hyssop, hyssop us

[Lat. hysopum; Gr. hy opos, from Heb., see def.; Fr. hysope, hy ope; Prov. isop, ysop; Sp. hisopo; Port. hysopo; Ital. isopo.] IMG:content-1422.png:[blocks in formation] (1) Old Test.: Heb.ezoba plant which "sprung out of the wall," i . e ., grew in crevices of walls, and was as remarkable for its diminutive size as the cedar for its magnitude (1 Kings iv. 33). A branch of it could be used like a sponge to take up a liquid (Exod. xii. 22). It had, at least ceremonially, if not even actually, detergent properties (Lev. xiv. 6, 49, 51, 52; Numb. xix. 6, 18). It was the symbol of spiritual purification from sin (Ps. li. 7). The pa ages in 1 Kings and Exodus suggest mo . But the probability is in favor of the view that the plant is the caper (Cap paris Cap paris Spinosa. spinosa ), the asuf of the Arabs, a climber among rocks, rooting in the fi ures. (2) New Test .: In Heb. ix. 19, 21, the Old Testament ezob is rendered by the Gr. hy opos. If the hy op of John xix. 29 furnished the stick to which the sponge was affixed, and was not itself the sponge, then mo would not answer the description, but the caper plant would [1]. II. ( Of the form hy op us): Bot .: The typical and only genus of the family Hy op ide. The calyx has fifteen ribs, the four stamens are divergent.