CHAFF — the dry, papery husk and broken straw left when grain is threshed, so light that the evening wind at the threshing-floor carries it off while the heavier grain falls back to be gathered. It is the Bible's picture of the weightless and rootless: 'not so the wicked — they are like chaff that the wind drives away' (Psalm 1:4), the exact opposite of the deep-rooted, watered tree of the righteous. John the Baptist takes the image up — the Coming One 'will clear his threshing floor… but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire' (Matthew 3:12). → first discussed at Psalms 1:4