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Abib, also spelled Aviv, has three meanings:
- The stage in the growth of grain when the seeds have reached full size and are filling with starch, but have not dried yet. During the plague of hail (Exodus 9:31), the barley was abib and the flax was giv`ol.
- The month in the Hebrew calendar when the barley has reached or passed this stage (Ex. 13:4; 23:15); the first of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, and the seventh of the civil year. It began about the time of the vernal equinox, on 21st March. It was called Nisan, after the Captivity (Neh. 2:1). On the fifteenth day of the month, harvest was begun by gathering a sheaf of barley, which was offered unto the Lord on the sixteenth (Lev. 23:4-11).
- The season when barley ripens; spring. Thus Tel Aviv means Springhill.
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