דשא, Gen. i, 11, the well known vegetable upon which flocks and
herds feed, and which decks our fields, and refreshes our sight with its
grateful verdure. Its feeble frame and transitory duration are mentioned
in Scripture as emblematic of the frail condition and fleeting existence
of man. The inspired poets draw this picture with such inimitable beauty
as the laboured elegies on mortality of ancient and modern times have
never surpassed. See Psalm xc, 6, and particularly Isaiah xl, 6–8: “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. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it. Verily this people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” As, in their
decay, the herbs of the fields strikingly illustrate the shortness of
human life, so, in the order of their growth, from seeds dead and
buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of a resurrection.
The Prophet Isaiah, and the Apostle Peter, both speak of bodies rising
from the dead, as of so many seeds springing from the ground to
renovated existence and beauty, although they do not, as some have
absurdly supposed, consider the resurrection as in any sense analogous
to the process of vegetation, Isaiah xxvi, 19; 1 Peter i, 24, 25.
It is a just remark of Grotius, that the Hebrews ranked the whole
vegetable system under two classes, עץ, and עשב. The first is rendered
ξύλον, or δένδρον, _tree_: to express the second, the LXX have adopted
χόρτος, as their common way to translate one Hebrew word by one Greek
word, though not quite proper, rather than by a circumlocution. It is
accordingly used in their version of Genesis i, 11, where the
distinction first occurs, and in most other places. Nor is it with
greater propriety rendered _grass_ in English than χόρτος in Greek. The
same division occurs in Matt. vi, 30, and Rev. viii, 7, where our
translators have in like manner had recourse to the term _grass_. Dr.
Campbell prefers and uses the word _herbage_, as coming nearer the
meaning of the sacred writer. Under the name _herb_ is comprehended
every sort of plant which has not, like trees and shrubs, a perennial
stalk. That many, if not all, sorts of shrubs were included by the
Hebrews under the denomination, _tree_, is evident from Jotham’s
apologue of the trees choosing a king, Judges ix, 7, where the bramble
is mentioned as one. See HAY.
herds feed, and which decks our fields, and refreshes our sight with its
grateful verdure. Its feeble frame and transitory duration are mentioned
in Scripture as emblematic of the frail condition and fleeting existence
of man. The inspired poets draw this picture with such inimitable beauty
as the laboured elegies on mortality of ancient and modern times have
never surpassed. See Psalm xc, 6, and particularly Isaiah xl, 6–8: “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. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it. Verily this people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” As, in their
decay, the herbs of the fields strikingly illustrate the shortness of
human life, so, in the order of their growth, from seeds dead and
buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of a resurrection.
The Prophet Isaiah, and the Apostle Peter, both speak of bodies rising
from the dead, as of so many seeds springing from the ground to
renovated existence and beauty, although they do not, as some have
absurdly supposed, consider the resurrection as in any sense analogous
to the process of vegetation, Isaiah xxvi, 19; 1 Peter i, 24, 25.
It is a just remark of Grotius, that the Hebrews ranked the whole
vegetable system under two classes, עץ, and עשב. The first is rendered
ξύλον, or δένδρον, _tree_: to express the second, the LXX have adopted
χόρτος, as their common way to translate one Hebrew word by one Greek
word, though not quite proper, rather than by a circumlocution. It is
accordingly used in their version of Genesis i, 11, where the
distinction first occurs, and in most other places. Nor is it with
greater propriety rendered _grass_ in English than χόρτος in Greek. The
same division occurs in Matt. vi, 30, and Rev. viii, 7, where our
translators have in like manner had recourse to the term _grass_. Dr.
Campbell prefers and uses the word _herbage_, as coming nearer the
meaning of the sacred writer. Under the name _herb_ is comprehended
every sort of plant which has not, like trees and shrubs, a perennial
stalk. That many, if not all, sorts of shrubs were included by the
Hebrews under the denomination, _tree_, is evident from Jotham’s
apologue of the trees choosing a king, Judges ix, 7, where the bramble
is mentioned as one. See HAY.