REED

Three species of reed grow in Israel on the banks of rivers and swamps. Two of them, Phragmites communis and Arundo donax, are the kaneh of the Bible and rabbinical literature; the third, Saccharum biflorum, seems to be the biblical agmon. These species also grow on the banks of the Nile. In the scriptural parable "the bruised reed" that cannot be depended on and even inflicts harm symbolizes treacherous Egypt (Isa. 36:6; Ezek. 29:6–7), and it is mentioned as withering during the drying-up of the Nile. The *Behemoth dwells "in the covert of the reed and the fens" (Job 40: 21), and is therefore called "the wild beast of the reeds" (Ps. 68:31). The reed standing in the water and shaking in the wind in the prophecy of *Ahijah symbolized the Israelite nation shaking from the many blows inflicted upon it (i Kings 14:15). According to the Midrash: "The curse with which Ahijah of Shiloh cursed Israel is preferable to the blessing of the wicked Balaam. Balaam praised them as cedars (Num. 24:6) while Ahijah cursed them as 'the reed which is shaken.' The reed stands in water and, although bruised and bent, recovers. It has many roots so that even if all the winds of the world blow upon it, they do not move it from its place, but it sways with them and when the wind ceases it remains standing in its place." Hence, concludes the moralist, "a man should always be as pliant as a reed and not as hard as the cedar." As a result, the reed merited that the scroll of the law be written with it.

Reeds had many uses: for roofing (Gen. R. 1:8), for making partitions (Tosef., Er. 2:4), mats (Kel. 17:17), scales (Kel. 17:16), flutes (Tosef., Ar. 2:3), and pens (kolmos, "pen" is derived from calamus, "reed," Ta'an, 20b). Some grew it in gardens (Tosef., Dem. 7, end). The pay for cutting reeds was low, hence the designation katla kanya be'agma ("cutter of reeds") for a person of little worth (Sanh. 33a, et al.). Reeds were much used for making arrows, the Midrash noting that Israel lacks nothing – "even reeds for arrows" (Eccles. R. 2:8, no. 2). In this connection the words of Pliny are instructive: "The peoples of the East wage war with the aid of the reed, they strengthen their arrowheads with it and give wings to death by putting feathers into the reeds" (Natural History, 16:159).

Agmon is mentioned a number of times in the Bible as a slender plant, shaking in the wind and bowing its head, its head being the thick inflorescence shaped like a tail (Isa. 9–13). Its thin stalk was used for stringing fish (Job 40:26). The word is connected with agam ("swamp"). The scriptural descriptions of agmon fit Saccharum biflorum, the slenderest of the reeds common in Israel.

bibliography:

Loew, Flora, 1 (1928), 662–85; H.N. and A.L. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible (1952), index; J. Feliks, Olam ha-Ẓome'aḥ ha-Mikra'i (1968²), 288–93. add. bibliography: Feliks, Ha-Ẓome'aḥ, 146.

[Jehuda Feliks]

reed, name used for several plants of the family Graminae (grass family). The common American reed, also called reedgrass and canegrass, is a tall perennial grass (Phragmites australis), widely distributed in fresh or brackish wet places. It has stout, creeping rootstalks and a large plumelike panicle. In the SW United States this grass is called carrizo and is used in building adobe huts; it has also been used for thatching and cordage. Native Americans collected a sweet exudate from the plant and made arrows of the stalks. The leaves served as edible greens and the seeds as a cereal food. Due in part to the degradation of salt marshes and in part to the supplanting of the native P. australis by a Eurasian variety, the reed has become invasive in American wetlands, where it often forms a monoculture. The giant reed (Arundo donax), of similar appearance, is native to the Mediterranean region but is now widely naturalized throughout tropical and warm climates, including the S United States. It is often cultivated for ornament, and in Europe the stems have been used to make reed instruments, bagpipes, and reed organs. This is the reed from which Pan was fabled to have made his panpipe, or syrinx. The "reeds" of wickerwork are often rattan. Reeds are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Liliopsida, order Cyperales, family Gramineae.

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reed a reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall proverbial saying, late 14th century, meaning that something which bends to the force of the wind is less likely to be broken than something which tries to withstand it.
a reed shaken by the wind the type of something easily moved and insubstantial, with biblical allusion as to Matthew 11:7, ‘What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?’

See also broken reed.

reed. Sound-producing agent (of thin cane, plastic, or metal) of various mouth-blown wind instr., such as ob. and harmonica, certain org. pipes, etc. A reed which vibrates against an air slot is a beating reed; one which vibrates through such a slot (i.e. from one side to the other) is a free reed. Reeds may be either single, as in cl. family, or double (in the latter the two halves of the mouthpiece itself being pieces of reed vibrating against each other, see oboe). On an org., the reed stop controls pipes which have reeds.

reed Aquatic grass native to wetlands throughout the world. The common reed (Phragmites communis) has broad leaves, feathery flower clusters, and stiff smooth stems. Dry reed stems are used for thatching, construction and musical pipes. Height: to 3m (10ft). Family Poaceae/Gramineae.

reed. Small, convex moulding, smaller than an ovolo or bead, usually found with several others parallel to it, called reeding.

reed (tall straight stem of) any plant of the genera Phragmites and Arundo. OE. hrēod = OS. hriod. OHG. (h)riot (Du., G. riet):- WGmc. *χreuda.