- LIGURE (Hebrews leshem) occurs only in Exodus 28:19 and 39:12, as
the name of a stone in the third row on the high priest’s breastplate. Some
have supposed that this stone was the same as the jacinth (q.v.), others
that it was the opal. There is now no mineral bearing this name. The
“ligurite” is so named from Liguria in Italy, where it was found. - LILY The Hebrew name shushan or shoshan, i.e., “whiteness”, was used
as the general name of several plants common to Syria, such as the tulip,
iris, anemone, gladiolus, ranunculus, etc. Some interpret it, with much
probability, as denoting in the Old Testament the water-lily (Nymphoea
lotus of Linn.), or lotus (Cant. 2:1, 2; 2:16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2, 3; 7:2). “Its
flowers are large, and they are of a white colour, with streaks of pink.
They supplied models for the ornaments of the pillars and the molten sea”
(1 Kings 7:19, 22, 26; 2 Chronicles 4:5). In the Canticles its beauty and
fragrance shadow forth the preciousness of Christ to the Church. Groser,
however (Scrip. Nat. Hist.), strongly argues that the word, both in the Old
and New Testaments, denotes liliaceous plants in general, or if one genus is
to be selected, that it must be the genus Iris, which is “large, vigorous,
elegant in form, and gorgeous in colouring.”
The lilies (Gr. krinia) spoken of in the New Testament (Matthew 6:28;
Luke 12:27) were probably the scarlet martagon (Lilium Chalcedonicum)
or “red Turk’s-cap lily”, which “comes into flower at the season of the
year when our Lord’s sermon on the mount is supposed to have been
delivered. It is abundant in the district of Galilee; and its fine scarlet
flowers render it a very conspicous and showy object, which would
naturally attract the attention of the hearers” (Balfour’s Plants of the
Bible).
Of the true “floral glories of Palestine” the pheasant’s eye (Adonis
Palestina), the ranunuculus (R. Asiaticus), and the anemone (A coronaria),
the last named is however, with the greatest probability regarded as the
“lily of the field” to which our Lord refers. “Certainly,” says Tristram
(Nat. Hist. of the Bible), “if, in the wondrous richness of bloom which
characterizes the land of Israel in spring, any one plant can claim
pre-eminence, it is the anemone, the most natural flower for our Lord to
pluck and seize upon as an illustration, whether walking in the fields or
sitting on the hill-side.” “The white water-lily (Nymphcea alba) and the
yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea) are both abundant in the marshes of the
Upper Jordan, but have no connection with the lily of Scripture.”