Straw

Straw - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Used in brick-making (Ex. 5:7-18). Used figuratively in Job 41:27; Isa. 11:7; 25:10; 65:25.

Straw - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

STRAW, n. [G., L. See Strew.]

1. The stalk or stem of certain species of grain, pulse, _c. Chiefly of wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat and peas. When used of single stalks, it admits of a plural, straws. Straws may show which way the wind blows. We say of grain while growing, the straw is large, or it is rusty.

2. A mass of the stalks of certain species of grain when cut, and after being thrashed; as a bundle or a load of straw. In this sense, the word admits not the plural number.

3. Any thing proverbially worthless. I care not a straw for the play. I will not abate a straw.

STRAW, v.t. To spread or scatter. [See Strew and Strow.]

Stubble - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

STUBBLE, n. [L.] The stumps of wheat, rye, barley, oats or buckwheat, left in the ground; the part of the stalk left by the sythe or sickle.

After the first crop is off, they plow in the stubble.

stro, stub'-'-l: The cognates of Hebrew tebhen, "straw" and qash, "stubble," have been retained in the modern Arabic terms tibn and qashsh. Tibn applies to the straw which has been cut up into short pieces and more or less split by the threshing operations. It is commonly used throughout the East as a coarse fodder or roughage for domestic herbivorous animals (compare Ge 24:25,32; Jud 19:19; 1Ki 4:28; Isa 11:7; 65:25). Hay and similar cured crops are practically unknown. Barley, peas and other grain, when fed to animals, are mixed with the tibn. The animals will frequently reject the tibn unless there is grain in it. They often nose about the tibn until the grain settles to the bottom so that they can eat the latter without the straw. Straw left in the manger is thrown out in the stall to form part of the bedding (compare Isa 25:10).

Tibn is mixed with clay for plastering walls or for making sun-dried bricks. It is also mixed with lime and sand for plastering. The children of Israel had their task of brickmaking made more arduous by being required to gather stubble and prepare it by chopping it up instead of being given the already prepared straw of the threshing-floors (Ex 5:7).

Qashsh (literally, "dried up") refers to the stalks left standing in the wheat fields or to any dried-up stalks or stems such as are gathered for burning. Camels and other flocks sometimes supplement their regular meals by grazing on the stubble, otherwise it has no use. In the Bible stubble is used to typify worthless inflammable material (Ex 15:7; Job 13:25; 41:28,29; Ps 83:13; Isa 5:24, etc.; 1Co 3:12, kalame).

mathben, is translated "straw" in Isa 25:10.

James A. Patch

stub'-'-l (qash (Ex 5:12, etc.); kalame (The Wisdom of Solomon 3:7; 1Co 3:12)): These Hebrew and Greek forms are used of the stalks of wheat, etc., left knee-high in the field by the reapers. tebhen (Job 21:18), is a mixture of chopped straw and chaff produced in threshing, which is winnowed out by the fan (compare Jer 23:28; Isa 5:24; Mt 3:12). When tebhen was withheld from them the Israelites had to utilize qash for the manufacture of their bricks (Ex 5:12).