lanah , genus Αrtemisia . Four species in Palestine: Nilotica, Judaica, Fruticosa, and Cinerea. Metaphorical for bitter sorrow (Jeremiah 9:15, fulfilled in Lamentations 3:15; Lamentations 3:19); and evil with its bitter produce, or an apostate lurking in Israel and tainting others (Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4; Amos 5:7, rendered "hemlock"; Greek apsinthos; Revelation 8:11, the star which at the third trumpet fell upon the rivers and made them wormwood). Wormwood, though medicinal, if used as ordinary water would be fatal; heretical wormwood changes the sweet Siloas of Scripture into deadly Marahs (Wordsworth); contrast Exodus 15:23, etc. Absinthe is literally embittering and destroying many hundreds of thousands in France and Switzerland.