BITTER HERBS ( merôrîm , Exodus 12:8 , Numbers 9:11 ). The bitter herbs of the modern Jewish Passover in Palestine are specially lettuce and endive. Other salads, such as parsley, cucumber, chicory, and water-cress, are also commonly eaten, indeed are prime favourites. The author of Lamentations 3:15 , in using the same word merôrîm (tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘bitterness’), doubtless had more bitter and less wholesome plants in his mind, perhaps the colocynth or Ecballium elaterium , the wild gourd of 2 Kings 4:39 . See, further, Passover.
E. W. G. Masterman.