the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Hay
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or חציר . In the two places where this word occurs, Proverbs 27:25 , and Isaiah 15:16, our translators have very improperly rendered it "hay." But in those countries they made no hay; and if they did, it appears from inspection that hay could hardly be the meaning of the word in either of those texts. The author of "Fragments," in continuation of Calmet, has the following remarks: "There is a gross impropriety in our version of Proverbs 27:25 : ‘The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.' Now, certainly, if the tender grass is but just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is grass cut and dried after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be associated with it, still less ought it to be placed before it. And this leads me to observe, that none of the dictionaries which I have seen seem to me to give the accurate import of the word, which, I apprehend, means the first shoots, the rising, budding, spires of grass. So, in the present passage, נלה ח ציר , ‘the tender shoots of the grass rise up; and the buddings of grass,' grass in its early state, as is the peculiar import of רשא , ‘appear; and the tufts of grass,' proceeding from the same root, ‘collect themselves together, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing verdure.'" Surely, the beautiful progress of vegetation, as described in this passage, must appear too poetical to be lost; but what must it be to an eastern beholder! to one who had lately witnessed all surrounding sterility, a grassless waste!
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Hay'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/h/hay.html. 1831-2.
