WHEAT. 337 



WHEAT. 



THIS is the principal and most valuable of all kinds of grain. It 

 is called in Hebrew chetah, a word the etymology of which it is not 

 easy to ascertain. In 2 Samuel xvii. 28, the word occurs in a plu- 

 ral form, whence Scheuchzer infers, that it comprehended, ancient- 

 ly, all sorts of wheaten corn cleansed from impurities. This, how- 

 ever, seems doubtful, because barley is expressly mentioned in con- 

 nexion with it: it refers perhaps to several kinds of wheat ; or what 

 is more probable, is a specimen of tbt lax mode of expression 

 which is so common, and indeed necessary, in all languages. 



The meat-offerings, as they are called in the English Bible, of the 

 Levitical dispensation, were not what their designation would seem 

 to imply ; animal flesh, but wheat, either in its simple state, or re- 

 duced to flour, or made up into cakes. See Lev. ch. ii. 



The wheat (her) of Jer. xxiii. 28, Joel ii. 24, and Amos v. 11, is 

 no doubt the burr or wild corn of the Arabs, mentioned by ForsfcaJ, 

 Jn Gen. xJi, 35, the same word is rendered corn, 



