Chaff

Chaff is the light husk separated from grain during the process of winnowing, when threshed grain is tossed into the air and the wind carries away the worthless material while the heavier kernels fall to the threshing floor. In biblical imagery, chaff became a pervasive symbol of what is worthless, ephemeral, and subject to divine judgment. The Psalms contrast the wicked — who are like chaff that the wind drives away (Ps. 1:4) — with the righteous, who are like firmly rooted trees. Isaiah employs the image for enemies consumed by divine fire (Isa. 5:24; 33:11), as does Hosea and Zephaniah for Israel's apostasy.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist's description of the coming one's ministry culminates in the image of the winnowing fork: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12). The metaphor frames the final judgment as a separation already inherent in the harvest process.