What Is A Threshing Floor In The Bible

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.

What is a threshing floor in the bible.

The threshing theme is woven throughout the bible and in jewish thought. Animal and steam powered threshing machines from the nineteenth century onward made threshing floors. A threshing floor is of two main types. 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 floors are in danger of being robbed 1 samuel 23 1. 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. 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. Dush means literally to trample out in jeremiah 51 33 darakh is used of threshing fitches and cummin were beaten off with a rod.

A threshing floor is a smooth flat surface that was used in the process of harvesting grain. Before there was machinery farmers used a threshing floor to separate the grain from the chaff. In biblical days there was no machinery so after the harvest the grain was separated from the straw and husks by beating it manually. Threshing is essentially dividing separating the wheat from the chaff.

The lightweight chaff would blow away on the wind or sometimes was burned as fuel. There are dozens of references to a threshing floor in the bible some literal and some symbolic. In syria at the threshing season it is customary for the family to move out to the vicinity of the threshing floor. 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.

For this reason someone always sleeps on the floor until the grain is removed ruth 3 7. What is a threshing floor answer.