Wheat

A cereal plant that produces grain used to make bread and is an important food source.

Wheat in field
Wheat in field (Bluemoose (Wikimedia Commons)) Wheat

About Wheat

Wheat is a type of cereal grass that is widely grown for its edible grain. Five kinds of wheat grow naturally in the Holy Land, and at least eight other types are grown there today. Most, if not all, of these wheat types were likely known in Bible times. The wild varieties were probably more common then than they are now. Some of these wild wheat types include:

einkorn (Triticum monococcum),

Read full article
Go deeper
The plant itself Article

Habitat, identification, and how translators render the term across languages.

Key References

Exodus 9:32

but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late crops.)

Mark 4:28

All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within.

Matthew 12:1

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

All Scripture References (76)

Genesis (2)
Genesis 4:3

So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD,

Genesis 30:14

Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Exodus (3)
Exodus 9:32

but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late crops.)

Exodus 29:2

along with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour,

Exodus 34:22

And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

Leviticus (1)
Leviticus 25:19

Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

Numbers (3)
Numbers 13:20

Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

Numbers 13:26

and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

Numbers 13:27

And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!

Deuteronomy (13)
Deuteronomy 1:25

They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”

Deuteronomy 7:13

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 8:8

a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

Deuteronomy 26:2

you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name,

Deuteronomy 26:10

And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me.” Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him.

Deuteronomy 28:4

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:11

The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 28:18

The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:33

A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

Deuteronomy 28:42

Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

Deuteronomy 28:51

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.

Deuteronomy 30:9

So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your prosperity, as He delighted in that of your fathers,

Deuteronomy 32:14

with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.

Judges (2)
Judges 6:11

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

Judges 15:1

Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

Ruth (1)
Ruth 2:23

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

1 Samuel (2)
1 Samuel 6:13

Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.

1 Samuel 12:17

Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king.”

2 Samuel (2)
2 Samuel 4:6

They entered the interior of the house as if to get some wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped away.

2 Samuel 17:28

They brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, as well as wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,

1 Kings (1)
1 Chronicles (2)
1 Chronicles 21:20

Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

1 Chronicles 21:23

Ornan said to David, “Take it! May my lord the king do whatever seems good to him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I will give it all.”

2 Chronicles (3)
2 Chronicles 2:9

to prepare for me timber in abundance, because the temple I am building will be great and wonderful.

2 Chronicles 2:14

He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father is a man of Tyre. He is skilled in work with gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple, blue, and crimson yarn, and fine linen. He is experienced in every kind of engraving and can execute any design that is given him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my lord, your father David.

2 Chronicles 27:5

Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years.

Ezra (2)
Ezra 6:9

Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.

Ezra 7:22

up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit.

Nehemiah (1)
Nehemiah 9:36

So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves!

Job (1)
Job 31:40

then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.

Psalms (5)
Psalm 72:16

May there be an abundance of grain in the land; may it sway atop the hills. May its fruit trees flourish like the forests of Lebanon, the people of its cities like the grass of the field.

Psalm 105:35

They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.

Psalm 107:34

and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

Psalm 147:14

He makes peace at your borders; He fills you with the finest wheat.

Song of Solomon (1)
Song of Solomon 7:3

Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

Isaiah (2)
Isaiah 4:2

On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

Isaiah 28:25

When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.

Jeremiah (5)
Jeremiah 2:7

I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.

Jeremiah 12:13

They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

Jeremiah 29:5

“Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Jeremiah 29:28

For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’”

Jeremiah 41:8

But ten of the men among them said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have hidden treasure in the field—wheat, barley, oil, and honey!” So he refrained from killing them with the others.

Ezekiel (3)
Ezekiel 4:9

But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.

Ezekiel 27:17

Judah and the land of Israel traded with you; they exchanged wheat from Minnith, cakes and honey, oil and balm for your merchandise.

Ezekiel 45:13

This is the contribution you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.

Joel (1)
Joel 1:11

Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

Malachi (1)
Malachi 3:11

I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Matthew (5)
Matthew 3:12

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 12:1

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

Matthew 13:25

But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.

Matthew 13:29

‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them.

Matthew 13:30

Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Mark (3)
Mark 2:23

One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.

Mark 4:28

All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within.

Mark 16:18

they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”

Luke (5)
Luke 3:17

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Luke 6:1

One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.

Luke 12:18

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.

Luke 16:7

Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.

Luke 22:31

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat.

John (1)
John 12:24

Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Acts (2)
Acts 7:12

When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.

Acts 27:38

After the men had eaten their fill, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

1 Corinthians (1)
1 Corinthians 15:37

And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else.

Revelation (2)
Revelation 6:6

And I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine.”

Revelation 18:13

of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages; of bodies and souls of slaves.