Threshing Methods
Methods of threshing. Three methods of threshing were in use in ancient times, and in some places in the East today.
(1)
A flail was used for threshing small quantities of grain. Ruth must have used such a wooden instrument. "And beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley" (Ruth 2:17). And without doubt Gideon was also using such an instrument when he was threshing a small amount of wheat secretly, for fear of the enemy. "Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites" (Judges 6:11).
(2)
A threshing instrument was often used. One type that has been used in Bible lands in modern days, is composed of two wooden planks joined together, about three feet wide and six feet long, and underneath has rows of cut square holes, and sharp stones or pieces of metal are driven into these. Isaiah well describes such a threshing instrument: "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth" (Isaiah 41:15). This threshing board is pulled by the oxen over the grain, and the thresher sits or stands upon the instrument, with his goad in his hand to hurry up the animals.36 Another type of threshing instrument takes the form of a small wagon with low cylindrical wheels that serve as saws.37 The prophet must have been thinking of this sort of instrument when he mentioned "the cart wheel" in connection with the threshing activity of the farmer (Isaiah 28:27, 28).
(3)
The
oxen alone were driven over the grain in order to thresh it. This method was the most common method used by the Jews in Old Testament times. The animals were turned over the layer of grain as it lay upon the threshing floor, and their hoofs did the work of threshing. Many of the Fellahin today will say that this is the best way of threshing. "This must have been the same in Bible days, for the Hebrew verb "to thresh" is doosh, which has as its root-meaning 'to trample down], 'to tread under foot'" (cf. Job 39:15; Daniel 7:23).
[Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
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