Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 41:15
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat [them] small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
15. The threshing instrument ( mrg) is a heavy sledge studded on its under surface with sharp stones or knives, drawn by oxen over the floor. See the Note in Driver’s Joel and Amos, pp. 227 f. It is not a different implement from the r of ch. Isa 28:27. Indeed this word r is the one here translated “sharp”; and it may be doubted whether it has not intruded into the text as a variant to mrg (Duhm). The instrument to which Israel is likened is “new” and “many-toothed” (lit. “possessor of mouths” i.e. edges), therefore in the highest state of efficiency.
the mountains the hills ] A figure for formidable enemies; perhaps also for obstacles in general. Comp. ch. Isa 21:10; Mic 4:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, I will make thee … – The object of the illustration in this verse and the following is, to show that God would clothe them with power, and that all difficulties in their way would vanish. To express this idea, the prophet uses an image derived front the mode of threshing in the East, where the heavy wain or sledge was made to pass over a large pile of sheaves, and to bruise out the grain, and separate the chaff, so that the wind would drive it away. The phrase, I will make thee, means, I will constitute, or appoint thee, that is, thou shalt be such a threshing instrument. It is not that God would make such a sledge or wain for them, but that they should be such themselves; they should beat down and remove the obstacles in the way as the threshing wain crushed the pile of grain.
A new sharp threshing instrument – A threshing wain, or a corn-drag. For a description of this, compare the notes at Isa 28:27-28.
Having teeth – Or, with double edges. The Hebrew word is applied to a sword, and means a two-edged sword Psa 149:6. The instrument here referred to was serrated, or so made as to cut up the straw and separate the grain from the chaff. The following descriptions from Lowth and Niebuhr, may serve still further to illustrate the nature of the instrument here referred to. The drag consisted of a sort of frame of strong planks made rough at the bottom with hard stones or iron; it was drawn by horses or oxen over the corn-sheaves spread on the floor, the driver sitting upon it. The wain was much like the drag, but had wheels of iron teeth, or edges like a saw. The axle was armed with iron teeth or serrated wheels throughout: it moved upon three rollers armed with iron teeth or wheels, to cut the straw. In Syria, they make use of the drag, constructed in the very same manner as above described.
This not only forced out the grain, but cut the straw in pieces, for fodder for the cattle, for in the eastern countries they have no hay. The last method is well known from the law of Moses, which forbids the ox to be muzzled, when he treadeth out the grain Deu 25:4. (Lowth) In threshing their corn, the Arabians lay the sheaves down in a certain order, and then lead over them two oxen, dragging a large stone. This mode of separating the ears from the straw is not unlike that of Egypt. They use oxen, as the ancients did, to beat out their grain, by trampling upon the sheaves, and dragging after them a clumsy machine. This machine is not, as in Arabia, a stone cylinder, nor a plank with sharp stones, as in Syria, but a sort of sledge, consisting of three rollers, suited with irons, which turn upon axles. A farmer chooses out a level spot in his fields, and has his grain carried thither in sheaves, upon donkeys or dromedaries.
Two oxen are then yoked in a sledge, a driver gets upon it, and drives them backward and forward upon the sheaves, and fresh oxen succeed in the yoke from time to time. By this operation, the chaff is very much cut down; the whole is then winnowed, and the pure grain thus separated. This mode of threshing out the grain is tedious and inconvenient; it destroys the chaff, and injures the quality of grain. (Niebuhr) In another place Niebuhr tells us that two parcels or layers of corn are threshed out in a day; and they move each of them as many as eight times, with a wooden fork of five prongs, which they call meddre. Afterward, they throw the straw into the middle of the ring, where it forms a heap, which grows bigger and bigger; when the first layer is threshed, they replace the straw in the ring, and thresh it as before. Thus, the straw becomes every time smaller, until at last it resembles chopped straw. After this, with the fork just described, they cast the whole some yards from thence, and against the wind, which, driving back the straw, the grain and the ears not threshed out fall apart from it and make another heap. A man collects the clods of dirt, and other impurities, to which any grain adheres, and throws them into a sieve. They afterward place in a ring the heaps, in which a good many entire ears are still found, and drive over them, for four or five hours together, a dozen couples of oxen, joined two and two, till, by absolute trampling, they have separated the grains, which they throw into the air with a shovel to cleanse them.
Thou shalt thresh the mountains – The words mountains and hills in this verse seem designed to denote the kingdoms greater and smaller that should be opposed to the Jews, and that should become subject to them (Rosenmuller). Grotius supposes that the prophet refers particularly to the Medes and Babylonians. But perhaps the words are used to denote simply difficulties or obstacles in their way, and the expression may mean that they would be able to overcome all those obstacles, and to subdue all that opposed them, as if in a march they should crush all the mountains, and dissipate all the hills by an exertion of power.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 41:15
A new sharp threshing instrument
Evil and good
I.
THE FORMS OF GOOD AND EVIL. Evil is a mountain–a big thing occupying immense space, bounding the horizon and darkening the sun. Good often appears as small as a worm.
II. THE CONFLICT OF GOOD AND EVIL. The worm shall thresh the mountain. Worms in nature are mighty things; they build up islands fair as Eden. Good has made an attack upon evil, and it will thresh its mountains and beat them small. (Homilist.)
Worm Jacob threshing the mountains
I. WHAT THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE OF GOD ARE. They are named by Him who misnames none, worm Jacob. Their name from their nature is a worm; they are weak, despised creatures, ready to be crushed by the foot of every passerby: yet worm Jacob, believing, praying, wrestling worm as he was.
II. WHAT THEY SHALL CERTAINLY AND INFALLIBLY DO. Thresh the mountains, etc. Interpreters generally understand by the mountains the great and lofty potentares of the earth, setting themselves against the Church. And, no doubt, these were in the prophets view; but the view was not confined to them. Gods bringing down the Babylonian monarchy at their prayers, and the victories afterward of the Maccabees over their enemies, cannot reasonably be supposed to complete the intent of this prophecy. We must needs look to the kingdom of Christ for it, of which there is plainly an account (Isa 41:17-19). Compare Dan 2:34-35. And we must carry on our view all along to the end of time (Rev 2:26-27); the rather that it is the manner of the prophet to wrap up in one expression, temporal, spiritual, and eternal deliverance; the deliverance from Babylon, which was temporal, being the first and nearest in view, but not terminating it. Here then we may consider–
1. What worm Jacob has to encounter. Mountains, and hills, whose weight is sufficient to crush millions of him; difficulties quite disproportionable to his strength, as a mountain to that of a worm.
2. The success of this so very unequal match. The mountains shall not crush the worm; but the worm shall thresh the mountains, as one does a sheaf of corn with repeated strokes.
3. The degree and pitch of the worms success against those mountains. It shall beat them small, till they be like dust or chaff: so that they shall be blown away with the wind, and no vestige of them remain.
4. The insurance of this success of the worm. Who could insure it, but the mighty God? Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the most high God, and worm Jacobs Kinsman-Redeemer, hath, by His word of promise, engaged His almighty power on the side of the worm against the mountains. Let not then the worm fear or doubt the success. (T. Boston.)
A mystery of grace
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE SUBJECT wherein this mystery of grace is carried on by Jesus Christ. It is in worm Jacob, denoting the Church in general, and every believer or true member thereof in particular. One would think, that one designed to be a thresher of the mountains should be a party of a signally great and swelling character, a hero, a giant, or if there were anything could carry the character higher: but, on the contrary, it is very low, surprisingly low, worm Jacob.
II. THE MYSTERY OF GRACE CARRIED ON IN THEM BY JESUS CHRIST.
1. An apparently hopeless encounter they are led to by Him. Worm Jacob threshing the mountains.
(1) The Lord lays in His peoples way mountains of difficulties quite above their strength; difficulties which they look to, as a worm to a mountain before it (2Co 1:8).
(2) They must not go about the mountains in their way, shifting the difficulties which the Lord calls them to; but they must make their way over them, threshing them down.
(3) Therefore worm Jacob falls a-threshing the mountains, combating the difficulties which the Lord lays in his way. There is a spirit in worm Jacob more daring and venturous than ever was in any unbelieving hero.
(4) They continue the combating of difficulties resolutely and patiently. Threshing is a continued action, consisting of repeated strokes.
(5) Worm Jacob has many mountains to thresh.
2. A surprising success; even as surprising as a worms threshing and beating the mountains small to dust, and threshing them away.
(1) Partial successes in their way, very surprising; surprising to others and to themselves.
(2) A total success at the end of their way, which will swallow them up in surprise and eternal wonder.
III. I SHALL ACCOUNT FOR THIS MYSTERY.
1. God has said it, and therefore it cannot fail.
2. The glory of His grace, which is the great design of the whole mystery of God, necessarily requires it.
3. By an unalterable decree, there must be a conformity betwixt the little worm and the great worm Jacob, the little ones Kinsman-Redeemer. The great worm, the man Christ, a worm and no man, has encountered mountains, and threshed them away. Where are the four monarchies, the most towering mountains that ever set up their heads on the earth? The chief worm Jacob has threshed them away to chaff, which is away with the Dan 2:35). The mountains stood before Him through the world, with all the fastness that human learning and the power of the sword could give; but by His few fishermen He threshed them away.
4. The little worm Jacob is-in reality but a member of the great one, Jesus Christ.
5. All the mountains that stand before worm Jacob are burnt mountains; so they are far easier to thresh than one would think. (T. Boston.)
Gods sharp threshing instrument
Three things this threshing instrument is shod with.
1. A word of command, calling to the work.
2. A word of promise, securing the success.
3. The use of means of Heaven s appointment for reaching the end. (T. Boston.)
A sharp threshing instrument having teeth
A people who shall leave their mark on the world. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
A threshing roller
Behold, I have made thee a threshing-roller, a sharp one, new, with double edge. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Earth-worms useful
People hate the obscure animal, popularly said to play undertaker to all flesh, although as a matter of fact worms seldom burrow deeper than a few inches, except to go to sleep. Suddenly, however, the gentle sunbeam of genius has shone into the dark region where these despised beings dwell and work. Dr. Darwin has studied these among other neglected denizens of our common planet, and gives us the fruits of his investigations in a little volume bearing the title of Vegetable Mould and Earth-worms. At the touch of his transcendently patient intellect a new glory breaks over the degraded, writhing, offensive worm. Instead of being useless or even harmful, it turns out that we could never do without these humble creatures. They, and they alone, in their countless millions, and by their ceaseless hidden toil, have made the globe what it is, fit for agriculture and the residence of man. The bulk of the humus or vegetable mould of his fields everywhere is mainly of their manufacture, and goes perpetually through and through their organs to be fitted and perfected for fertility. The most assiduous and wealthy farmer does not lavish half as much nourishment upon his crops as the earth-worms, which in many parts of the British Isles make and bring to the surface of each acre of land ten tons or more of rich fine mould yearly. All things considered, Dr. Darwin inclines to rank the earth-worm higher in the scale of constructive agencies than the coral insect itself, though the last named rears islands, and ocean-kingdoms. It is the worm which, by perpetually consuming decayed leaves and small particles of soil, disintegrates and renews all the face of our earth. Their castings, hardly noticed, alter invisibly the contour of a whole country. Brought up from below, they make stones and rocks gradually sink, covering these by the collapse of their tiny burrows, so that the surface grows smooth for our use by their viewless help. Antiquarians owe to the earth-worm the preservation of almost every ancient pavement and foundation by the soft coat of mould with which they overlay these relics. They remove decaying leaves, facilitate the germination of seeds and the growth of plants, and create for us most of our wide, level, turf-covered expanses. Thus at one stroke our great natural philosopher has raised them to an honourable rank in the vast family of creation. (Public Opinion.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth – “A threshing wain; a new corn-drag armed with pointed teeth”] See Clarke on Isa 28:27; “Isa 28:28“.
Thou shalt thresh the mountains] Mountains and hills are here used metaphorically for the kings and princes of the Gentiles. – Kimchi.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
New; and therefore sharper and stronger than another which hath been much used.
Sharp threshing instrument having teeth; such as were usual in those times and places, of which See Poole “Isa 28:25“, See Poole “Isa 28:28“.
The mountains; the great and lofty potentates of the world, which set themselves against thee; such persons being frequently expressed in Scripture under the notion of
hills and mountains.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. God will make Israel todestroy their enemies as the Eastern corn-drag (Isa 28:27;Isa 28:28) bruises out the grainwith its teeth, and gives the chaff to the winds to scatter.
teethserrated, so asto cut up the straw for fodder and separate the grain from the chaff.
mountains . . .hillskingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile toIsrael (Isa 2:14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth,…. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, “as a new threshing cart, having teeth like saws”; and the Septuagint and Arabic versions, “as the new threshing wheels of a cart, in the manner of saws”; for corn with the Jews was threshed out by drawing a cart with wheels over it, which wheels were stuck with teeth or spikes of iron; see Isa 28:27, or by a cart or sledge filled with stones to press it down, and at the bottom with iron teeth, which being drawn to and fro by oxen over the sheaves, separated the grain from the husk. Beckius has given a figure of this instrument t, and some such like instrument is still made use of in the eastern countries, as Monsieur Thevenot u relates;
“at Damascus (he says), and almost all Turkey over, they thresh not the corn, but after it is cut down they put it up in heaps, and round the heaps they spread some of it four or five feet broad, and two feet thick; this being done, they have a kind of sled, made of four pieces of timber in square, two of which serve for an axle tree to two great rollers, whose ends enter into these two pieces of timber, so as that they easily turn in them: round each of these rollers, there are three iron pinions, about half a foot thick, and a foot in diameter, whose pinions are full of teeth, like so many saws: there is a seat placed upon the two chief pieces of the timber, where a man sits, and drives the horses, that draw the machine, round about the lay of corn that is two foot thick; and that cutting the straw very small, makes the corn come out of the ears without breaking it, for it slides betwixt the teeth of the iron: when the straw is well cut, they put in more, and then separate the corn from that bashed straw, by tossing all up together in the air with a wooden shovel; for the wind blows the straw a little aside, and the corn alone falls straight down–in some places that machine is different, as I have seen (adds he), in Mesopotamia; where, instead of those pinions round the rollers, they have many pegs of iron, about six inches long, and three broad, almost in the shape of wedges, but somewhat broader below than above, fastened without any order into the rollers, some straight, and others crossways; and this engine is covered with boards over the irons, whereon he that drives the horse sits–they take the same course in Persia.”
Some apply this to the apostles of Christ, compared to oxen that tread out the corn; and who not only ploughed and sowed, but threshed in hope, and were instruments of bringing down every “high thing”, comparable to mountains and hills, “that exalted itself against the knowledge of God”, and of reducing it “to the obedience of Christ”; see 1Co 9:9, but it seems rather to refer to Constantine, a Christian emperor, brought forth and brought up in the church; the same with the man child the woman brought forth, caught up into heaven, raised to the Roman empire, and who ruled the nations, the Pagan ones, with a rod of iron, Re 12:5 and then the church, who before was but as a worm, weak and contemptible, now became powerful and formidable; and therefore compared to a new threshing instrument, heavy, sharp, and cutting:
thou shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff; which metaphorically design kingdoms and states; so the Targum,
“thou shalt slay the people, and consume kingdoms”; so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of kings and princes; and Aben Ezra particularly of the Babylonians; but these were not destroyed by the people of God, but by the Persians: it is better therefore to understand it of the Roman emperors, and of the Roman empire conquered by Constantine, and destroyed as Pagan, and when every mountain and island were moved out of their places, Re 12:7, and the prophecy may have a further accomplishment in the destruction of Rome Papal, and all the antichristian states, when the kingdom and interest of Christ, signified by a stone cut out without hands, shall break in pieces, and consume all other kingdoms: which shall become like the chaff of summer threshing floors, and the wind shall carry them away, and no place be found for them, as follows; see Da 2:34, this threshing of the nations is ascribed to the church, though only as an instrument, the work is the Lord’s, as in Isa 41:20.
t Beckius, notes on the Targum on 1 Chron. xx. 3. p. 210. u Travels, Part 2. B. 1. c. 5. p. 24.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. Lo, I have made thee. The Prophet still speaks of the restoration of the Church, and promises that she will be so victorious over her enemies as to crush and reduce them to powder; and he declares this by a highly appropriate metaphor. The Jews, whom he addresses, were nearly crushed, but he declares that, on the contrary, they shall crush their enemies, so that, after having been delivered, they shall render to them what had been done to themselves. It was necessary that this should be added, for, if they had not regained new strength, they would always have been exposed to the unlawful passions of their enemies; and therefore they needed that God. should give them strength to repel the attacks which were made upon them. Yet Isaiah at the same time declares that they shall be executioners of the vengeance of God.
But it may be thought that in this way he inflames the Jews to be desirous of taking revenge. Now, this is quite contrary to the nature of the Spirit of God; and, while we are too much inclined to this disease, the Lord is so far from treating with forbearance these purposes of revenge, that in many passages he commands us to repress them; for he exhorts us rather to pray for our enemies, and not to take delight in their distresses and afflictions. (Mat 5:44.) I reply, the Prophet here shews what will happen, but neither commands nor exhorts us to desire the destruction of our enemies. If it be again objected that we ought not only to expect but even to desire what the Lord promises, when it tends to his glory and our salvation; I acknowledge that this consolation tends greatly to alleviate our sorrows, when he promises that he will one day inflict punishment on enemies who have cruelly distressed us, and will render to them the measure which they have meted out. (Mat 7:2.) Yet this is not inconsistent: with the command of God, that we should be kind-hearted, and should pity them on account of the evils which they bring upon themselves, and bewail their wretched condition, instead of being led by cruel dispositions to rejoice in their destruction. (Mat 5:44.)
If we embrace this promise with that faith which we ought to cherish, we shall bring into subjection all the violence of the flesh, and consequently shall first be disposed to endure, and afterwards with moderate zeal shall desire the judgment of God. Accordingly, it ought to be our first aim to repress and lay aside every violent emotion of the flesh, and thus to await with an honest and sincere heart the fit season of the divine judgment; and that not so much from a regard to our private advantage as that due praise may be given to the justice of God. To the same purpose David wrote —
“
The righteous shall rejoice when they shall see the vengeance; they shall wash their feet in the blood of wicked men.” (Psa 58:10.)
Not that they delight in their distresses, but because, as he afterwards adds, the righteous man receives his reward, and the righteous judgments of God are made known in the earth when the wicked are punished for their transgressions.
The Jews, being by nature cruel and eager of bloodshed, seize on these promises after the manner of wild and savage beasts, which eagerly devour the prey that is offered to them, and, as soon as they smell it, are mad with rage. But the Lord does not wish his people to forget that kindness which he recommends above all things; for we cannot be his, if we are not guided by the same spirit, that is, by the spirit of mildness and gentleness. In a word, by this metaphor of “a harrow having teeth,” he means nothing else than the wretched destruction of the wicked, whom the Lord will put to flight by the hand of the godly; and that for the purpose of comforting the godly, and not of inflaming them with eagerness for shedding blood.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) A new sharp threshing instrument.The instrument described is a kind of revolving sledge armed with two-edged blades, still used in Syria, and, as elsewhere (Mic. 4:13), is the symbol of a crushing victory. The next verse continues the image, as in Jer. 15:7; Jer. 51:2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15, 16. I will make thee a new threshing instrument The remnant of Israel, when set free, shall be God’s threshing drag-net (see Isa 28:25-29) over opposers and idolaters; a frame of plank shod with rollers, or with stones or iron, here with iron, having teeth, sharpened teeth. All this means spiritual might.
Mountains hills Opposers of fearful purpose and aspect. These are to be ground to powder, reduced to beggarly weakness through the mighty moral power with which the beggarly, weak remnant of Israel is to become endowed.
Thou shalt fan them The winnowing and the strong wind are put in contrast with God and his renewed people, as regards the once proud and boastful opposers and oppressors.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat [them] small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Ver. 15. I will make thee a new sharp thrashing instrument having teeth. ] Traham, aut tribulam in omnem partem probe dentatam. Such as those eastern countries did use, to mash in pieces their rougher and harder fodder for their cattle, or rather to thresh out their harder grain with, Isa 28:25 ; Isa 28:28 or to torture men with. 2Sa 12:31
Thou shalt thresh the mountains.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
make thee = set thee for.
threshing instrument. See note on Isa 28:27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will make: Isa 21:10, Isa 28:27, Hab 3:12
teeth: Heb. mouths
thou shalt: Psa 18:42, Mic 4:13, Zec 4:7, 2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5
Reciprocal: Deu 2:36 – not Jdg 1:19 – the Lord Jdg 5:13 – he made Jdg 7:13 – a cake 2Ki 13:7 – like the dust Job 14:18 – the mountain Job 21:18 – as stubble Psa 68:1 – be scattered Isa 17:13 – shall be Isa 25:10 – trodden down Isa 41:2 – gave Jer 51:20 – art Jer 51:33 – is like Dan 2:35 – like Hos 13:3 – as the chaff Amo 1:3 – because Mic 5:8 – as a lion Mic 7:10 – now Zep 2:2 – as Zec 9:13 – made Zec 12:6 – they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the {n} mountains, and beat [them] small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
(n) I will make you able to destroy all your enemies no matter how mighty, and this chiefly is referred to the kingdom of Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord would transform the helpless worm, a tiny thresher of the soil, into a powerful threshing sledge-by giving her His power. Threshing sledges were heavy wooden platforms fitted with sharp stones and pieces of metal underneath. Farmers dragged them over straw to cut it up in preparation for winnowing. The sledge that Yahweh would make of Israel, however, would be so good that it could chop down mountains and hills, not just straw. The modern equivalent would be giant earth-moving equipment.