Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 28:28
Bread [corn] is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break [it with] the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it [with] his horsemen.
28. Transl. Is bread ( corn) crushed? Nay, he does not keep threshing it perpetually, &c. If the text be right, the sentence continues “and rolling his wagon-wheels and horses over it, &c.” But the mention of “horses” as employed in agriculture is suspicious, and a better sense is gained if, with Duhm, we slightly change the text of that word and translate thus: But when he has rolled his wagon-wheel ( over it), he scatters it (i.e. “tosses it up to the wind,” the same word in Eze 17:21) without having crushed it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Bread corn – Hebrew, lechem – Bread. But the word evidently denotes the material from which bread is made. The word is used in the same sense in Isa 30:23.
Is bruised – That is, is more severely bruised than the dill and the cummin; it is pressed and crushed by passing over it the sledge, or the wain with serrated wheels. The word daqaq means often to break in pieces; to make small or fine. It is, however, applied to threshing, as consisting in beating, or crushing (Isa 41:15 : Thou threshest the mountains, and beatest them small – vetadoq.
Because he will not ever be threshing it – The word rendered because ( ky) evidently here means although or but; and the sense is, that he will not always continue to thresh it; this is not his only business. It is only a part of his method by which he obtains grain for his bread. It would be needless and injurious to be always engaged in rolling the stone or the sledge over the grain. So God takes various methods with his people. He does not always pursue the same course. He sometimes smites and punishes them, as the farmer beats his grain. But he does not always do it. He is not engaged in this method alone; nor does he pursue this constantly. It would crush and destroy them. He, therefore, smites them just enough to secure, in the best manner, and to the fullest extent, their obedience; just as the farmer bruises his sheaves enough to separate all the grain from the chaff. When this is done, he pursues other methods. Hence the various severe and heavy trials with which the people of God are afflicted.
Nor bruise it with his horsemen – Lowth renders this, With the hoofs of his cattle; proposing to read instead of parashayv by a change of a single Hebrew letter (s), instead of the Hebrew letter (sh). So the Syriac and the Vulgate; and so Symmachus and Theodotion. But the word parash may denote not only a horsesman, but the horse itself on which one rides (see Bochart, Hieroz. i. 2, 6. p. 98. Compare the note at Hab 1:8; 2Sa 1:6; Isa 21:7, Isa 21:9). That horses were used in treading out grain there can be no doubt. They are extensively used in this country; and though in Palestine it is probable that oxen were chiefly employed Deu 25:4 in the early times, yet there is no improbability in supposing that in the times subsequent to Solomon, when horses abounded, they were preferred. Their more rapid motion, and perhaps the hardness of their hoofs, makes them more valuable for this service (see Michaelis Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii. App. pp. 430-514, Lond. Ed. 1814). There are here, therefore, four modes of threshing mentioned, all of which are common still in the East.
1. The sledge with rollers, on which were pieces of iron, or stone, and which was dragged over the grain.
2. The cart or wain, with serrated wheels, and which was also drawn over the grain.
3. The flail, or the stick.
4. The use of cattle and horses.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 28. The bread-corn] I read velahem, on the authority of the Vulgate and Symmachus; the former expresses the conjunction vau, omitted in the text, by autem; the latter by .
Bruise it with his horsemen – “Bruise it with the hoofs of his cattle.”] For parashaiv, horsemen or teeth, read perasaiv, hoofs. So the Syriac, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. The first is read with shin, the latter with samech, the pronunciation is nearly the same.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Bread corn is bruised with a threshing instrument, by comparing this with the foregoing verse and the following words.
Because; or rather, but, or nevertheless, as the word is frequently used. The sense is, The husbandman doth indeed thresh the bread corn, but he doth it with moderation, and only for a time, not for ever.
Nor break it; understand, for ever, out of the foregoing clause, as is usual in Scripture.
With his horsemen; which governed the horse or horses that drew the threshing instrument. Or, with horses; for it is evident, and hath been observed before, that this Hebrew word signifies horses as well as horsemen. And this was another way of threshing out the corn, by driving horses, or other cattle, over the sheaves to tread it out; of which see Deu 25:4; Mic 4:13.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. Bread corncorn of whichbread is made.
bruisedthreshedwith the corn-drag (as contrasted with dill and cummin, “beatenwith the staff”), or, “trodden out” by the hoofs ofcattle driven over it on the threshing-floor [G. V. SMITH],(Deu 25:4; Mic 4:13).
becauserather, “but”[HORSLEY]; though the cornis threshed with the heavy instrument, yet he will not alwaysbe thus threshing it.
break it“driveover it (continually) the wheel” [MAURER].
cartthreshing-drag.
horsemenrather,”horses”; used to tread out corn.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Bread [corn] is bruised,…. The corn which bread is made of is bruised and ground in a mill:
because he will not always be threshing it; for there is another way of bringing it to flour, that so it may be made bread, namely, by grinding it in a mill; and therefore the husbandman uses his discretion in threshing it; he will not thresh it too much, nor too long, no more than what is necessary to get out the grain, but will take care that he does not bruise and break it; as follows:
nor break [it with] the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it [with] his horsemen; though he makes use of the above threshing instrument, drawn upon wheels by horses, or oxen, for the threshing out of wheat, barley, or rye, corn of which bread is made; yet he takes care that it is not crushed and spoiled by the wheels of the cart, or the feet of the horses, or oxen, going too often over it; by all which may be signified the tender regard of God in afflicting his own people; he will not always be chiding, striving, and contending with them, or be always angry, and ever afflicting, and, when he does afflict, it is in a tender and careful manner, Ps 103:9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(28) Bread corn is bruised.Better, as a question, Is bread corn crushed to pieces? As the poor and meek of the earth were as the fennel and the cummin, so Israel, in its national greatness, was as the bread corn of the wheat and barley. For this a severer chastisement, a more thorough threshing, was needed; but the end of threshing is the preservation, not the destruction, of the true grain. It is for a time, not for ever. It separates the worthless from the precious. The wheels stop when they have done their work.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 28:28 Bread [corn] is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break [it with] the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it [with] his horsemen.
Ver. 28. Bread corn is bruised. ] Yet not mauled or marred. That of Ignatius is well known, Commolor dentibus ferarum ut purius Domino panis fiam.
Because he will not ever be threshing it.
Nor bruise it with his horsemen.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Bread = Corn. Bread is put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), for the corn of which it is made. Compare Job 28:5.
bruised = crushed: i.e. reduced to powder. Compare Exo 32:20. 2Ki 23:6. Render, as a question: Is corn crushed? because = nay. The Hebrew accent tebir is disjunctive and requires this rendering. Compare Revised Version margin, and Job 22:2.
ever = for ever.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Bread: Isa 21:10, Amo 9:9, Mat 3:12, Mat 13:37-43, Luk 22:31, Luk 22:32, Joh 12:24, 1Co 3:9, 1Co 9:9, 1Co 9:10
the wheel: Isa 28:27
Reciprocal: 1Ch 21:23 – the oxen Pro 20:26 – bringeth