Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 21:10
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
10. The application to Israel, addressed as my threshing (i.e. threshed one) and my child of the threshing-floor forcible figurative epithets of Israel as a nation crushed and down-trodden by the brutal tyranny of Babylon (cf. ch. Isa 41:15; Mic 4:12 f.; Jer 51:33, &c.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O my threshing – The words to thresh, to tread down, etc., are often used in the Scriptures to denote punishments inflicted on the enemies of God. An expression likes this occurs in Jer 51:33, in describing the destruction of Babylon: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her. In regard to the mode of threshing among the Hebrews, and the pertinency of this image to the destruction of the enemies of God, see the note at Isa 28:27. Lowth, together with many others, refers this to Babylon, and regards it as an address of God to Babylon in the midst of her punishment: O thou, the object on which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shall lie under my afflicting hand like grain spread out upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat. But the expression can be applied with more propriety to the Jews; and may be regarded as the language of tenderness addressed by God through the prophet to his people when they should be oppressed and broken down in Babylon: O thou, my people, who hast been afflicted and crushed; who hast been under my chastening hand, and reduced to these calamities on account of your sins; hear what God has spoken respecting the destruction of Babylon, and your consequent certain deliverance. Thus it is the language of consolation; and is designed, like the prophecies in Isa. 13; 14, to comfort the Jews, when they should be in Babylon, with the certainty that they would be delivered. The language of tenderness in which the address is couched, as well as the connection, seems to demand this interpretation.
And the corn of my floor – Hebrew, The son of my threshing floor – a Hebraism for grain that was on the floor to be threshed. The word son is often used in this special manner among the Hebrews (see the note at Mat 1:1).
That which I have heard … – This shows the scope or design of the whole prophecy – to declare to the Jews the destruction that would come upon Babylon, and their own consequent deliverance. It was important that they should be assured of that deliverance, and hence, Isaiah repeats his predictions, and minutely states the manner in which their rescue would be accomplished.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 21:10
O My threshing, and the corn of My floor
Gods threshing
Babylon is the instrument employed by the Divine wrath to thresh with.
But love takes part also in the work of threshing, and restrains the action of wrath. A picture likely to give comfort to the grain lying for threshing on the floor, i.e., to the people of Israel which, mowed down as it were and removed from its native son, had been banished to Babylon, and there subjected to a tyrannical rule. (F. Delitzsch.)
Comfort for Gods afflicted people
I. THE CHURCH IS GODS FLOOR, in which the most valuable fruits and products of this earth are, as it were, gathered together and laid up.
II. TRUE BELIEVERS ARE THE CORN OF GODS FLOOR. Hypocrites are but as the chaff and straw, which take up a deal of room, but are of small value, with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be shortly and forever separated.
III. THE CORN OF GODS FLOOR MUST EXPECT TO BE THRESHED by afflictions and persecutions.
IV. EVEN THEN, GOD OWNS IT FOR HIS THRESHING–it is His still; nay, the threshing of it is by His appointment and under His restraint and direction The threshers could have no power against it but what is given them from above. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. O my threshing] “O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat!” The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God’s enemies. Of the different ways of threshing in use among the Hebrews, and the manner of performing them, see the note on Isa 28:27.
Our translators have taken the liberty of using the word threshing in a passive sense, to express the object or matter that is threshed; in which I have followed them, not being able to express it more properly, without departing too much from the form and letter of the original. “Son of my floor,” Heb. It is an idiom of the Hebrew language to call the effect, the object, the adjunct, any thing that belongs in almost any way to another, the son of it. “O my threshing.” The prophet abruptly breaks off the speech of God; and instead of continuing it in the form in which he had begun, and in the person of God, “This I declare unto you by my prophet,” he changes the form of address, and adds, in his own person, “This I declare unto you from God.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Threshing is here put for the corn threshed, as it is explained in the following words; the act being frequently put for the object, as captivity for the captives, fear for the thing feared, &c., as hath been noted before. And the corn threshed is here metaphorically put for people sorely afflicted and punished, which is oft expressed by threshing, as Isa 25:10; 41:15; Mic 4:13, &c. This is spoken either,
1. Of the Jews, to whom he now turneth his speech, whom God did grievously thresh and afflict by the Babylonians, and whom he here comforts with these tidings, as if he had said, Though thou wilt be threshed first, yet Babylon shall be threshed last, and most dreadfully, and their threshing shall be thy deliverance. This interpretation is thought necessary, because of the latter clause of the verse, wherewith this is to be joined. Or,
2. Of Babylon.
O my threshing; or, thou art my threshing, whom I have undertaken to thresh and punish. And so this is fitly mentioned here, to assure them that this prophecy of Babylons fall must necessarily be accomplished, because the Almighty was engaged in the work. And this interpretation seems not to be inconsistent with the rest of the verse, as we shall see.
The corn of my floor; the corn which I will cause to be threshed upon the floor, Heb. the son of my floor. For the title of son is oft given to lifeless things, as arrows are called the sons of the bow, or of the quiver, Job 5:7; 41:28, &c.
That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts have I declared; what I have foretold is not my own invention, but the word of God, and therefore shall infallibly come to pass.
Unto you; either,
1. Unto you my people, or hearers; for all the prophecies, even concerning other nations, were published to them, and for their use and comfort: or,
2. Unto (or concerning, as this Hebrew particle is sometimes used, as the learned know) you Babylonians, to whom this was in some sort declared, because it was published amongst the Jews, and by their means might easily come to the knowledge of other people, and consequently of the Babylonians. Nor is it unusual for the prophets, in their prophecies delivered to Gods people concerning Babylon, by an apostrophe to turn their speech to the Babylonians themselves; of which we have instances, Jer 50:24,31; 51:13,14,25,26.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. my threshingthat is, mypeople (the Jews) trodden down by Babylon.
corn of my floorHebrew,“my son of the floor,” that is, my people, treated as cornlaid on the floor for threshing; implying, too, that by affliction, aremnant (grain) would be separated from the ungodly (chaff) [MAURER].HORSLEY translates, “Othou object of my unremitting prophetic pains.” SeeIsa 28:27; Isa 28:28.Some, from Jer 51:33, makeBabylon the object of the threshing; but Isaiah is plainly addressinghis countrymen, as the next words show, not the Babylonians.
Isa 21:11;Isa 21:12. A PROPHECYTO THE IDUMEANS WHOTAUNTED THE AFFLICTEDJEWS IN THE BABYLONISHCAPTIVITY.
One out of Seir asks, What of thenight? Is there a hope of the dawn of deliverance? Isaiah replies,The morning is beginning to dawn (to us); but night is alsocoming (to you). Compare Ps137:7. The Hebrew captives would be delivered, and taunting Edompunished. If the Idumean wish to ask again, he may do so; if hewishes an answer of peace for his country, then let him “return(repent), come” [BARNES].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor,…. Which may be understood either of the Babylonians, now threshed or punished by the Lord, and whom he had made use of as instruments for the punishment of others; or rather of the people of the Jews, whom the prophet calls “his”, as being his countrymen, to whom he was affected, and with whom he sympathized; and besides, he speaks in the name of the Lord; or it is the Lord that speaks by him, calling the church of the Jews his floor, and the people his corn, which were dear and valuable to him, as choice grain, wheat, and other things; and therefore, though he threshed or afflicted them, it was for their good, to purge and cleanse them, and separate the chaff from them; and indeed it was on their account, and for their good, that all this was to be done to Babylon, before predicted; where they were, as corn under the threshing instrument, greatly oppressed and afflicted, but now should be delivered; for the confirmation of which it is added:
that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you; the preceding prophecy was not a dream of his, but a vision from the Lord of hosts; it was not devised by him, but told him by the Lord, and that for the good and comfort of the people of Israel, whose covenant God he was; and the prophet acted a faithful part, in delivering it just as he received it, which might be depended on.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The night vision related and recorded by the prophet, a prelude to the revelations contained in Chapters 40-60, was also intended for the consolation of Israel, which had already much to suffer, when Babylon was still Assyrian, but would have to suffer far more from it when it should become Chaldean. “O thou my threshing, and child of my threshing-floor! What I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.” Threshing ( dush ) is a figure used to represent crushing oppression in Isa 41:15 and Mic 4:12-13; and judicial visitation in Jer 51:33 (a parallel by which we must not allow ourselves to be misled, as Jeremiah has there given a different turn to Isaiah’s figure, as he very frequently does); and again, as in the present instance, chastising plagues, in which wrath and good intention are mingled together. Israel, placed as it was under the tyrannical supremacy of the imperial power, is called the m edusshah (for medushah , i.e., the threshing) of Jehovah – in other words, the corn threshed by Him; also His “child of the threshing-floor,” inasmuch as it was laid in the floor, in the bosom as it were of the threshing-place, to come out threshed (and then to become a thresher itself, Mic 4:12-13). This floor, in which Jehovah makes a judicial separation of grains and husks in Israel, was their captivity. Babylon is the instrument of the threshing wrath of God. But love also takes part in the threshing, and restrains the wrath. This is what the prophet has learned in the vision (“I have heard,” as in Isa 28:22) – a consolatory figure for the threshing-corn in the floor, i.e., for Israel, which was now subject to the power of the world, and had been mowed off its own field and carried captive into Babylonia.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
10. My thrashing, and the son of my floor. (69) The wealth of that powerful monarchy having dazzled the eyes of all men by its splendor, what Isaiah foretold about its destruction might be reckoned fabulous. He therefore leads their minds to God, in order to inform them that it was God who had undertaken to destroy Babylon, and that it is not by the will of men, but by divine power, that such loftiness will fall to the ground. The “thrashing” and “the son of the floor” mean the same thing; for this mode of expression is frequently employed by Hebrew writers, who often repeat the same statement in different language.
This passage ought to be carefully observed, that we may correct a vice which is natural to us, that of measuring the power of God by our own standard. Not only does our feebleness place us far below the wisdom of God; but we are wicked and depraved judges of his works, and cannot be induced to take any other view of them than of what comes within the reach of the ability and wisdom of men. But we ought always to remember his almighty power, and especially when our own reason and judgment fail us. Thus, when the Church is oppressed by tyrants to such a degree that there appears to be no hope of deliverance, let us know that the Lord will lay them low, and, by trampling on their pride and abasing their strength, will shew that they are his “thrashing-floor;” for the subject of this prediction was not a person of mean rank, but the most powerful and flourishing of all monarchies. The more they have exalted themselves, the more quickly will they be destroyed, and the Lord will execute his “thrashing” upon them. Let us learn that what the Lord has here given as a manifestation of inconceivable ruin, applies to persons of the same stamp.
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts. When he says that he has “heard it from the Lord of hosts,” he sets a seal, as it were, on his prophecy; for he declares that he has not brought forward his own conjectures, but has received it from the Lord himself. Here it is worthy of our notice, that the servants of God ought to be fortified by this boldness to speak in the name of God, as Peter also exhorts, “He that speaketh, let him speak as the oracles of God.” (1Pe 4:11.) Impostors also boast of the name of God, but his faithful servants have the testimony of their conscience that they bring forward nothing but what God has enjoined. Observe, also, that this confirmation was highly necessary, for the whole world trembled at the resources of this powerful monarchy.
From the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. It is not without reason that he gives to God these two appellations. As to the former, it is indeed a title which always applies to God; but here, undoubtedly, the Prophet had his eye on the matter in hand, in order to contrast the power of God with all the troops of the Babylonians; for God has not a single army, but innumerable armies, to subdue his enemies. Again, he calls him “the God of Israel,” because by destroying Babylon he shewed himself to be the defender and guardian of his people; for the overthrow of that monarchy procured freedom for the Jews. In short, all these things were done for the sake of the Church, which the Prophet has here in view; for it is not the Babylonians, who undoubtedly laughed at these predictions, but believers, whom he exhorts to rest assured that, though they were oppressed by the Babylonians, and scattered and tossed about, still God would take care of them.
(69) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) O my threshing, and the corn of my floor.Literally, and child of my threshing-floor. . . The words are abrupt, and we have to read the thoughts that lie below them. The child of the threshing-floor is none other than Israel, thought of as the corn which is under Gods chastisements, Assyrian and Chaldan invasions, Babylonian exile, and the like, severing the wheat from the chaff (Mic. 4:12-13; Jer. 51:33; Mat. 3:3). The prophet looks on those chastisements with yearning pity, but he cannot go beyond the word of the Lord (Num. 24:13), and this is all that he has to tell his people. The oppressor shall in the end be overthrown, but that which lies between the present and that far-off future is, as yet, concealed from him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. My threshing My crushingly oppressed ones; a sympathetic utterance from the prophet for his chastised brethren. Now appears the bearing this prophecy has on the Lord’s people.
Corn of my floor Rather, son or child of my threshing-floor, the sanctified results of a long disciplinary affliction. The captivity in Babylon was the judicial separation of grains and husks in Israel. Babylon was the threshing floor of God; love now restrains the wrath.
That which I have heard The revelation from God in relation to Israel’s sore providential handling.
Declared unto you Is now made all clear.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 21:10. O my threshing, &c. These words, which form the conclusion of the prophesy, contain an address of the prophet to the church, signifying that he had faithfully related to them what God had revealed to him. The church is elegantly called the threshing-floor, where the true wheat is separated from the chaff. See chap. Isa 28:27. Mat 3:12 and Gal 4:19.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 21:10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
Ver. 10. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor. ] That is, O my church and people, whom by so many tribulations I have hitherto been threshing, that I might sunder thee from the chaff, and make thee the “corn of the floor,” or, as the Hebrew here hath it, “my son of the floor,” and may lay thee up as pure grain in my garner. a See Isa 28:27 .
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
a Non ut perdam, sed ut probem et purgem. Frumentum Dei sum, &c. – Ignat.
threshing. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause) for the results of it. Here = my oppressed People. Compare Isa 41:15. Mic 4:13. Jer 51:33.
corn of my floor. Literally son of my threshingfloor.
the LORD of hosts. See note on Isa 1:9.
the God of Israel. See note on Isa 29:23.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
my threshing: Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16, 2Ki 13:7, Jer 51:33, Mic 4:13, Hab 3:12, Mat 3:12
corn: Heb. son
that which: 1Ki 22:14, Eze 3:17-19, Act 20:26, Act 20:27
Reciprocal: Isa 28:28 – Bread Isa 48:6 – and will Eze 40:4 – declare Mic 4:12 – for he shall
Isa 21:10. O my thrashing, &c. In these words, which form the conclusion of the prophecy, the application, the end, and design of it, are admirably given in a short expressive address to the Jews, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet. The first words of the verse, O my thrashing, and the corn of my floor, are supposed to be spoken by God, in which thrashing is put for the corn thrashed, and the corn thrashed for people sorely afflicted and punished: as if he had said, O my people, whom for your punishment I have made subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff (or straw) from the corn, the bad from the good among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery and oppression, will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors. The reader will observe, the image of thrashing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of Gods enemies. That which I have heard, &c. Here the prophet abruptly breaks off the speech of God, and instead of continuing it in the form in which he had begun, and in the person of God, he changes the form of address, and adds, in his own person, That which I have heard, &c., have I declared unto you. In which words he signifies, that he had faithfully related to them what God had revealed to him, and that the predictions which he had uttered were not his own inventions, but the very word of God, which, therefore, would be infallibly accomplished in their season. See Bishop Lowth.
21:10 O {n} my threshing, and the grain of my floor: that which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared to you.
(n) Meaning, Babylon.
Isaiah concluded this oracle by telling the Judeans, a people whom he compared to a threshed crop because of their oppressions, that what he had announced about Babylon’s destruction was from Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.
This oracle would have admonished the Judeans to put their trust in God rather than in the Babylonians, as tempting as their power would have been. Babylon would come to an end.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)