BARLEY (שְׂעֹרָה, H8555, long hair; κριθή, G3208, piercing or pointed; κρίθινος, G3209, barley). There are thirty-six references to barley in the Bible. It was one of the main cereal crops of Pal., and being cheaper than wheat was used for feeding horses, donkeys and cattle. It was often mixed with wheat to prepare flour for human beings. Barley bread, even today, is the staple food of the poorer people in Pal.

There are three main barleys— spring barley (Hordeum vulgare), winter barley (H. hexastichon), and common barley (H. distichon).

Barley is harvested in Pal. in late March or early April, or on the hilly fields in May. Winter barley may be sown in November and spring barley in March.

As barley was largely the food of the poor, it was looked down on, and is even scorned today. It was good enough for the price of a harlot (Hos 3:2), and was a poor symbolic offering (Num 5:15).

Arabs today refer to Jews as “cakes of barley.” This is a scornful term. The true followers of Mohammed are “wheat” and the Jews are “barley.” The Midianites prob. called the Israelites “cakes of barley” (Judg 7:13), and that was why in a dream a soldier saw “a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian.”

Orpah with Ruth returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest (Ruth 1). Absalom burned Joab’s barley field (2 Sam 14:30). “Cast thy bread upon the waters” (Eccl 11:1) refers to barley. The loaves given to the Lord Jesus (John 6:9) were made of barley. Elisha said that the price of barley flour was half that of wheat flour (2 Kings 7:1).

Barley is harvested thirty or more days before wheat. This accounts for the barley being smitten and the wheat not damaged in Exodus 9:31. See Grain; Harvest.