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GALL
1. Yellowish-brown bitter secretion of the liver (Jb 16:13) or the organ containing the gall (20:25).
2. Very bitter, poisonous herb that cannot be identified with certainty, although the hemlock, colocynth, and poppy have been suggested. The Hebrew word occurs periodically in the OT and refers to (1) “gall” in Deuteronomy 29:18 (KJB); (2) the “poison” of a venomous snake in Job 20:14, 16; (3) “gall” or “poison” given to a person for food in Psalm 69:21; (4) divine punishment upon Israel as “water of gall” (Jer 8:14; 9:15; 23:15, KJB; or “poison,” rsv); (5) Israel’s bitter experience of divine judgment (Lam 3:5, 19); (6) divine judgment upon Israel sprouting up like “hemlock” in the furrows of the field (Hos 10:4, KJB; or “poisonous weeds,” rsv); and (7) Israel’s perversion of justice by turning “judgment into gall” (Am 6:12, KJB).
3. “Substance of an unpleasant taste” in the NT. Matthew 27:34 mentions the gall mixed with wine that was offered to Christ on the cross. Mark 15:23 speaks of “myrrh,” which may be a more specific identification of the liquid mixed with the wine. In Acts 8:23 Peter described the spiritual state of Simon the magician as being “in the gall of bitterness.”
See also Plants (Gourd, Wild).