Harrow
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Harrow

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Hebrews harits), a tribulum or sharp threshing sledge; a frame armed on the under side with rollers or sharp spikes (2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Chronicles 20:3).

Hebrews verb sadad, to harrow a field, break its clods (Job 39:10; Isaiah 28:4; Hosea 10:11). Its form is unknown. It may have resembled the instrument still in use in Egypt.

Noah Webster's Dictionary

1. (n.) An implement of agriculture, usually formed of pieces of timber or metal crossing each other, and set with iron or wooden teeth. It is drawn over plowed land to level it and break the clods, to stir the soil and make it fine, or to cover seed when sown.

2. (n.) An obstacle formed by turning an ordinary harrow upside down, the frame being buried.

3. (n.) To draw a harrow over, as for the purpose of breaking clods and leveling the surface, or for covering seed; as, to harrow land.

4. (n.) To break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress; to vex.

5. (interj.) Help! Halloo! An exclamation of distress; a call for succor;-the ancient Norman hue and cry.

6. (v. t.) To pillage; to harry; to oppress.

Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia

HARROW

har'-o (sadhadh): Sadhadh occurs in 3 passages (Job 39:10 Isaiah 28:24 Hosea 10:11). In the first 2 it is translated "harrow," in the last "break the clods." That this was a separate operation from plowing, and that it was performed with an instrument drawn by animals, seems certain. As to whether it corresponded to our modern harrowing is a question. The reasons for this uncertainty are:

(1) the ancient Egyptians have left no records of its use;

(2) at the present time, in those parts of Palestine and Syria where foreign methods have not been introduced, harrowing is not commonly known, although the writer has been told that in some districts the ground is leveled after plowing with the threshing-sledge or a log drawn by oxen. Cross-plowing is resorted to for breaking up the lumpy soil, especially where the ground has been baked during the long rainless summer. Lumps not reduced in this way are further broken up with a hoe or pick. See d is always sown before plowing, so that harrowing to cover the seed is unnecessary. See AGRICULTURE. Figuratively used of affliction, discipline, etc. (Isaiah 28:24).

James A. Patch

Multi-Version Concordance

Harrow (3 Occurrences)

Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? (KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Isaiah 28:24 Is the plowman never done with plowing to sow, with the opening and harrowing of his ground? (Root in JPS ASV YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Hosea 10:11 And Ephraim 'is' a trained heifer -- loving to thresh, And I -- I have passed over on the goodness of its neck, I cause 'one' to ride Ephraim, Plough doth Judah, harrow for him doth Jacob. (YLT NAS RSV)




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Harrow

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