273. That the "thorn and the thistle" signify curse and vastation, is evident from harvest and fruit tree denoting the opposites, which are blessings and multiplications. That the "thorn" the "thistle" the "brier" the "bramble" and the "nettle" have such a signification, is evident from the Word, as in Hosea:
Lo, they are gone away because of the vastation; Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them; their desirable things of silver, the nettle shall inherit them; the bramble shall be in their tents (Hos. 9:6). Here "Egypt" and "Memphis" denote such as seek to understand Divine things from themselves and their own memory-knowledges. In the same Prophet:
The lofty places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed; the thorn and the thistle shall come up upon their altars (Hos. 10:8), where the "lofty places of Aven" signify the love of self; and the "thorn and thistle on the altars" profanation. In Isaiah:
Mourning upon the paps for the fields of desire, for the fruitful vine; upon the ground of My people shall come up the briery thorn (Isa. 32:12-13). And in Ezekiel:
There shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor a painful thorn from all that are round about them (Ezek. 28:24).
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