GRASS (דֶּ֫שֶׁא, H2013, tender; חָצִיר֒, H2945, hay; יֶ֫רֶק, H3764, green; עֵ֫שֶׂב, H6912, herb; χόρτος, G5965, fodder). Grass in its various forms is mentioned fifty-eight times in the Bible, sometimes as grass for grazing (Job 6:5), and in Jeremiah 50:11—“wanton as a heifer at grass”; sometimes as hay (Ps 37:2), and sometimes pictorially as in Isaiah 40:7—“the grass withers; the flower fades.”

The prophets and psalmists describe man’s days as grass, i.e. Psalm 103:15, “as for man, his days are as grass,” and Isaiah 40:6, “all flesh is grass.” In the NT also, the apostles take up the same theme. 1 Peter 1:24 states: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,” and James 1:11 states: “For the sun...withers the grass.”

Grass also is used Biblically to describe plants as a whole. Our Lord says: “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you” (Matt 6:30). He was speaking primarily of flowering plants (see Lily), but there is a general reference to green plants.

It is wondered whether the Sorghum grass, Sorghum vulgare, was used by the hundreds of thousands of Israelites on the first morning of the Passover. It would have been difficult to obtain so much Hyssop (q.v.), but Sorghum grass was abundant, and was used in those days to make brushes.

The millet (Ezek 4:9) is an annual grass, bearing hundreds of small seeds.