Rose

The bride in the Song of Solomon calls herself a “rose of Sharon”; and when God again brings the Jews into blessing “the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Song of Sol. 2:1¹I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. (Song of Solomon 2:1); Isa. 35:1¹The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. (Isaiah 35:1)). Roses grow in Palestine, but it is generally agreed that the above Hebrew word does not refer to the rose, but implies a bulbous plant, and it may be the lily, the crocus, or the narcissus. The RV has in the margin the “autumn crocus.”