straw: the dried, broken stalks left over after grain is threshed
Straw is what remains of a grain crop once the edible kernels have been beaten out: the dry, chopped stalks. In the ancient world this leftover was not waste but a useful commodity, and the word simply follows it through everyday life.
Two ordinary uses account for most of its appearances:
- straw was fed to cattle, donkeys, camels, and horses as part of their daily feed
- straw was chopped into wet clay to bind and strengthen sun-dried mud bricks
The brick-making use drives the confrontation in Exodus, where Pharaoh punishes the Israelites by cutting off their straw supply while still demanding the same tally of bricks, so that they have to scour the fields for stubble (קַשׁ) in its place.
Because straw is dry and light, it also became a natural picture of what is flimsy or worthless. The great beast in Job treats iron as if it were mere straw, the wicked are swept away like straw before the wind (blown off alongside the chaff, מוֹץ), and a lying prophet's dream is only straw beside the solid grain of God's true word.