Barley

VIEW:49 DATA:01-04-2020
BARLEY (se‘ôrâh).—As in ancient times, so to-day barley (Arab. [Note: Arabic.] sha‘ir) is the most plentiful cereal of Palestine. It is the chief food of horses (1Ki_4:28), mules, and donkeys, oats being practically unknown. It is still used by the poor for making bread (Jdg_7:13, Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13 etc.) in the villages, but not in the cities. Barley was the special ritual offering for jealousy (Num_5:16). The barley harvest (Rth_1:22) precedes that of wheat: it begins around Jericho as early as March, and in Jerusalem and the neighbourhood at the end of May.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


First mentioned in Exo_9:31, which shows the barley harvest was earlier than the wheat, a month earlier in Egypt. Neither is found wild. Cereals and the art of converting them into bread were probably God's direct gift to man from the first. The worship of Ceres was probably a corruption of this truth. Canaan was "a land of wheat and barley" (Deu_8:8). Barley was a food for horses (1Ki_4:28), but also for men. The hordeum distichum, or "two rowed barley" was that usual in Palestine (Jdg_7:13; Eze_4:12). Its inferiority to wheat is marked by the jealousy offering being of barley, whereas the ordinary (minchah) meat, offering was of fine wheaten flour (Lev_2:1), and the purchase price of the adulteress (Hos_3:2). The scanty supply, marking the poverty of the disciples, but multiplied by Jesus, was five barley loaves (Joh_6:9).
The people in Palestine still complain that their oppressors leave them nothing but barley bread to eat (Thomson's Land and Book, p. 449). A measure of wheat is made equivalent to three of barley (Rev_6:6). Barley rapidly ripens. Some was sowed at the autumnal rains in October or November, other barley seed immediately after winter. Barley harvest was a note of time; as when it is said Rizpah, the afflicted widow of Saul, watched over her seven sons' bodies "from the beginning of barley harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven" (2Sa_21:9-10), i.e., from May until September. In the Midianite's dream Gideon was regarded as a mere vile barley cake, yet it is just such whom God chooses to overthrow the mighty (Jdg_7:13; 1Co_1:27).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Barley. Barley is one of the most important of the cereal grains, and the most hardy of them all. It was grown by the Hebrews, Lev_27:16; Lev_8:8; Rth_2:17, etc., who used it for baking into bread chiefly among the poor, Jdg_7:13; 2Ki_4:42; Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13, and as fodder for horses. 1Ki_4:28.
The barley harvest, Rth_1:22; Rth_2:23; 2Sa_21:9-10, takes place in Palestine in March and April, and in the hilly districts, as late as May. It always precedes the wheat harvest, in some places, by a week, in others, by fully three weeks. In Egypt, the barley is about a month earlier than the wheat; whence, its total destruction by the hail storm. Exo_9:31.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


שערה , Exo_9:31; Lev_27:16, &c; a well- known kind of grain. It derives its Hebrew name from the long hairy beard which grows upon the ear. Pliny, on the testimony of Menander, says that barley was the most ancient aliment of mankind. In Palestine the barley was sown about October, and reaped in the end of March, just after the passover. In Egypt the barley harvest was later; for when the hail fell there, Exo_9:31, a few days before the passover, the flax and barley were bruised and destroyed: for the flax was at its full growth, and the barley began to form its green ears; but the wheat, and more backward grain, were not damaged, because they were only in the blade, and the hail bruised the young shoots which produce the ears.
The rabbins sometimes called barley the food of beasts, because in reality they fed their cattle with it. 1Ki_4:28; and from Homer and other ancient writers we learn, that barley was given to horses. The Hebrews, however, frequently used barley bread, as we find by several passages of Scripture: for example, David's friends brought to him in his flight wheat, barley, flour, &c, 2Sa_17:28. Solomon sent wheat, barley, oil, and wine, to the labourers King Hiram had furnished him, 2Ch_2:15. Elijah had a present made him, of twenty barley loaves, and corn in the husk, 2Ki_4:22. And, by miraculously increasing the five barley loaves. Christ fed a multitude of about five thousand, Joh_6:8-10. The jealousy-offering, in the Levitical institution, was to be barley meal, Num_5:15. The common mincha, or offering, was of fine wheat flour, Lev_2:1; but this was of barley, a meaner grain, probably to denote the vile condition of the person in whose behalf it was offered. For which reason, also, there was no oil or frankincense permitted to be offered with it. Sometimes barley is put for a low, contemptible reward or price.
So the false prophets are charged with seducing the people for handfuls of barley, and morsels of bread, Eze_13:19. Hosea bought his emblematic bride for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley, Hos_3:2.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


bar?lı̄ (שׂערה, se‛ōrāh):
(1) In the Bible, as in modern times, barley was a characteristic product of Palestine - ?a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees,? etc. (Deu_8:8), the failure of whose crop was a national disaster (Joe_1:11). It was, and is, grown chiefly as provender for horses and asses (1Ki_4:28), oats being practically unknown, but it was, as it now is, to some extent, the food of the poor in country districts (Rth_2:17; 2Ki_4:42; Joh_6:9, Joh_6:13). Probably this is the meaning of the dream of the Midianite concerning Gideon: ?Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came unto the tent, and smote it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel? (Jdg_7:13 f). Here the barley loaf is type of the peasant origin of Gideon's army and perhaps, too, of his own lowly condition.
Barley was (Eze_4:9) one of the ingredients from which the prophet was to make bread and ?eat it as barley cakes? after having baked it under repulsive conditions (Eze_4:12), as a sign to the people. The false prophetesses (Eze_13:19) are said to have profaned God among the people for ?handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread.?
Barley was also used in the ORDEAL OF JEALOUSY (s.v.). It was with five barley loaves and two fishes that our Lord fed the five thousand (Joh_6:9, Joh_6:10).
(2) Several varieties of barley are grown in Palestine The Hordeum distichum or two-rowed barley is probably the nearest to the original stock, but Hordeum tetrastichum, with grains in four rows, and Hordeum hexastichum, with six rows, are also common and ancient; the last is found depicted upon Egyptian monuments.
Barley is always sown in the autumn, after the ?early rains,? and the barley harvest, which for any given locality precedes the wheat harvest (Exo_9:31 f), begins near Jericho in April - or even March - but in the hill country of Palestine is not concluded until the end of May or beginning of June.
The barley harvest was a well-marked season of the year (see TIME) and the barley-corn was a well-known measure of length. See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


This grain is mentioned in Scripture as cultivated and used in Egypt (Exo_9:31), and in Palestine (Lev_27:16; Deu_8:8; 2Ch_2:10; Rth_2:17; 2Sa_14:30; Isa_28:25; Jer_41:8; Joe_1:11). Barley was given to cattle, especially horses (1Ki_4:28), and was indeed the only corn grain given to them, as oats and rye were unknown to the Hebrews, and are not now grown in Palestine. This is still the chief use of barley in Western Asia. Bread made of barley was, however, used by the poorer classes (Jdg_7:13; 2Ki_4:42; Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13; comp. Eze_4:9). In Palestine barley was for the most part sown at the time of the autumnal rains, October?November, and again in early spring, or rather as soon as the depth of winter had passed. The barley of the first crop was ready by the time of the Passover, in the month Abib, March?April (Rth_1:22; 2Sa_21:9; Jdt_8:2); April is the month in which the barley-harvest is chiefly gathered in, although it begins earlier in some parts and later in others.
In Exo_9:31, we are told that the plague of hail, some time before the Passover, destroyed the barley, which was then in the green ear; but not the wheat or the rye, which were only in the blade. This is minutely corroborated by the fact that the barley sown after the inundation is reaped, some after ninety days, some in the fourth month, and that it there ripens a month earlier than the wheat.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Rth_1:22 (c) This is a picture of the rich blessings that await those who come back to the Lord from their backslidden state. In the New Testament this picture is seen in the return of the prodigal. They began to be merry, and there was no end to that merriment (Luk_15:24).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Barley
(שְׂעֹרָה, seorah', from its bristling beard; the plur. שְׂעֹרַים, seorim', designates the grains; Gr. κριθή), a grain mentioned in Scripture as cultivated and used in Egypt (Exo_9:31), and in Palestine (Lev_27:16; Num_5:15; Deu_8:8; 2Ch_2:10; Rth_2:17; 2Sa_14:30; Isa_28:25; Jer_41:8 : Joe_1:11; etc.). Barley was given to cattle, especially horses (1Ki_4:28), and was, indeed, the only corn grain given to them, as oats and rye were unknown to the Hebrews, and are not now grown in Palestine, although Volney affirms (2. 117) that small quantities are raised in some parts of Syria as food for horses (comp. Homer, 11. v. 196). Hence barley is mentioned in the Mishna (Pesach, fol. 3) as the food of horses and asses. This is still the chief use of barley in Western Asia. Bread made of barley was, however, used by the poorer classes (Jdg_7:13; 2Ki_4:42; Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13; comp. Eze_4:9). In Palestine barley was for the most part sown at the time of the autumnal rains, October-November (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. ad Mat_12:1), and again in early spring, or rather as soon as the depth of winter had passed (Mishna, Berachoth, p. 18). This later sowing has not hitherto been much noticed by writers on this part of Biblical illustration, but is confirmed by various travelers who observed the sowing of barley at this time of the year. Russell says that it continues to be sown to the end of February (Nat. Hist. Aleppo, 1:74; see his meaning evolved in Kitto's Phys. Hist. of Palestine, p. 214; comp. p. 229).
The barley of the first crop was ready by the time of the Passover, in the month Abib, March-April (Rth_1:22; 2Sa_21:9; Jdt_8:2); and if not ripe at the expiration of a (Hebrew) year from the last celebration, the year was intercalated (Lightfoot, ut supra) to preserve that connection between the feast and the barley-harvest which the law required (Exo_23:15-16; Deu_16:16). Accordingly, travelers concur in showing that the barley harvest in Palestine is in March and April — advancing into May in the northern and mountainous parts of the land; but April is the month in which the barley harvest is chiefly gathered in, although it begins earlier in some parts and later in others (Pict. Palestine, p. 214, 229, 239). At Jerusalem, Niebuhr found barley ripe at the end of March, when the later (autumnal) crop had only been lately sown (Beschreib. von Arabien, p. 160). It was earlier than wheat (Exo_9:31), and less prized (Thomson, Land and Book, 2:166), although reckoned among the valuable products of the promised land in Deu_8:8. We read of barley- meal in Num_5:15, of barley-bread in Jdg_7:13, and barley- cakes in Eze_4:12. It was measured by the ephah and homer. The jealousy-offering (Num_5:15) was to be barley-meal, though the common mincha was of fine wheat-flour (Lev_2:1), the meaner grain being appointed to denote the vile condition of the person on whose behalf it was offered. The purchase-money of the adulteress in Hos_3:2, is generally believed to be a mean price. SEE CEREALS.
The passage in Isa_32:20, has been supposed by many to refer to rice, as a mode of culture by submersion of the land after sowing, similar to that of rice, is indicated. The celebrated passage, “Cast thy bread upon the waters,” etc. (Ecc_11:1), has been by some supposed to refer also to such a mode of culture. But it is precarious to build so important a conclusion as that rice had been so early introduced into the Levant upon such slight indications; and it now appears that barley is in some parts subjected to the same submersion after sowing as rice, as was particularly noticed by Major Skinner (i. 320) in the vicinity of Damascus. In Exo_9:31, we are told that the plague of hail, some time before the Passover, destroyed the barley, which was then in the green ear; but not the wheat or the rye, which were only in the blade. This is minutely corroborated by the fact that the barley sown after the inundation is reaped, some after ninety days, some in the fourth month (Wilkinson's Thebes, p. 395), and that it there ripens a month earlier than the wheat (Sonnini, p. 395). SEE AGRICULTURE.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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