A general name for anything very bitter. In Job 16:13 20:14,25, it means the animal secretion usually called the bile. In many other places, where a different word is used in the original, it refers to some better and noxious plant, according to some, the poppy. See Deuteronomy 29:18 Jeremiah 9:15 23:15. In Hosea 10:4 Amos 6:12, the Hebrew word is translated "hemlock". In Matthew 27:34, it is said they gave Jesus to drink, vinegar mixed with gall, which in Mark 15:23, is called wine mingled with myrrh. It was probably the sour wine which the Roman soldiers used to drink, mingled with myrrh and other bitter substances, very much like the "bitters" of modern times, Psalms 69:21. The word gall is often used figuratively for great troubles, wickedness, depravity, etc., Jeremiah 8:14 Amos 6:12 Acts 8:23.

(1) Heb. mererah, meaning "bitterness" (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25).

Heb. rosh. In Deuteronomy 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. In Hosea 10:4 the Hebrew word is rendered "hemlock." The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Lamentations 3:19). Compare Jeremiah 8:14; 23:15, "water of gall," Gesenius, "poppy juice;" others, "water of hemlock," "bitter water."

Gr. chole (Matthew 27:34), the LXX. translation of the Hebrew Rosh In Psalms 69; 21, which foretells our Lord's sufferings. The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to (Mark 15:23), "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father (John 18:11).

GALL, n. Gr. probably from its color.

1. In the animal economy, the bile, a bitter, a yellowish green fluid, secreted in the glandular substance of the liver. It is glutinous or imperfectly fluid, like oil.

2. Any thing extremely bitter.

3. Rancor; malignity.

4. Anger; bitterness of mind.

Mereerah , denoting "that which is bitter;" hence the term is applied to the "bile" or "gall" (the fluid secreted by the liver), from its intense bitterness, (Job 16:13; 20:25) it is also used of the "poison" of serpents, (Job 20:14) which the ancients erroneously believed was their gall. Rosh , generally translated "gall" in the English Bible, is in (Hosea 10:4) rendered "hemlock:" in ( 32:33) and Job 20:16 rosh denotes the "poison" or "venom" of serpents. From ( 29:18) and Lame 3:19 compared with Hose 10:4 It is evident that the Hebrew term denotes some bitter and perhaps poisonous plant. Other writers have supposed, and with some reason, from ( 32:32) that some berry-bearing plant must be intended. Gesenius understands poppies; in which case the gall mingled with the wine offered to our Lord at his crucifixion, and refused by him, would be an anaesthetic, and tend to diminish the sense of suffering. Dr. Richardson, "Ten Lectures on Alcohol," p. 23, thinks these drinks were given to the crucified to diminish the suffering through their intoxicating effects.