Grass

GRASS gras:

(1) chatsir, from a root meaning "greenness"; compare Arabic Khudra, which includes grasses and green vegetables (1 Kings 18:5; 2 Kings 19:26; Job 40:15; Psalms 104:14, etc.). Isaiah 15:6 is translated in the King James Version "have," the Revised Version (British and American) "grass"; Proverbs 27:25, English Versions of the Bible "hay," margin "Hebrew grass"; Numbers 11:5 English Versions of the Bible translates "leeks." It is a term for herbage in general.

(2) deshe', from root meaning "to sprout abundantly." Generally translated "tender grass" (Genesis 1:11; 2 Samuel 23:4; Job 6:5; Isaiah 15:6; 66:14; Jeremiah 14:5, etc.); translated "grass" (Job 6:5; Jeremiah 14:5); translated "herb" (2 Kings 19:26; Psalms 27:2; Isaiah 37:27; 66:14). In Jeremiah 50:11 we have "heifer at grass" (deshe') in the King James Version and the Revised Version, margin, but in the Revised Version (British and American) "heifer that treadeth out the grain." (dethe'), the Aramaic form, occurs in Daniel 4:15,23, and is translated "tender grass."

(3) chashash, probably "dry" or "cut grass"; compare Arabic chashesh, "dry fodder" or "cut grass" (Isaiah 5:24, the King James Version "chaff," the Revised Version (British and American) "dry grass"; Isaiah 33:11, English Versions of the Bible "chaff").

(4) leqesh, from root meaning "to come late," hence used in Amos 7:1 for the "latter growth" of grass after mowing.

(5) yereq, literally, "green thing" (Numbers 22:4, elsewhere translated "herb").

(6) `esebh (Deuteronomy 11:15, etc.), generally translated "herb" (for (5) and (6) see HERB).

(7) chortos (Matthew 6:30; 14:19; Mark 6:39; Luke 12:28; John 6:10; James 1:10,11; 1 Peter 1:24; Revelation 8:7; 9:4); translated "blade" (Matthew 13:26); translated "hay" (1 Corinthians 3:12).

There are 243 species of true grasses (Natural Order, Gramineae) in Palestine, but Hebrew, like modern Arabic, does not discriminate between these and other herbs which together make up herbage. Actual turf is practically unknown in Palestine, and grass seed is not artificially sown; young green barley is used in the neighborhood of towns as fresh fodder for horses and cattle. It is not the native custom to cut herbage for hay, though the writer has seen many carloads of sweet-smelling hay being carried from the land by Circassian settlers, East of the Jordan.

The "grass upon the house tops" (Psalms 129:6; Isaiah 37:27), the growth which springs from the seeds mingled with the mud of which the roof is made, springs up quickly with the rains, but as quickly dries up before it reaches half its normal height--or not infrequently is set on fire.

Dew, rain or showers upon the grass are mentioned (Deuteronomy 32:6; Proverbs 19:12; Micah 5:7; Psalms 72:6, "rain upon the mown grass," i.e. the grass eaten short by cattle).

E. W. G. Masterman

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'GRASS'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.