Straw

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

Both wheat and barley straw were used by the ancient Hebrews chiefly as fodder for the horses cattle and camels. (Genesis 24:25; 1 Kings 4:28; Isaiah 11:7; 66:25) There is no intimation that straw was used for litter. It was employed by the Egyptians for making bricks, (Exodus 5:7,16) being chopped up and mixed with the clay to make them more compact and to prevent their cracking. [See BRICK] The ancient Egyptians reaped their corn close to the ear, and afterward cut the straw close to the ground and laid it by. This was the straw that Pharaoh refused to give to the Israelites who were therefore compelled to gather "stubble" instead --a matter of considerable difficulty, seeing that the straw itself had been cut off near to the ground.

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