The Israelites had great objection to bitter flavours, and the coupling
of “gall and wormwood” expresses something extremely unpleasant. The
Hebrew word is La’anah, and the Septuagint twice renders this hemlock
(Hos., x, 4 and Amos, vi, 12) but in other places wormwood. The star
which fell from heaven and made the rivers bitter (Rev., viii, 11) was
called by the Greek name for wormwood, Apsinthos.