Grass

Grass is one of Scripture’s plainest pictures of how short life is. A psalm says people are “like grass which groweth up” in the morning and “cut down, and withereth” by evening. Isaiah cries, “All flesh is grass,” and Peter quotes him. James says the rich man will fade “as the flower of the grass.” Jesus uses the same field differently: if God so clothes the grass, which is gone tomorrow, will he not much more clothe his people? So grass speaks of both frailty and care. Isaiah 40 gives the fullest picture, set beside the promise that follows it.

7 verses

Psalms

Psalms 90:5

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

Psalms 90:6

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

Isaiah

Isaiah 40:6

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

Matthew

Matthew 6:30

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

James

James 1:10

But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

James 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

1 Peter

1 Peter 1:24

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(1.) Heb. hatsir, ripe grass fit for mowing (1 Kings 18:5; Job 40:15; Ps. 104:14). As the herbage rapidly fades under the scorching sun, it is used as an image of the brevity of human life (Isa. 40:6, 7; Ps. 90:5). In Num. 11:5 this word is rendered “leeks.”

(2.) Heb. deshe’, green grass (Gen. 1:11, 12; Isa. 66:14; Deut. 32:2). “The sickly and forced blades of grass which spring up on the flat plastered roofs of houses in the East are used as an emblem of speedy destruction, because they are small and weak, and because, under the scorching rays of the sun, they soon wither away” (2 Kings 19:26; Ps. 129:6; Isa. 37:27).

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The dry stalks of grass were often used as fuel for the oven (Matt. 6:30; 13:30; Luke 12:28).