prik: As a noun (= any slender pointed thing, a thorn, a sting) it translates two words: (1) sekh, a "thorn" or "prickle." Only in Numbers 33:55, "those that ye let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes," i.e. "shall be a source of painful trouble to you." (2) kentron "an iron goad" for urging on oxen and other beasts of burden: "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks" (the King James Version of Acts 9:5, where the Revised Version (British and American) omits the whole phrase, following the best manuscripts, including Codices Sinaiticus, A, B, C, E; the King James Version of Acts 26:14, where the Revised Version (British and American) has "goad," margin "Greek: `goads' "), i.e. to offer vain and perilous resistance. See GOAD . As a verb (= "to pierce with something sharply pointed," "to sting"), it occurs once in its literal sense: "a pricking brier" (Ezekiel 28:24); and twice in a figurative sense: "I was pricked in my heart" (Psalms 73:21); "They were pricked in their heart" (Acts 2:37, katanusso, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) compungo; compare English word "compunction").

D. Miall Edwards

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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