One variety of wheat cultivated in Egypt of old, and still encountered there, has several ears per stalk. (Compare Genesis 41:22, 23.) The varieties of wheat that have been commonly cultivated in Palestine in more recent years, and likely also in Bible times, are bearded, that is, having coarse, prickly hairs on the husks of the kernels.

True to God’s promise, the Israelites found Palestine to be a land of wheat and barley. (Deut. 8:8; 32:14; Ps. 81:16; 147:14) Not only did they have enough for themselves but they also were able to export grain. (2 Chron. 2:8-10, 15) In Ezekiel’s time, commodities from Judah and Israel, including “wheat of Minnith,” were being traded in Tyre.—Ezek. 27:17.

Wheat was sown in Palestine about the same time as the barley, in the month of Bul (October-November), after the early fall rains had sufficiently softened the soil for plowing. (Isa. 28:24, 25) The wheat harvest followed the barley harvest (Ruth 2:23; compare Exodus 9:31, 32), and was closely associated with the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost in the month of Sivan (May-June), at which time two leavened loaves made of wheat flour were presented as a wave offering to Jehovah. (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:17) After the wheat was threshed, winnowed and sifted, it was often stored in underground pits, a practice perhaps alluded to at Jeremiah 41:8.

The Bible also makes illustrative reference to wheat. It is used to represent persons acceptable to Jehovah, “the sons of the kingdom.” (Matt. 3:12; 13:24-30, 37, 38; Luke 3:17) Both Jesus and the apostle Paul mentioned wheat in illustrating the resurrection. (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:35-38) And Jesus likened the test to come upon his disciples, as a result of the trials he was about to undergo, to the sifting of wheat.—Luke 22:31.

WHEEL

The exact historical origin of the wheel is not known. Anciently, wooden planks were pegged together, rounded and furnished with a felloe or rim to form the early wheel. The spoked type was used on chariots, wagons and other vehicles. (Ex. 14:25; Isa. 5:28; 28:27) The ten copper carriages that Solomon made for use at Jehovah’s temple each had a copper axle and four chariotlike copper wheels one and a half cubits high, with hubs, spokes and felloes.—1 Ki. 7:27-33.

The potter fashioned earthenware vessels on a revolving horizontal disk called a potter’s wheel. (Jer. 18:3, 4) Also, a bucket might be lowered and raised in a cistern by means of rope attached to some type of wheel or windlass.—Eccl. 12:6.

ILLUSTRATIVE AND FIGURATIVE USE

According to the Hebrew Masoretic text, Proverbs 20:26 reads: “A wise king is scattering wicked people, and he turns around upon them a wheel.” This seems to allude to an action of a king comparable to the use of the wheel in threshing grain. (Compare Isaiah 28:27, 28.) The metaphor appears to indicate that the wise king acts promptly in separating wicked persons from righteous ones and in punishing the wicked. Thereby evil is suppressed in his domain. (Compare Proverbs 20:8.) However, by a slight alteration, this verse says that a wise king turns around upon the wicked “their own hurtfulness.”

The uncontrolled tongue is a “fire” that “sets the wheel of natural life aflame.” The entire round of one’s life can be set aflame by the tongue, even as a very hot axle can set a wheel on fire.—Jas. 3:6.

By the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, Ezekiel envisioned Jehovah riding upon a swift-moving chariotlike celestial vehicle. Its four wheels had rims filled with eyes, and within each wheel was another wheel apparently at right angles, making it possible to go forward or to either side without changing the angle of the wheels. Beside each wheel was a cherub, the cherubic living creatures and wheels moving in unison as spirit-directed. (Ezek. 1:1-3, 15-21; 3:13) The following year, Ezekiel had a similar vision, this time before the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem and indicating that soon that city and the temple would be destroyed in execution of Jehovah’s judicial decision. (Ezek. 8:1-3; 10:1-19; 11:22) Some sixty years thereafter, Daniel envisioned the Ancient of Days, Jehovah, seated upon a heavenly wheeled throne. Both throne and wheels were aflame, suggesting the approach of fiery divine judgment upon world powers.—Dan. 7:1, 9, 10; Ps. 97:1-3.

WHIP

This instrument, usually a flexible cord or leather lash with a handle, has been used since ancient times to beat humans (2 Chron. 10:11, 14) and in driving and directing animals.—Prov. 26:3; Nah. 3:2.

King Rehoboam boasted that, whereas his father Solomon had chastised the Israelites with “whips”, he would do so with “scourges.” Though Rehoboam’s expression was figurative, the scourges alluded to may have been lashes equipped with sharp points, since the Hebrew word (ʽaq·rab·bimʹ) for “scourges” literally means “scorpions.”

Eliphaz the Temanite spoke of the “whip of a tongue.” (Job 4:1; 5:21) Apparently the allusion was to the use of the tongue to inflict injury, as in slandering and speaking abusively.—Compare Proverbs 12:18; James 3:5-10.

At Passover time of 30 C.E., “after making a whip of ropes, [Jesus] drove all those with the sheep and cattle out of the temple.” Indicating that Jesus used the whip only on the animals, not on the men with the sheep and cattle, is the fact that he evicted the sellers of doves verbally, not with the whip. Also, by driving out the cattle with the whip, he upset their business activity, and the men would naturally follow after their cattle, to round them up.—John 2:13-17.

WHITE

See COLORS.

WICKEDNESS

Anyone who does not conform to God’s standard of moral excellence is wicked, bad, evil or worthless. Like the Greek word po·ne·riʹa (Matt. 22:18; Mark 7:22; Luke 11:39; Acts 3:26; Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:8; Eph. 6:12), the adjective, noun and verb forms drawn from the Hebrew root ra·shaʽʹ designate that which is wicked. (Gen. 18:23; 2 Sam. 22:22; 2 Chron. 20:35; Job 34:8; Ps. 37:10; Isa. 26:10) Po·ne·rosʹ (related to po·ne·riʹa) often signifies that which is evil or wicked in a moral sense (Luke 6:45) and can apply to something that is bad or worthless in a physical sense, as when Jesus Christ spoke of “worthless fruit.” (Matt. 7:17, 18) This word can also describe something that is hurtful and, at Revelation 16:2, has been rendered “painful” (AT, TEV) and “malignant.”—NE, NW.

WHY WICKEDNESS PERMITTED

Satan the Devil, who caused the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to rebel against God, stands in opposition to God’s righteous standard and is appropriately termed “the wicked one.” (Matt. 6:13; 13:19, 38; 1 John 2:13, 14; 5:19) The rebellion initiated by Satan called into question the rightfulness and righteousness of God’s sovereignty, that is, whether God’s rulership over his creatures is exercised righteously and in their best interests. The fact that Adam and Eve rebelled also raised another issue: Would all other intelligent creatures prove unfaithful and disloyal to God when obedience appeared to bring no material benefits? Satan’s claim respecting faithful Job implied that they would do so. Satan said: “Skin