Hay

Hay (חָצַיר, chatsir', grass, Job 8:12; Job 40:15; Ps 104:14; leeks,- Nu 11:15; also a court-yard, Isa 34:13; Isa 35:7; Greek χόρτος, fodder, i.e. grass or herbage, Mt 6:30, etc., or growing grain, Mt 13:26, etc.). We are not to suppose that this word, as used in the, Bible, denotes dried grass, as it does with us. The management of grass by the Hebrews, as food for cattle, was entirely different from ours. Indeed, hay was not in use, straw being used as provender. The grass was cut green, as it was wanted; and the phrase mown-grass (Ps 72:6) would be more properly rendered grass that has just been fed off: So in Pr 27:25, the word translated hay means the first shoots of the grass; and the whole passage might better be rendered, "The grass appeareth, and the green herb showeth itself, and the plants of the mountains are gathered." In Isa 15:6, hay is put for grass. In summer, when the plains are parched with drought, and every green herb is dried up, the nomads proceed northwards, or into the mountains, or to the banks of rivers; and in winter and spring, when the rains have re-clothed the plains with verdure, and filled the water-courses, they return. SEE GRASS; SEE LEEK; SEE FUEL; SEE MOWING.