reed / rēd/ • n. 1. a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family that grows in water or on marshy ground. • Genera Phragmites and Arundo, family Gramineae: several species, in particular the common (or Norfolk) reed (P. australis), which is used for thatching. ∎  used in names of similar plants growing in wet habitats, e.g., bur reed. ∎  a tall, thin, straight stalk of such a plant, used esp. as material for thatching. ∎  [often as adj.] such plants growing in a mass or used as material, esp. for making thatch or household items: a reed curtain clumps of reed and grass. ∎ poetic/lit. a rustic musical pipe made from such plants or from straw. 2. a thing or person resembling or likened to such plants, in particular: ∎  a weak or impressionable person: the jurors were mere reeds in the wind. ∎ poetic/lit. an arrow. ∎  a weaver's comblike implement for separating the threads of the warp and correctly positioning the weft. ∎  (reeds) semicylindrical adjacent moldings grouped like reeds laid together. 3. a piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, that vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe, at the base of some organ pipes, and as part of a set in the accordion and harmonica. ∎  a wind instrument played with a reed. ∎  an organ stop with reed pipes. 4. an electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay.DERIVATIVES: reed·like / -ˌlīk/ adj.

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 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.