Straw, Stubble
Straw, Stubble
STRAW, STUBBLE.In Heb. the former is teben, the latter qash, and to Western ideas the one is as much straw as the other. The distinction between the two is as follows: teben, the modern tibn, is the mixture of chopped straw and chaff, produced by the action of the threshing-drag and winnowed out by the fan (Agriculture, 3), as distinguished from the grains of wheat (so Jer 23:28 where straw RV [Note: Revised Version.] , and chaff AV [Note: Authorized Version.] are both inadequate). It is mentioned as the food of horses, asses, and camels. In reaping, as is still the custom, the stalks were cut knee-high or over; the length of stalk left standing is qash. Accordingly, when the Hebrews in Egypt gathered stubble for straw (Exo 5:12), what they did was to pull up the stalks of wheat left standing in the fields and cut them up into short pieces suitable for brick-making, instead of being allowed to procure the tibn ready to their hand from the local threshing-floors. Since the cornstalks were usually burned as manure, stubble is frequently found in metaphors suggested by this practice (Isa 5:24; Isa 47:14 etc.). In other passages containing reference explicit or implied to driven stubble (41:3), the smaller fragments of chopped straw which the wind blew away with the chaff from the threshing-floor may be intended.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Straw, Stubble
stro, stub’l: The cognates of Hebrew , tebhen, straw and , kash, stubble, have been retained in the modern Arabic terms tibn and kashsh. 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 Gen 24:25, Gen 24:32; Jdg 19:19; 1Ki 4:28; Isa 11:7; Isa 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 (Exo 5:7 ff).
Kashsh (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 (Exo 15:7; Job 13:25; Job 41:28, Job 41:29; Psa 83:13; Isa 5:24, etc.; 1Co 3:12, , kalame).
Mathben () is translated straw in Isa 25:10.