Hay turns up three times, and each time it is a plain plant. In Proverbs 27:25 “the hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself,” a sign of a changing season and of work for the farmer. In Isaiah 15:6 the picture turns dark: Moab’s waters are desolate and “the hay is withered away.” Paul gives it a third use. A builder may put up a church’s work with “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,” and the first three are what lasts. Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 to see how the rest of his picture goes.
3 verses
The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Properly so called, was not in use among the Hebrews; straw was used instead. They cut the grass green as it was needed. The word rendered “hay” in Prov. 27:25 means the first shoots of the grass. In Isa. 15:6 the Revised Version has correctly “grass,” where the Authorized Version has “hay.”
William Smith, 1884
(Heb. chatsir), the rendering of the Authorized Version in (Proverbs 27:25) and Isai 15:6 Of the Hebrew term, which occurs frequently in the Old Testament, and denotes "grass" of any kind. It is quite probable that the modern Orientals do not make hay in our sense of the term; but it is certain that the ancients did mow their grass, and probably made use of the dry material. See (Psalms 37:2) We may remark that there is an express Hebrew term for "dry grass" or "hay," viz. chashash , which, in the only two places where the word occurs, (Isaiah 5:24; 33:11) is rendered "chaff" in the Authorized Version.