A bitter or poisonous plant, paired here with la’anah, wormwood — the same noun that ordinarily means HEAD, applied instead to whatever grows at the top of a stalk. Jeremiah 23:15 (already on these pages) pairs the same two words the other way round: Jehovah feeds the false prophets wormwood and gives them mei-rosh, ‘rosh-water’, to drink — the KJV’s ‘water of gall’, rendered on these pages ‘poisoned water’. Conventionally identified with a bitter gourd or a poppy rather than a literal venom; the image is a taste that punishes, not a toxin that kills. → first discussed at Deut 29:17