Wheat

While men slept, an enemy “sowed tares among the wheat” and went his way, in one of Jesus’ pictures of the kingdom. Elsewhere wheat is the good grain kept safe: John the Baptist speaks of gathering it “into the garner” while the chaff burns. God would have fed his people “with the finest of the wheat,” says the psalm, yet Jeremiah warns of those who “have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns.” Solomon even paid Hiram twenty thousand measures of it for timber. These few verses show wheat as daily food, a sign of God’s care, and a way of telling the lasting from the passing.

6 verses

1 Kings

1 Kings 5:11

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.

Psalms

Psalms 81:16

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 12:13

They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:28

The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

Matthew

Matthew 3:12

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew 13:25

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

One of the earliest cultivated grains. It bore the Hebrew name hittah, and was extensively cultivated in Palestine. There are various species of wheat. That which Pharaoh saw in his dream was the Triticum compositum, which bears several ears upon one stalk (Gen. 41:5). The “fat of the kidneys of wheat” (Deut. 32:14), and the “finest of the wheat” (Ps. 81:16; 147:14), denote the best of the kind. It was exported from Palestine in great quantities (1 Kings 5:11; Ezek. 27:17; Acts 12:20).

Parched grains of wheat were used for food in Palestine (Ruth 2:14; 1 Sam. 17:17; 2 Sam. 17:28). The disciples, under the sanction of the Mosaic law (Deut. 23:25), plucked ears of corn, and rubbing them in their hands, ate the grain unroasted (Matt. 12:1; Mark 2:23; Luke 6:1). Before any of the wheat-harvest, however, could be eaten, the first-fruits had to be presented before the Lord (Lev. 23:14).

Read the full entry

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

the well-known valuable cereal, cultivated from the earliest times, is first mentioned in ((Genesis 30:14) in the account of Jacob’s sojourn with Laban in Mesopotamia. Egypt in ancient times was celebrated for the growth of its wheat; the best quality was all bearded; and the same varieties existed in ancient as in modern times, among which may be mentioned the seven-eared quality described in Pharaoh’s dream. (Genesis 41:22) Babylonia was also noted for the excellence of its wheat and other cereals. Syria and Palestine produced wheat of fine quality and in large quantities. (Psalms 81:16; 147:14) etc. There appear to be two or three kinds of wheat at present grown in Palestine, the Triticum vulgare , the T. spelta , and another variety of bearded wheat which appears to be the same as the Egyptian kind, the T. compositum . In the parable of the sower our Lord alludes to grains of wheat which in good ground produce a hundred-fold. (Matthew 13:8) The common Triticum vulgare will sometimes produce one hundred grains in the ear. Wheat is reaped to ward the end of April, in May, and in June, according to the differences of soil and position; it was sown either broadcast and then ploughed in or trampled in by cattle, (Isaiah 32:20) or in rows, if we rightly understand (Isaiah 28:25) which seems to imply that the seeds were planted apart in order to insure larger and fuller ears. The wheat was put into the ground in the winter, and some time after the barley; in the Egyptian plague of hail, consequently, the barley suffered, but the wheat had not appeared, and so escaped injury.