HEMLOCK (לַעֲנָה, H4360, wormwood; רֹאשׁ֮, H8032, poisonous herb). Hemlock is mentioned only twice. “The fruit of righteousness into hemlock” (Amos 6:12); “judgment springeth up as hemlock” (Hosea 10:4).

Though the rō’sh in Hosea is tr. “hemlock,” the more common tr. is “wormwood.” Hosea’s rō’sh must have been a quick sprouter and germinator, and for this reason Eastern experts consider that it may have been the poppy, for it was a weed that grew up in the furrows. It may be safer, however, to tr. lā’anâ as “poisonous weeds.”