The Bramble and the Pomegranate (The Words of Ahiqar)

Ahiqar 11:165–166

Fifth Century BCE

The [bram]ble sent a message to the pomegranate as follows: “Dear Pomegranate, what good are all [your] thorns [to him who tou]ches your [fru]it?” The [pome] granate replied to the bramble, “You are nothing but thorns to him who [tou]ches you!”

Translated by

J. M.

Lindenberger

Notes

[For more selections from this work, see “Extrabiblical Teachings: The Words of Ahiqar.”—Eds.]

Credits

The Bramble and the Pomegranate (The Words of Ahiqar), in James M. Lindenberger, trans., “Ahiqar,” from The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 2011), vol. 2, p. 506. Published by arrangement with Yale University Press.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.