Barley names a crop or its grain, and the account tells whether it is harvested, damaged, gathered or supplied as food. Ruth arrives in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest while still sharing Naomi's painful circumstances.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for שְׂעֹרָה (H8184) · Open the biblical lexicon
Barley names a crop or its grain, and the account tells whether it is harvested, damaged, gathered or supplied as food. Ruth arrives in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest while still sharing Naomi's painful circumstances.
The BSB source-word alignment has 34 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of barley (15), barley (10), and barley (2), of the barley (2), the barley (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 9:31. Its strongest book concentrations include Ruth (6), 2 Kings (4), Ezekiel (4), 2 Chronicles (3).
Barley names a crop or its grain, and the account tells whether it is harvested, damaged, gathered or supplied as food. Ruth arrives in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest while still sharing Naomi's painful circumstances. Her gleaning later produces food that she brings home, with Boaz's instructions against mistreatment forming part of the scene. Exodus identifies barley's particular stage when hail strikes, rather than turning crop damage into a rule for every field.
In Elisha's account, twenty barley loaves feed a hundred men with leftovers according to the Lord's stated word. These concrete settings keep harvest hope, protection and extraordinary provision distinct. Read the measured food and the people who receive it without treating every harvest as a personal prosperity forecast or every gift as a promise of miraculous multiplication.
Land description, damaged crops, Ruth's arrival and gleaning, supplied loaves and Samaria's changing scarcity place barley in different narrated relationships. Food, timing and specific promises remain visible.
So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.
Ruth gathers an ephah of barley and brings her gleaning home, following Boaz's instructions to allow her work without insult or rebuke.
(Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom;
The narrative identifies barley as ripe when hail damages it and distinguishes later wheat, describing the crops' particular stage within the plague account.
Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
Twenty barley loaves from the firstfruits are supplied, and the following exchange explicitly ties feeding a hundred with leftovers to the Lord's stated word.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. barley (as villose)
barley (as villose) BDB: barley Usage: barley.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
שְׂעֹרָה is built from this root:
A named food can make a story's provision tangible without becoming a prosperity formula. Ruth's arrival at barley harvest occurs alongside Naomi's grief, so the timing does not erase bereavement. Ruth's gathered grain also belongs to a protected working scene: Boaz's directions matter, and she carries the food back to Naomi. Exodus reports damage at a specific crop stage rather than explaining why every later farmer suffers loss.
Elisha's twenty loaves and the hundred men are explicitly connected to the Lord's word about eating and leaving some over. The source of that promise must stay attached to its account. Teach the food, protection and particular provision together, encourage practical sharing where the story shows it, and avoid promising that every donation, harvest season or change in price reproduces the narrated outcome.
Ruth.2.17
The licensed Hebrew range identifies barley. Harvest, measured grain and loaves arise from the surrounding sentences rather than separate spiritual meanings inside the crop name. Keep a narrated quantity or ripeness distinction where supplied instead of replacing it with an abstract promise.
John 6:9 identifies a boy's five barley loaves and two fish, and verse 13 names baskets of remaining pieces. The Gospel narrates Jesus' provision and also reports his withdrawal when people intend to force him into kingship. Reading this beside Elisha's expressly promised meal preserves each account's quantities and agent; it does not promise that a present donation will multiply or make food provision a mandate for political force.