Barley

BARLEY. In Palestine Barley was sown in Autumn and reaped in Spring, that is to say, at the Feast of the Passover. The Rabbins sometimes call Barley the food of Beasts, because in reality they fed their cattle 1 Kings iv. 28.with it; in Homer and others of the Ancients we find Barley always given to horses, and at the trial of women under the accusation of adultery, the offering was of Barley-meal, by reason of the bestial and infamous crime which they stood charged with, and upon this Barley-meal they neither poured oil nor put frankincense because it was a Sacrifice of Jealousy, as Moses says. Herodotus tells us, that the Egyptians eat neither Wheat nor Barley, nor any thing made with them. They had a particular sort of Corn, which was their sustenance.

The Hebrews frequently used Barley-bread, as we see by several passages of Scripture. For example, David’s friends brought to him in his 2 Sam. xvii. 28.flight, wheat, barley, flour, pease, beans, and pulse. Solomon sent wheat, barley, wine and oil to the servants whom King Hiram had supplied him with, in order to carry on works at Libanus. And in the Gospel Jesus Christ and 2 Chr. ii. 15. John vi. 9.his Apostles had no other provision besides five Barley-loaves. Elijah had a present made him of twenty Barley-loaves, and Corn in the husk, which a certain man brought to him as first 2 King iv. 42.fruits.

Moses remarks, that when the hail fell in Egypt, the flax and the barley were bruised and destroyed, because the flax was at its full growth, and the barley began to form its green Gen. ix. 31.ears; but the wheat and more backward grain were not damaged, because they were as yet only in the blade, and the hail bruised the young shoots which produce the Ears. All this happened some days before the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, or before the Passover. In Egypt the Barley-harvest does not begin till towards the end of April¹.

Acts i. 23. Ezek. xiii. 19. Hosea iii. 2.Barley is sometimes used to signify some mean thing of low price. Ezekiel complains of the false Prophets who seduced the people of the Lord, and made vain promises to them for a handful of Barley, and a morsel of Bread. The Prophet Hosea says, that he bought his Wife for fifteen pieces of Silver, and an Omer and an half of Barley.

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