Barley

Barley was one of the most important cereal crops in ancient Israel and Egypt, grown more widely than wheat because of its greater drought tolerance and its ability to ripen earlier. It was extensively cultivated in Egypt (Exodus 9:31), where the hailstorm plague destroyed it while wheat was not yet ripe. In Palestine, barley was a staple food of the common people and of the poor — the barley harvest in spring (Ruth 1:22; 2:23) preceded the wheat harvest and provided the grain used in bread for much of the population.

Barley appears in several key narrative moments: Gideon's dream of a loaf of barley bread tumbling into the Midianite camp and overturning a tent (Judges 7:13–14) was interpreted as a sign of Israel's victory. Elisha miraculously fed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves (2 Kings 4:42–44). In John 6:9, 13, the five barley loaves used in the feeding of the five thousand are explicitly noted as barley — the bread of the poor — making the miracle's abundance over common provision all the more striking. Barley was also used as animal fodder (1 Kings 4:28) and as a standard in valuations under the Mosaic law (Leviticus 27:16).