Moderns who use gas stoves....past readers would understand the risk of being stabbed by the spines of thorns to build a noisy fire that burns out quickly and produces almost no useful heat for cooking. Making this fire is a waste of your time just as listening to fools is unproductive and inconsequential.
Picture of Thorn Tree Z. spina-christi thorns in the "Jardin des Plantes" Paris.
Wild Z. spina-christi tree in Iran.
On the subject of cooking fires a preferred fuel was charcoal from the broom tree (rottem) a low desert shrub which tolerates desert heat, but whose roots were turned into charcoal for hot fire. And on the subject of deceitful people...
Cf. Psalm 120:4
I cried to the Lord in my trouble,
And He answered me.
2
"Rescue my soul, Lord, from lying lips,
From a deceitful tongue.
3
What will He give to you, and what more will He do to you,
You deceitful tongue?
4
Sharp arrows of the warrior,
With the burning coals of the broom tree!"
Picture of Broom Tree
Biblical texts that mention the broom tree: Genesis 21:8-20 where Abraham expels Hagar and and his son Ishmael out into the desert to fend for themselves and they find shelter under the shade of a broom tree. (Although the NIV says bush, the Hebrew is “Rikman” which is root word of “Rottem); 1 Kings 19, when fleeing Ahab and Jezabel. “He (Elijah) came to a broom tree (Rottem) and sat under it; Job 30:4 Description of poverty...."From poverty and famine they are gaunt, They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation, Who pluck saltweed by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.
Pictures and informmation from: Bob Dodson Imagery of the Broom Tree and Thorn tree Spina Christi
