What Is A Threshing Floor In The Bible

The distinction between beating and threshing is made in isaiah 28 27 gideon in order to avoid being seen by the midianites beat out his wheat in a wine press instead of threshing it on the threshing floor judges 6 11.

What is a threshing floor in the bible.

For this reason someone always sleeps on the floor until the grain is removed ruth 3 7. 1 a specially flattened outdoor surface usually circular and paved or 2 inside a building with a smooth floor of earth stone or wood where a farmer would thresh the grain harvest and then winnow it. In syria at the threshing season it is customary for the family to move out to the vicinity of the threshing floor. In bible times grain was threshed or trampled crushed and beaten on outdoor threshing floors to separate out the inedible parts of the grain called chaff.

Threshing floor 36 occurrences matthew 3 12 his winnowing shovel is in his hand and he will make a thorough clearance of his threshing floor gathering his wheat into the storehouse but burning up the chaff in unquenchable fire wey asv dby luke 3 17. Threshing floors crop up excuse the pun a number of times throughout scripture and there s something in this agricultural process that god is wanting us to think about. The threshing floor in the scriptures is a symbol of the judgement. The threshing theme is woven throughout the bible and in jewish thought.

In biblical days there was no machinery so after the harvest the grain was separated from the straw and husks by beating it manually. The harvested produce would be spread over the threshing floor and then animals cattle or oxen would be led over it to crush and break the sheaves apart. The lightweight chaff would blow away on the wind or sometimes was burned as fuel. Dush means literally to trample out in jeremiah 51 33 darakh is used of threshing fitches and cummin were beaten off with a rod.

There are dozens of references to a threshing floor in the bible some literal and some symbolic. What is a threshing floor answer. A threshing floor is of two main types. The prophet hosea said therefore they will be like the morning mist like the early dew that disappears like chaff swirling from a threshing floor like smoke escaping through a window hosea 13 3.

Before there was machinery farmers used a threshing floor to separate the grain from the chaff. Threshing floors are in danger of being robbed 1 samuel 23 1.