The Hebrew word rothem, translated juniper in our Authorised Version,
has given much trouble to translators. The Septuagint merely converted
the Hebrew word into a Greek one, and the Vulgate followed the
Septuagint. The allusions to the tree are in 1 Kings, xix, 4 and 5,
where Elijah slept under a juniper tree; Job, xxx, 4, speaks of certain
men so poor that they cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots
for their meat; and Psalm cxx, 4, “Sharp arrows of the mighty with
coals of juniper.” The tree alluded to was almost certainly the Broom,
and it is so rendered in the Revised Version either in the text or
in the margin in all the instances. The Arabic name for the broom is
ratam, evidently a descendant of rothem. The Genista roetam is said to
be the largest and most conspicuous shrub in the deserts of Palestine,
and would be readily chosen for its shade by a weary traveller. The
mallows in the Book of Job are translated salt wort in the Revised
Version. Renan gives “They gather their salads from the bushes.” Salads
were regarded as indispensable by the poorest Jews. The coals of
juniper (or broom) are supposed to have reference to the lasting fire
which this wood furnishes, but other translations suggest as the proper
reading of the verse “The arrows of a warrior are the tongues of the
people of the tents of Misram.”