The EAR of grain at the green, ripening stage — barley nearly ready but not yet hard. Exodus 9:31 uses it as a farmer would: the hail destroyed the barley 'for the barley was in the AVIV,' while the later wheat survived, a detail that quietly dates the plague to roughly late January or early February in Egypt. ⚠️ The word then becomes a MONTH: 'today you are going out, in the month of the AVIV' (Exodus 13:4), the month of the ripening ear, in which Passover falls and Israel is commanded to keep it forever (Deuteronomy 16:1). After the exile the same month is called by its Babylonian name, NISAN. The barley that ripens in this chapter is the calendar the redemption is dated by. → first discussed at Exod 9:31