GOURD
The Hebrew word paq·qu·ʽoth’, rendered “wild gourds,” appears in the Bible only with reference to an incident occurring during a time of famine in Elisha’s day. Someone had gathered some unfamiliar wild gourds and sliced them in with a stew. Upon tasting it, the “sons of the prophets” feared food poisoning and stopped eating, but Elisha miraculously saved the stew from being wasted.—2 Ki. 4:38-41.
Although a number of other suggestions have been made, the colocynth (Citrullis colocynthus), a plant related to the watermelon, is generally favored as the plant the fruit of which probably corresponds to the “wild gourds” of the Scriptural record. The vine of the colocynth trails like the cucumber and also has similar foliage. The orangelike fruit has a thick, smooth rind with green and yellow mottlings, and contains a very bitter and poisonous spongy pulp, from which the colocynth of medicine is derived. The characteristics of the colocynth would fit the Bible narrative of a wild gourd, apparently poisonous, as suggested by its very taste. (2 Ki. 4:40) When most other plants have withered, it is still green, hence a temptation to one unfamiliar with it. When stepped on, the dry fruit bursts noisily. This feature would harmonize with the meaning of the Hebrew root pa·qaʽʹ (“to split,” “to burst”), from which the word paq·qu·ʽothʹ is thought to be derived.
The gourd-shaped ornaments (Heb., peqa·ʽimʹ) adorning the molten sea and the cedarwood paneling inside Solomon’s temple may have been round like the fruit of the colocynth.—1 Ki. 6:18; 7:24; 2 Chron. 4:3.