BARLEY
Grass that the Hebrews called “S’orah”, that is, “the plant with rigid beards.”
It was grown in abundance in Palestine (Rt. 1:22), in Egypt (Ex. 9:31) and in the neighboring regions; bread was made with it (Judg. 7:13; Jn. 6:9).
The various species of barley belonged to the genus “Hordeum”. There are 10 species of barley known, one of them, “Hordeum ataburense”, native to Mount Tabor, is peculiar to Palestine.