Isaiah 28:24-28

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

This parable, which (like many of our Saviour's parables) is borrowed from the husbandman's calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface demanding attention, He that has ears to hear, let him hear, hear and understand, Isa. 28:23. I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies himself to the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and prudence, secundum artem?according to rule, and, as his judgment directs him, observes a method and order in his work. 1. In his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:24

Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ?.... Or, "every day"; he ploughs in order to sow; by ploughing he prepares the ground for sowing, that is his end in ploughing; and he may plough a whole day together when he is at it, but he does not plough every day in the year; he has other work to do besides ploughing, as is later mentioned; such as breaking of clods, sowing seed, and threshing the grain after it is ripe, and reaped, and gathered. The prophet signifies that the Lord, like a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:25

When he hath made plain the face thereof ,.... By harrowing it, after it is ploughed: doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin ; in sowing them in the ground, prepared for them; the former of these does not seem to be the same we so call, but something else. The Septuagint version calls it the little "melanthion" F3 So Junius & Tremellius, and Piscator. , the same with the "nigella" F4 As here with Pagninus, Montanus. of the Latins, and is sometimes... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:26

For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. God gives the husbandman instruction and discretion how to sow his seed, at what time, and in a proper place; for this refers to what goes before; though some think a new act is here intended, namely, threshing or beating out of corn, rendering the words, "and he" (the husbandman) "beateth it out, according to the discretion", or "judgment, his God teaches him" F8 "Excutit illud ad eam rationem, quam Deus, ipsius docet... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:27

For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument ,.... A wooden sledge, dray, or cart, drawn on wheels; the bottom of which was stuck with iron teeth, and the top filled with stones, to press it down with the weight thereof, and was drawn by horses, or oxen, to and fro, over the sheaves of corn, laid in proper order, whereby the grain was separated from the husk: See Gill on 1 Corinthians 9:9 but fitches, the grain of them being more easily separated, such an instrument was not... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:28

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: ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 28:26

For his God doth instruct him - All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. "The Most High hath ordained husbandry, "saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15. Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 28:27-28

Four methods of threshing are here mentioned, by different instruments; the flail, the drag, the wain, and the treading of the cattle. The staff or flail was used for the infirmiora semina , says Jerome, the grain that was too tender to be treated in the other methods. The drag consisted of a sort 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. Kempfer has given a print... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 28:28

The bread-corn - I read ולהם velahem , on the authority of the Vulgate and Symmachus; the former expresses the conjunction ו vau , omitted in the text, by autem ; the latter by δε . Bruise it with his horsemen "Bruise it with the hoofs of his cattle" - For פרשיו parashaiv , horsemen or teeth, read פרסיו perasaiv , hoofs. So the Syriac, Syrnmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. The first is read with ש shin , the latter with ס samech , the pronunciation is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

A PARABLE TO COMFORT BELIEVERS . Isaiah is always careful to intermingle promises with his threats, comfort with his denunciations. Like his great Master, of whom he prophesied, he was fain not to "break the bruised reed" or "quench the smoking flax." When he had searched men's wounds with the probe, he was careful to pour in oil and wine. So now, having denounced the sinners of Judah through three long paragraphs (verses 7-22), he has a word of consolation and encouragement for the... read more

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