GOURD (Ord). 1. (Heb. r7p, kee-kaw-yone', nauseous), occurs only in Jonah iv, where it is sev eral times mentioned, as in verses 6, 7, 9, to.
It is translated gourd in our Authorized Ver sion, probably from the KoXodven of the Sep tuagint, often rendered cucurbita. In the margin of the English Bible, Palm-Christ is given. In the Vulgate kikayan is translated hedera, 'ivy. Nei ther the gourd nor ivy is considered by modern writers to indic-ate the plant intended ; which is remarkable for having given rise to some fierce controversies in the early ages of the Church. The difficulties here, however, do not appear to be so great' as in many other instances. But be fore considering these, it is desirable to ascer tain what are the characteristics of the plant as required by the text. We are told. 'The Lord God prepared a gourd (kikoyan), and made it to come over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head,' etc. (ver. 6). 'But God pre pared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered' (ver. 7). And in ver. to it is said of the gourd that. it 'came up in a night, and perished in a night.' Hence it appears that the growth of the kikayon was miraculous, but that it was prob ably a plant of the country, being named specif ically; also that it was capable of affording shade, and might be easily destroyed. There does not appear anything in this account to warrant us in considering it to be the ivy, which is a plant of slow growth, cannot support itself, and is, moreover, not likely to be found in the hot and arid country of ancient Nineveh, though we have ourselves found it in more southern latitudes, but only in the temperate climate of the Himala yan Mountains. The ivy was adduced probably only from the resemblance of its Greek name, env:6s, to kikayon. That the kikayon was thought to be a gourd seems to have arisen from the kiki of the Egyptians being the kherzva of the Arabs, often incorrectly written keroa, that is, without the aspirate, which makes it very similar to kura, when written in Roman characters; which last in the East is applied to the gourd or pump kin (Avicenna, c. 622), and is probably the Loge naria vulgaris. Many modern authors mistake the one for the other. To this plant, no doubt, the following passages refer, 'The Christians and Jews of Mosul (Nineveh) say it was not the keroa whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts but about four months' (Niebuhr, Arabia. as quoted by Dr. Harris). So Volney: 'Whoever has traveled to Cairo or Roset ta knows that the species of gourd called kerra will, in twenty-four hours, send out shoots near four inches long' (Tray. i :7t).
With regard to the miraculous growth of Jonah's gourd, Dr. Harris states that the passage may mean, 'Son of the night it was, and as a son of the night it died ;' and that, therefore, we are not compelled to believe that it grew in a single night, but rather. by a strong Oriental
figure, that it was of rapid growth: This, there is no doubt, it is highly susceptible of in warm countries where there is some moisture. It at tains a considerablesize in one season; and though in Europe it is only known as an herb, in India it frequently may be seen. especially at the mar gins of fields, the size of a tree. So at Busra, Niebuhr saw an el-kcroa which had the form and appearance of a tree. The stems are erect, round, and hollow ; the leaves broad, palmate, 5 to 8 or to lobed, peltate, supported on long foot-stalks. The flowers in terminal panicles ; the lower, male; the upper, female. Capsule tricoccous, covered with spines. The seeds are oblong, oval, externally of a grayish color, but mottled with darker colored spots and stripes. From the erect habit, and the breadth of its foliage, this plant throws an ample shade. especially when young. Front the softness and little substance of its stem, it may easily be destroyed by insects, which Rumphius describes as sometimes being the case. It would then necessarily dry up rapidly. As it is well suited to the country, and to the purpose indicated in the text, and as its name kiki is so similar to kikoyon, it is doubtless the plant which the sacred penman had in view. J. F. R.
Celsius, on the other hand (Hierob. ii:273), ctates that it was the kharwa', Ricinus commits:is, L., the costor-oil tree. The grounds for this opinion are philological. Dioscorides (iv, 164) describes the xpi.'Prum, e., the castor-oil tree, under the name .of taxi, and the Talmud calls castor-oil p-p shemen kik. The former opin ion, however, has the greater weight, that the plant which God provided to overshadow Jonah, was a vine, which seems from the context to have trailed over his arbor, and not a small tree like the castor-oil plant, which could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be regarded as a vine. (G. E. Post, Hastings' Bib. Dict.) 2. (Heb.:1;:i7,pak-koo-aw', bursting or splitting open).
The wild gourds eaten by the SOT1S of the prophets (2 Kings iv :38-41) were doubtless the handsome fruit of the colocynth (Citrullus colo eyntlzus), from which the medicine of that name is obtained. The plant bears a fruit resembling an orange in size and shape, but very hard and hav ing its yellow rind marbled with green and white. It 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 Kings vi:18). "This plant is very common, and its pulp is a drastic cathartic, and in large quantities an irritant poison. But the castor-oil plant cannot, with any propriety. be called a vine. It is an erect herb, with a brittle, stiff stem and branches, and is quite destitute of tendrils." (G. E. Post, Hastings Bib. Dict.)