[AGRICULTURE]
Was anciently and is still performed in the East, sometimes with a flail,\par Rth 2:17 Isa 28:27 ; sometimes by treading out the grain with unmuzzled oxen, Deu 25:4, but more generally by means of oxen dragging an uncouth instrument over the sheaves of grain. See CORN.\par The instrument most used in Palestine at this time is simply two short planks fastened side by side and turned up in front, like our common stone-sledge, having sharp stones or irons projecting from the under side, Isa 28:27 41:15 1Sa 1:3 . The Egyptian mode is thus described by Niebuhr: "They use oxen, as the ancients did, to beat out their corn, by trampling upon the sheaves, and dragging after them a clumsy machine. This machine is not, as in Arabia, a stone cylinder, nor a plank with sharp stones, as in Syria, but a sort of sledge, consisting of three rollers fitted with irons, which turn upon axles. A farmer chooses out a level spot in his fields, and has his corn carried thither in sheaves, upon asses or dromedaries. Two oxen are then yoked in a sledge; a driver gets upon it, and drives them backward and forward upon the sheaves; and fresh oxen succeed in the yoke from time to time." By this operation, the straw is gradually chopped fine and the grain released. Meanwhile the whole is repeatedly turned over by wooden pitchforks with three or more prongs, and in due time thrown into a heap in the center of the floor. The machine thus described is called a moreg, and answers to the Hebrew morag mentioned in 2Sa 24:22 1Ch 21:23 .\par When the grain is well loosened from the straw by the treading of oxen, with or without one of the instruments above mentioned, the whole heap is next thrown with forks several yards against the wind, which blowing away the chaff, the grain falls into a heap by itself, 2Ki 13:7 ; and if necessary, the process is repeated. For this purpose the threshing-floors are in the open air, Jdg 6:37, and often on high ground, like that of Araunah on Mount Moriah, 1Ch 21:15, that the wind may aid more effectually in winnowing the grain, Jer 4:11-12, which is afterwards sometimes passed through a sieve for farther cleansing. The ground is prepared for use as a threshing-floor by being smoothed off, and beaten down hard. While the wheat was carefully garnered, the straw and chaff were gathered up for fuel; a most instructive illustration of the day of judgment, Mat 3:12 .\par
Threshing. See Agriculture.
Thresh, Threshing. Different modes of threshing are used in the East. A level spot was selected for the threshing-floor, generally in an exposed situation where advantage might be taken of the wind for winnowing or separating the corn from the chaff when the threshing process was completed. Robinson observed several of these floors near together of a circular form hardened by beating down the earth, and about 50 feet in diameter, the sheaves being thickly spread on them. Near Jericho "were no less than five such floors, all trodden by oxen, cows, and younger cattle, arranged in each case five abreast, and driven round in a circle, or rather in all directions, over the floor... By this process the straw is broken up and becomes chaff. It is occasionally turned up with a large wooden fork having two prongs, and when sufficiently trodden is thrown up with the same fork against the wind in order to separate the grain, which is then gathered up and winnowed. The whole process is exceedingly wasteful."
This is accomplished in the East by the grain being trodden on by oxen, and that it was so threshed in ancient times is shown by the law that the ox should not be muzzled that trod out the corn. Deu 25:4. There were also threshing ’instruments,’ with which the grain was beaten out. Threshing was also accomplished by oxen drawing over the grain a sort of sledge without runners, by which the straw also was crushed. 2Sa 24:22; Isa 41:15, etc.
Figurative: “Thou shalt thresh the mountains,” i.e. thou wilt overcome great difficulties (Isa 41:15). Babylon’s destruction was foretold poetically in the language of the threshing-floor (Isa 21:10; Jer 51:33; Dan 2:35); Zion’s foes would be gathered as sheaves on the threshing-floor (Mic 4:12, Mic 4:13; compare 2Ki 13:7; Amo 1:3; Hab 3:12); threshing unto the vintage, i.e. throughout the summer, indicated an extra abundant yield (Lev 26:5).
See FARMING.
Putting newly harvested wheat
or other grain on a hard floor and walking
on it or beating it with special tools
to separate the hulls (see chaff) from the
grain.