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Bible Dictionaries
Harrow
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or HARROW . In 2 Samuel 12:31 a passage which had become corrupt before the date of 1 Chronicles 20:3 as rendered in EV [Note: English Version.] , David is represented as torturing the Ammonites ‘under harrows of iron.’ The true text and rendering, however, have reference to various forms of forced labour (see RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), and the ‘harrows’ become ‘picks of iron’ or some similar instrument.
The Heb. verb tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘harrow’ in Job 39:10 is elsewhere correctly rendered ‘break the clods’ ( Hosea 10:11; also Isaiah 28:24 , but Amer. RV [Note: Revised Version.] has here ‘harrow’). In Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] ii. 306 several reasons were given for rejecting the universal modern rendering of the original by ‘harrow.’ This conclusion has since been confirmed by the discovery of the original Hebrew of Sir 38:26 where ‘who setteth his mind to “harrow” in the furrows’ would be an absurd rendering. There is no evidence that the Hebrews at any time made use of an implement corresponding to our harrow. Stiff soil was broken up by the plough or the mattock. Cf. Agriculture, § 1 .
A. R. S. Kennedy.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Harrow'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/h/harrow.html. 1909.
