| Deuteronomy 29:18
| Lest perhaps there should be among you a man or a woman, a family or a tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations: and there should be among you a root bringing forth gall and bitterness.
| Bitterness; an Israelite, who cherishes now in his heart any idol, (Haydock) and who may draw God's judgments upon the people, (Calmet) or induce them to follow his wicked example. (Haydock) --- Let all watch over their children, lest they fall off. Chaldean, "Let there be none among you now, whose heart may be filled with the sin of pride." See Acts 8:13., and Hebrew 12:15., where this text is cited. The Hebrew seems to allude to some very bitter herbs. Rass is mentioned as growing in the ground, and the juice of it is often alluded to, Osee 10:4., Jeremias 8:13., and Psalm 68:22. Lane is generally joined with the former term, and God threatens to make the faithless Israelites eat of it, Jeremias 9:15., and Proverbs 5:4. It may denote a poisonous bitter herb, as well as rass, which signifies "the head, gall, wormwood, aconite," etc. (Calmet) --- The root designates a mind secretly infected with idolatry, and the appetite, being once drunken with pleasures, thirsteth still more. (Worthington)
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