STUBBLE (קַשׁ, H7990, stubble or chaff). Stubble is the part of the plant stem left standing in the field after the crop has been harvested. Chaff is the husks or fine particles which are separated from the grain during threshing and winnowing. Translators are confronted with the difficulty of deciding whether “stubble” or “chaff” is intended, since the same word is used for both in OT lit.

The Israelites were forced to go to the fields to gather stubble because they were not permitted to use straw in their brickmaking (Exod 5:12). God’s consuming wrath is depicted in terms of a raging fire sweeping across a field of stubble (Exod 15:7). Leviathan is portrayed as a monster strong and impregnable, unaffected by slingstones; his tough hide turns such stones into “stubble” (Job 41:28). Isaiah and other later prophets declared that evildoers were the object of God’s judgment; they would face a demise like that of fire devouring stubble (Isa 5:24; 47:14; Joel 2:5; Obad 18; Nah 1:10; Mal 4:1).