Grain

KJV, REB, and some other versions, following British usage, use “corn” as a generic term to cover crops such as wheat and barley, while RSV, the New King James Version (NKJV), and many other versions, following American usage, use “grain” as the generic term. Versions such as GNB have British editions and American editions that accommodate to the different usages. Although maize as we know it now did not exist in Bible times, we may need to refer to it as a species, and we will call it “maize,” following the British tradition, and use “grain” as the generic term, following American usage.

Generic words can cause problems for a translator. In Genesis 1:11 Genesis 1:12 we find the Hebrew phrase ‘esev mazri‘a zera‘ (“plants yielding seed”) standing in contrast to the phrase ‘ets peri ‘oseh peri (“fruit trees bearing fruit”). Some English versions take “plants yielding seed” as referring to “grain” (GNB, CEV, NCV), whereas others use broader expressions such as “seed-bearing plants” (NIV, NJB, NJPSV) or “plants that bear seed” (REB). The writer of Genesis may be using a traditional Hebrew plant taxonomy that divides useful flora into two categories, namely seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing plants. If so, translators should try to render “plants yielding seed” with an expression that includes more species than just the grains. After all, onions, beans, peas, melons, and other plants bear seeds, as well as grain.

The Hebrew word dagan occurs forty times in the Old Testament (for example, Genesis 27:28, Genesis 27:37; Numbers 18:12, Numbers 18:27; Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 11:14), and it is often translated “grain.” However, in Bible times the word dagan included peas, beans, lentils, and cumin as well as what we normally call “grain” from grasses or cereals. In these forty references dagan is paired with the Hebrew word tirosh (“grape harvest”) in all but ten. The Hebrew word yitshar (“newly pressed oil”) is mentioned in twenty of them. All three words include the concept of “newly harvested.” They express the idea of “produce of the land,” as when Isaac blesses Jacob (Genesis 27:28):

May God give you of the dew of heaven,

and of the fatness of the earth,

and plenty of dagan [farm produce] and tirosh [vineyard produce].

The Old Testament has many other Hebrew words and phrases that refer to grain. Since these generic terms can cause problems for translators, we will consider them one by one:

Bar: This word can refer to grain on a threshing floor (Joel 2:24) or to grain that is stored (Genesis 41:35). It is used to refer to kernels of grain in contrast to chaff in Jeremiah 23:28.

Shever: In Genesis 42:1 Genesis 42:2 Jacob hears about shever in Egypt. In this passage the word is quite general, almost equivalent to “food.” In Nehemiah 10:31 Nehemiah forbids the sale of shever on the Sabbath. In Amos 8:5 the prophet warns about cheating on the sale of shever (parallel to bar).

Qamah: In Judges 15:5 Samson burns the qamah (“ripe, uncut grain plants”) as well as the gadish (“sheaves”) in the fields of the Philistines. English versions usually render qamah as “standing grain.” The Arabic word for wheat is al-kama, so it may have been wheat that the Philistines grew in the Sorek Valley.

Gadish refers to sheaves.

’Aviv refers to newly formed ears of grain.

Shiboleth refers to ears of grain. In Ruth 2:2 Ruth gleans the stalks of ripe barley that the harvesters leave behind. In the Egyptian king’s dream (Genesis 41:5 Genesis 41:6 Genesis 41:7) the ears of grain are presumably wheat.

Karmel refers to fresh ears of grain. In Leviticus 2:14 the ears of grain are probably wheat, which were roasted and brought for the firstfruits offering. The prophet Elisha received a gift of fresh ears of grain (2 Kings 4:42).

Geres refers to crushed grain.

Qalah /qali refers to roasted, dried, or baked kernels of grain.

‘Avur: RSV renders ‘avur as “produce” in Joshua 5:11 Joshua 5:12, but A Handbook on The Book of Joshua translates it as “grain (barley).”

Belil: According to Job 24:6, wild donkeys scavenge for belil (“food”) for their young.

Lechem is normally translated “bread,” but RSV appropriately renders it “bread grain” in Isaiah 28:28 and “grain” in Isaiah 30:23.

Zera‘ is literally “sowing” or “seed,” but it means “grain” in Numbers 20:5 1 Samuel 8:15 Job 39:12 Isaiah 23:3.

Karpos is literally “fruit,” but the context of Matthew 13:8, Matthew 13:26 and Mark 4:7 Mark 4:8 indicates wheat or barley, and the natural equivalent is “grain” in English.

Kokkos refers to kernels or seeds of grain.

Alfiton refers to roasted, dried, or baked kernels of grain. RSV render it “parched grain.” This is what Ruth had for lunch (Hebrew qali) when she gleaned in Boaz’s field. Alfiton is found in the Septuagint of Ruth 2:14 1 Samuel 25:18 2 Samuel 17:28 Judith 10:5.

Sperma refers to a single kernal of grain, or more generically, a seed.

Spora refers to “grain harvest” (GNB).

Sporos in Sirach 40:22 refers specifically to the sprouting of seeds, and in Sirach the reference may be to the sprouting of grain in the spring (so REB, NJB), but some translators take it more generally to mean the sprouting of flowers (so NAB).

Frumentum refers to grain harvest like the Greek word spora. RSV renders it “grain,” and REB is more generic with “crops.”

Granum refers to grain in general.

Semen: semen refers to a single kernel of grain, equivalent to zera‘ in Hebrew and sperma in Greek (as in Matthew 13:24).

In addition to these technical words for grain, the Bible refers to grain in a number of places by the expression “out of/from … threshing floor” (for example, Deuteronomy 15:14).

References to flour, or fine flour, for cereal offerings (also called meal or grain offerings; Hebrew minchah) would presumably refer to flour made from wheat, although barley flour was also used when wheat was scarce.