Rie - Rather, "spelt," the common food of the ancient Egyptians, now called "doora" by the natives, and the only grain represented on the sculptures: the name, however, occurs on the monuments very frequently in combination with other species.

But the wheat and the rye were not smitten - Wheat, חטה chittah, which Mr. Parkhurst thinks should be derived from the Chaldee and Samaritan חטי chati, which signifies tender, delicious, delicate, because of the superiority of its flavor, etc., to every other kind of grain. But this term in Scripture appears to mean any kind of bread-corn. Rye, כסמת cussemeth, from כסם casam, to have long hair; and hence, though the particular species is not known, the word must mean some bearded grain. The Septuagint call it ολυρα, the Vulgate for, and Aquila ζεα, which signify the grain called spelt; and some suppose that rice is meant.
Mr. Harmer, referring to the double harvest in Egypt mentioned by Dr. Pocock, says that the circumstance of the wheat and the rye being אפילת aphiloth, dark or hidden, as the margin renders it, (i.e., they were sown, but not grown up), shows that it was the Indian wheat or surgo rosso mentioned Exodus 9:31, which, with the rye, escaped, while the barley and flax were smitten because they were at or nearly at a state of maturity. See Harmer's Obs., vol. iv., p. 11, edit 1808. But what is intended by the words in the Hebrew text we cannot positively say, as there is a great variety of opinions on this subject, both among the versions and the commentators. The Anglo-Saxon translator, probably from not knowing the meaning of the words, omits the whole verse.

But the wheat and the rye were not smitten,.... Bruised, broken, beat down, and destroyed by hail: the word by us rendered "rye", and by other "fitches" or "spelt", is thought by Dr. Shaw (q) to be "rice", of which there were and still are plantations in Egypt; whereas rye is little, if at all known in those countries, and besides is of the quickest growth; and he observes that rice was the "olyra" of the ancient Egyptians, by which word the Septuagint render the Hebrew word here; and from Pliny (r) we learn, that "olyra", and "oryza", or rice, are the same, and which with the Greeks is "zea", by which some translate the word here:
for they were not grown up; and so their leaves, as the same traveller observes, were at that time of so soft and yielding a nature, that the hail by meeting with no resistance, as from the flax and barley, did them no harm; and so the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it: "they were late"; and so the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret it: for the wheat harvest with the Jews, and so with the Egyptians, was later than the barley harvest, there being about a month's difference between them: some render the word "dark or hidden" (s) because, as Aben Ezra says, they were now under ground; and if this was the case, indeed the reason is clear why they were not smitten; but this was not the case, for, according to Pliny (t), there was but one month's difference in Egypt between the barley and the wheat; but rather they are said to be so, because the ear was as yet hid, and was not come forth; it just began to spindle, or, as the above traveller explains it, they were of a dark green colour, as young corn generally is, as contradistinction to its being of a bright yellow or golden colour, when it is ripe; for, adds he, the context supposes the wheat and the rice not only to have been sown, but to have been likewise in some forwardness, as they well might be in the month of Abib, answering to our March.
(q) Travels, tom. 2. c. 2. sect. 5. p. 407. Ed. 2. (r) Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 7. 9. (s) "caliginosa", Montanus, Vatablus; "latuerant", Tigurine version; "latentia", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius. (t) Ut supra. (Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 7. 9.)