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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Isaiah 28:28

Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed. Though the wheels of the cart roll over it, the horses do not crush it.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Agriculture;   Cart;   Isaiah;   Judgment;   Parables;   Threshing;   Wisdom;   Thompson Chain Reference - Social Duties;   Temperance;   Temperance-Intemperance;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Agriculture or Husbandry;   Bread;   Threshing;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Carts;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Animals;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Agriculture;   Horse;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Contrite;   Isaiah;   Parables;   Spices;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Isaiah, Book of;   Parable;   Untoward;   Wisdom;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Agriculture;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Vagabond;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Horse;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Thresh;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Allegory;   Cart;   Floor;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bruise;   Horse;   Isaiah;   Parable;   Proverbs, Book of;   Wheel;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Agriculture;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Horse;   Parable;   Root;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Bread grain is crushed,but is not threshed endlessly.Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles,his horses do not crush it.
Hebrew Names Version
Bread [grain] is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not grind it.
King James Version
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.
English Standard Version
Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.
New American Standard Bible
Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.
New Century Version
The grain is ground to make bread. People do not ruin it by crushing it forever. The farmer separates the wheat from the chaff with his cart, but he does not let his horses grind it.
Amplified Bible
Bread grain is crushed fine, Indeed, the farmer does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.
World English Bible
Bread [grain] is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not grind it.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Bread corne when it is threshed, hee doeth not alway thresh it, neither doeth the wheele of his cart still make a noyse, neither will he breake it with the teeth thereof.
Legacy Standard Bible
Grain for bread is crushed,But he does not continue to thresh it forever.Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually disturb it,He does not crush it longer.
Contemporary English Version
Wheat and barley are pounded, but not beaten to pulp; they are run over with a wagon, but not ground to dust.
Complete Jewish Bible
When crushing grain for bread, one doesn't thresh it forever; one drives the horse and cart wheels over it but doesn't crush it to powder.
Darby Translation
Bread [corn] is crushed, because he will not ever be threshing it; and if he drove the wheels of his cart and his horses [over it], he would not crush it.
Easy-to-Read Version
People grind grain to make flour, but they don't grind it forever. As God does in punishing people, a worker might drive his wagon over the grain to remove the hulls, but he does not allow the horses to crush it.
George Lamsa Translation
Grain is threshed for our sakes because man would not otherwise be threshing it, nor break it with many wheels of his threshing instruments, nor crush it under the feet of his oxen.
Good News Translation
They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.
Lexham English Bible
Grain is crushed fine, but certainly one does not thresh it forever; and one drives the wheel of his cart, but his horses do not crush it.
Literal Translation
Bread is crushed, but not always does one thresh it with threshing; and he drives the wheel of his cart; and his horses do not beat it small.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
As for the wheate, he gryndeth it to make bred therof, In as moch as he can not bringe it to passe wt treadinge out. For nether the brussinge that the cart wheles make, ner his beastes can grynde it.
American Standard Version
Bread grain is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he doth not grind it.
Bible in Basic English
Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Is bread corn crushed? Nay, he will not ever be threshing it; and though the roller of his wagon and its sharp edges move noisily, he doth not crush it.
King James Version (1611)
Bread corne is bruised; because he will not euer be threshing it, nor breake it with the wheele of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But the seede that bread is made of, is threshed, though it be not alway a threshing, and the cart wheele must be brought ouer it, lest he grinde it with his teeth.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
for I will not be wroth with you for ever, neither shall the voice of my anger crush you.
English Revised Version
Bread corn is ground; for he will not ever be threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he doth not grind it.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Sotheli breed schal be maad lesse, but he that threischith schal not threische it with outen ende, nether schal trauele it with a wheel of a wayn, nether schal make it lesse with hise clees.
Update Bible Version
Bread [grain] is ground; for he will not always be threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not grind it.
Webster's Bible Translation
Bread-[corn] is bruised; because he will not always be threshing it, nor break [it with] the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it [with] his horsemen.
New English Translation
Grain is crushed, though one certainly does not thresh it forever. The wheel of one's wagon rolls over it, but his horses do not crush it.
New King James Version
Bread flour must be ground; Therefore he does not thresh it forever, Break it with his cartwheel, Or crush it with his horsemen.
New Living Translation
Grain for bread is easily crushed, so he doesn't keep on pounding it. He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn't pulverize it.
New Life Bible
Grain for bread is crushed. He does not keep on crushing it forever. When he drives his wagon-wheel over it with his horses, it does not crush it.
New Revised Standard
Grain is crushed for bread, but one does not thresh it forever; one drives the cart wheel and horses over it, but does not pulverize it.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Bread-corn, must be crushed, - Yet would he not be evermore, threshing, it, So he hasteneth over it the wheel of his cart, with his horsemen, He crusheth it not!
Douay-Rheims Bible
But breadcorn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.
Revised Standard Version
Does one crush bread grain? No, he does not thresh it for ever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.
Young's Literal Translation
Bread-[corn] is beaten small, For not for ever doth he sorely thresh it, Nor crushed [it] hath a wheel of his cart, Nor do his hoofs beat it small.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.

Contextual Overview

23Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say. 24Does the plowman plow for planting every day? Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil? 25When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, with rye within its border. 26For his God instructs and teaches him properly. 27Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. 28Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed. Though the wheels of the cart roll over it, the horses do not crush it.29This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent wisdom.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Bread: Isaiah 21:10, Amos 9:9, Matthew 3:12, Matthew 13:37-43, Luke 22:31, Luke 22:32, John 12:24, 1 Corinthians 3:9, 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1 Corinthians 9:10

the wheel: Isaiah 28:27

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 21:23 - the oxen Proverbs 20:26 - bringeth

Gill's Notes on the 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, Psalms 103:9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bread corn - Hebrew, לחם lechem - ‘Bread.’ But the word evidently denotes the material from which bread is made. The word is used in the same sense in Isaiah 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 דקק dâqaq means often to break in pieces; to make small or fine. It is, however, applied to threshing, as consisting in beating, or crushing (Isaiah 41:15 : ‘Thou threshest the mountains, and beatest them small’ - ותדק vetâdoq.

Because he will not ever be threshing it - The word rendered ‘because’ (כי kı̂y) 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 פרסין instead of פרשׁיו pârâshâyv by a change of a single Hebrew letter ס (s), instead of the Hebrew letter שׁ (sh). So the Syriac and the Vulgate; and so Symmachus and Theodotion. But the word פרשׁ pârâsh 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; 2 Samuel 1:6; Isaiah 21:7, Isaiah 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 Deuteronomy 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. The first is read with ש shin, the latter with ס samech, the pronunciation is nearly the same.


 
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