Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WHEAT

The preferable cereal in food preparation and for baking. One of the crops and fruit trees with which the land of Israel was blessed (Deut. 8:8), it was domesticated early in the Neolithic period. Wheat (Triticum; Heb. ḥiṭṭâ) is a winter crop and succeeds best in high mean winter temperature and an annual rainfall of 500-700 mm. (19.7-27.5 in.). Its planting starts in late October and continues into November; wheat is ready for harvest, depending on the region, between the end of April and late May, ending with the Festival of Weeks (šāḇuʿôṯ).

There are several species of wheat, including einkorn (T. monococcum L.), emmer (kussemeṯ; Exod. 9:32; T. dicoccum Schübl.), hard wheat (T. durum Desf.), spelt (T. spelta L.), and bread wheat (T. Aestivum L.). Wheat depletes the soil, thus it needs to be integrated within a crop rotation cycle, and other measures for restoration of soil fertility, such as fertilizing the soil with manure or ash, must be employed.

Wheat can be eaten raw, parched (qālî), or ground into flour (qemaḥ) for baked goods (Exod. 29:2). It can also be crushed (gereś) and used also in other foods such as gruel.

Bibliography. O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, 1987); J. M. Renfrew, Palaeoethnobotany: The Prehistoric Food Plants of the Near East and Europe (New York, 1973).

Oded Borowski

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WHEAT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)