GRASS. (1) chatsîr equivalent of Arab. [Note: Arabic.] khudra , which includes green vegetables; many references, e.g. 1 Kings 18:6 , 2 Kings 19:26; tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘hay’ in Proverbs 27:25 , Isaiah 15:6 , and in Numbers 11:5 ‘leeks’; refers to herbage in general. (2) deshe ’ (Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] dethe ), Jeremiah 14:5 , Proverbs 27:25 , Job 38:27 , Isaiah 66:14 (‘pasture land’), Daniel 4:15; Daniel 4:23 (‘tender grass’). (3) yereq , tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘grass,’ Numbers 22:4; see Herb. (4) çseb , Deuteronomy 11:15; Deuteronomy 32:2 etc., but tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘herb’ in other places; see Herb. (5) chortos , Matthew 6:30 , Mark 6:39 etc. Pasturage, as it occurs in Western lands, is unknown in Palestine. Such green herbage appears only for a few weeks, and when the rains cease soon perishes. Hence grass is in the OT a frequent symbol of the shortness of human life ( Psalms 90:5-7; Psalms 103:15 , Isaiah 40:6; cf. 1 Peter 1:24 ). Even more brief is the existence of ‘the grass upon the [mud-made] housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up’ ( Psalms 129:6 ).
E. W. G. Masterman.