harrow Summary and Overview

(Heb. harits), a tribulum or sharp threshing sledge; a frame armed on the under side with rollers or sharp spikes (2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3). Heb. verb "sadad", to harrow a field, break its clods (Job 39:10; Isa. 28:4; Hos. 10: 11). Its form is unknown. It may have resembled the instrument still in use in Egypt.

The word so rendered, #2Sa 12:31; 1Ch 20:3| is probably a threshing-machine. The verb rendered "to harrow," #Job 39:10; Isa 28:24; Ho 10:11| expresses apparently the breaking of the clods, and is so far analogous to our harrowing --but whether done by any such machine as we call a "harrow" is very doubtful.

HAR'ROW . The verb meaning "to break the clods" is employed in Job 39:10; Isa 28:24; and Hos 10:11, and is believed to indicate the use, occasionally at least, of an instrument analogous to our harrow. This may have been a plank or log of wood, upon which stones were heaped and the laborer sat, and which was drawn over the ground by oxen, to break in pieces the clods and level the surface; or the present custom may have been employed: "In modern Palestine oxen are sometimes turned in to trample the clods, and in some parts of Asia a brush of thorn is dragged over the surface, but all these processes, if used, occur (not after, but) before the seed is committed to the soil." -Smith: Bib. Diet. The word rendered "harrow" in 2 Sam 12:31; 1 Chr 20:3, means a Threshing-instrument, which see.

charits 2 Samuel 12:31. Possibly a "threshing instrument." In modern Israel no such instrument as our harrow exists, and it is unlikely it did in ancient times.