We begin this section with the usual survey of generic expressions. While some of us think of grass as the green stuff that has to be removed from the farm before planting, or the stuff surrounding our house that needs to be cut short regularly, botanists look at a mammoth family of plants (Poaceae) containing over nine thousand species grouped into six hundred genera. The family includes the major food grains (cereals) grown around the world: rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, barley, quinoa, rye, and others. It includes bamboo, which is a major construction material, as well as reeds and canes used for baskets, beds, musical instruments, paper, and chairs. Even sugarcane is a type of grass. All have hollow stems, joints where leaves protrude, sheaths protecting the base of the leaf, a seed head of some type with tiny, wind-pollinated flowers lacking petals, and narrow sword-shaped leaves that grow at the base, not at the tip.
GEN 1:11; GEN 1:12 gives us a good introduction to the problem of generic and specific vocabulary in Hebrew. God’s speech in verse 11 begins literally “Let the earth sprout [tadshe’ ] sprouts [deshe’ ], plants [‘esev ] bearing seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit … .” Scholars continue to debate about the Hebrew word deshe’. Is it a generic word introducing the two categories that follow, or is it the first of three categories: grass, seed plants, and fruit trees? (See the Discussion and Translation under Grass for more detail.).
Another generic Hebrew expression is found in GEN 1:30, where God gives yereq ‘esev (“green plants”) to the animals for food. Interestingly, in GEN 9:3 the same yereq ‘esev is to serve as food for Noah in the ark along with the meat of animals.
The generic Hebrew word siach also needs to be mentioned. This word usually means “complaint,” “musing,” “meditation,” or “chatter.” In a few places it refers to “bushes” or “shrubs.” It occurs with the latter meaning in GEN 2:5; GEN 21:15; JOB 30:4; JOB 30:7.