A rose is a flowering plant, often a shrub, with fragrant flowers and stems that may have sharp thorns. Roses can be red, pink, white, yellow, or other colors.

The Hebrew word khavatstselet (an unidentified flowering plant) appears twice in the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible translates it as “rose” in Song of Solomon 2:1 and Isaiah 35:1. Scholars do not agree about the exact plant. It may have been a crocus, a tulip-like plant, or another flower that grows from a bulb.

The book of Sirach also mentions plants translated as “roses” (Sirach 24:14; 39:13). Sirach is a Jewish book written before the New Testament period. The exact kind of flower in these passages is uncertain.

See Oleander; Tulip.