KUSSEMETH (kils-se'meth), (Heb. koos seh'meth), occurs in three places of Scripture.
(1) Variously Rendered. In the Authorized Version it is translated rye in Exod. ix :32; Is. xxviii .25, and filches in Ezek. iv :9 ; but its true meaning still remains uncertain. It was one of the cultivated grains both of Egypt and of Syria, and one of tho_se employed as an article of diet. It was also sown along with wheat, or, at least, its crop was in the same state of forwardness; for we learn from Exod. ix :32, that in the sev enth plague the hail-storm smote the barley which was in the ear, and the flax which was bolled; but that the wheat and the Kussemeth were not smitten, for they were not grown up. Respecting the wheat and the barley, we know that they are often sown and come to maturity in different months.
(2) Cultivated in Palestine. That kussentells was cultivated in Palestine we learn from Is. xxviii :25, where it is mentioned along with ket zah (nigella) and cumin, wheat and barley ; and sown, according to some translators, 'on the ex treme border of the fields,' as a kind of fence for other kinds of corn. This is quite an Oriental practice, and may be seen in the case of flax and other grains in India, at the present day. The
rye is a grain of cold climates, and is not culti vated even in the south of Europe. Korte de clares (Travels, p. 168) that no rye grows in Egypt ; and Shaw states (p. 351) that rye is little known in Barbary and Egypt (Rosenmiiller, p. 76).
(3) Used in Making Bread. That the kussemeth was employed for making bread by the Hebrews we know from Ezek. iv :9, where the prophet is directed to 'take wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and kussentelh, and put them in a vessel, and make bread thereof.' Though it is very unlikely that kussenteth can mean rye, it is not easy to say what cultivated grain it denotes. The principal kinds of grain, it is to be observed, are mentioned in the same pas sages with the kussetneth. Though some circum stances seem to point to the triticton spella, or spat as the kussemellt of Scripture, the subject is still susceptible of further investigation, and can only be finally determined by first ascertaining the modern agriculture of eastern countries, and comparing it with the ancient accounts of the agriculture of Syria and Egypt. (See RvE.) _