qots denotes thorny growth, whether springing up on land, used to inflict pain, or pictured as fuel for fire.

The word most often denotes thorny growth arising on soil or obstructing cultivation; the same noun also names thorns used to pain people and material appearing in images of burning or removal.

1. Thorny growth on land or among crops · dominant

   The singular absolute form occurs where the ground produces it in Genesis 3:18, where it rises on the soil in Isaiah 32:13, and where it ascends over altars in Hosea 10:8. Plural absolute forms occur in agricultural warnings and outcomes: in Jeremiah 4:3 the APB renders the command, “do not sow among thorns,” and in Jeremiah 12:13 it renders the contrast, “They sowed wheat and thorns they reaped.”

   Genesis 3:18Hosea 10:8Isaiah 32:13Jeremiah 12:13Jeremiah 4:3
2. Thorns as a painful or hostile object · common

   In Judges 8:7 and Judges 8:16, the plural construct form is joined with “of the wilderness” and appears in threats and punishment involving people’s flesh. In Ezekiel 28:24 the singular appears in a clause about a thorn that pains Israel, while 2 Samuel 23:6 compares Belial to a thorn that cannot be taken in hand.

   Judges 8:7Judges 8:16Ezekiel 28:242 Samuel 23:6
3. Thorns in fire imagery · occasional

   Plural absolute forms occur in comparisons involving fire: Isaiah 33:12 likens peoples to “cut thorns that are set on fire,” and Psalm 118:12 compares the speaker’s enemies to a fire among thorns that is quenched.

   Isaiah 33:12Psalm 118:12

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses “thorn” or “thorns,” including growth on soil, painful thorns, and thorns set on fire; it also pairs the term with “thistle” or “brier” in several verses. These renderings confirm the clauses’ imagery rather than supply a separate lexical distinction.