STRAW, STUBBLE.In Heb. the former is teben, the latter qash, and to Western ideas the one is as much straw as the other. The distinction between the two is as follows: teben, the modern tibn, is the mixture of chopped straw and chaff, produced by the action of the threshing-drag and winnowed out by the fan (Agriculture, § 3), as distinguished from the grains of wheat (so Jer_23:28 where straw RV [Note: Revised Version.] , and chaff AV [Note: Authorized Version.] are both inadequate). It is mentioned as the food of horses, asses, and camels. In reaping, as is still the custom, the stalks were cut knee-high or over; the length of stalk left standing is qash. Accordingly, when the Hebrews in Egypt gathered stubble for straw (Exo_5:12), what they did was to pull up the stalks of wheat left standing in the fields and cut them up into short pieces suitable for brick-making, instead of being allowed to procure the tibn ready to their hand from the local threshing-floors. Since the cornstalks were usually burned as manure, stubble is frequently found in metaphors suggested by this practice (Isa_5:24; Isa_47:14 etc.). In other passages containing reference explicit or implied to driven stubble (41:3), the smaller fragments of chopped straw which the wind blew away with the chaff from the threshing-floor may be intended.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909