water-cress, parsley and endive are some of those commonly used. Later on the Passover ritual (as it does today) laid emphasis on the idea of "bitterness" as symbolical of Israel's lot in Egypt. In modern Palestine the Jews use chiefly lettuce and endive for the "bitter herbs" of their Passover. In La 3:15 the same word is used: "He hath filled me with bitterness merorim, he hath sated me with wormwood." Here the parallelism with "wormwood" suggests some plant more distinctly bitter than the mild salads mentioned above, such, for example, as the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthus) or the violently irritating squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium).</p><p>E. W. G. Masterman</p>