Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
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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.
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Behold, I make thee a new threshing-sledge having sharp teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Isaiah 41:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to Yahweh, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.
- 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
- Zechariah 4:7 Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’ ”
- Habakkuk 3:12 You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations in anger.
- Isaiah 21:10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
- Isaiah 28:27 For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.
- Psalms 18:42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I cast them out as the mire of the streets.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain I will make thee able to destroy all thine…
I will make thee able to destroy all thine enemies, be they never so mighty: and this chiefly is referred to the kingdom of Christ.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new…
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}
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Thou shalt thresh the mountains.] Thy lofty and mighty enemies. This was fulfilled in the Maccabees, but especially in the apostles, subduing the nations to the obedience of the faith. See 2Co 10:4.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain New; and therefore sharper and stronger than another which…
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".
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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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing…
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.''
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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 Co1 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, Rev 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, Rev 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 Dan 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain An instrument - Such as were usual in those…
An instrument - Such as were usual in those times and places. The mountains - The great and lofty potentates of the world.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth…
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, I will make thee ... - The object…
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.
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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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Chaff. Cambyses perished on the mountains of Judea, (Haydock)…
Chaff. Cambyses perished on the mountains of Judea, (Haydock) and the Machabees gained many victories over the Syrians, Micheas iv. 13., and Ezechiel xxxix. (Calmet) --- They are here meant, as their exploits resembled those of Cyrus. (Houbigant)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain God will make Israel to destroy their enemies as…
God will make Israel to destroy their enemies as the Eastern corn-drag (Isa 28:27-28) bruises out the grain with its teeth, and gives the chaff to the winds to scatter.
teeth--serrated, so as to cut up the straw for fodder and separate the grain from the chaff.
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mountains . . . hills--kingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile to Israel (Isa 2:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15, 16. I will make thee a new… threshing…
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. The threshing instrument (môrâg) is a heavy sledge…
15. The threshing instrument (môrâg) 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 ḥârûç of ch. Isa_28:27. Indeed this word ḥârûç is the one here translated “sharp”; and it may be doubted whether it has not intruded into the text as a variant to môrâg (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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) A new sharp threshing instrument.—The instrument described is…
(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.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument. Israel…
I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument. Israel is to be more than sustained. Strength is to be given her to take the aggressive, and to subdue her enemies under her. She is to "thresh them" and "beat them small," as with a threshing-instrument. (comp. 2Ki_13:7 Amo_1:3 Mic_4:13) In the literal sense, no earlier accomplishment of this prophecy can be pointed out than the time of the Maccahean war. Metaphorically, it may be said that Israel began to conquer the world when her literature became known to the Greeks through the expedition of Alexander the Great, and completed her conquest when the Roman empire succumbed to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. Having teeth . Threshing-instruments of the kind described are still in use in Syria (Thomson, "The Land and the Book," p. 539) and Asia Minor (Fellows, "Asia Minor," p. 70). The corn is spread out on the ground, and the machine, which is sometimes armed with sharp stones, sometimes with saws, is dragged ever it. The Arabic name is still noreg, a modification of the Hebrew moreg. Thou shalt thresh the mountains... the hills; i.e. "thou shalt subdue proud and mighty foes" (Delitzsch).
Vers. 15, 16. The triumph of the truth.
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I THE MOUNTAINOUS OBSTACLES THAT HAVE TO BE OVERCOME. These are not kingdoms, military forces, or fortifications, but things which are far mightier than they error, prejudice, passion, pride, habit of life, materialism, self-will. These are high hills, massive mountains in the way of the world"s welfare.
II THE INSTRUMENT BY WHICH THEY ARE TO BE SURMOUNTED. This is none other than a living Church. "I will make thee," etc. The Israel which is to "thresh" these mountains is "the Israel of God," the Church of Jesus Christ; not, indeed, any one organization so called or calling itself by that name, but the whole "host of God"s elect the unnumbered multitude of souls that, under every sky, accept his truth, trust in his Name, love his appearing, toil in his vineyard.
III THE TRIUMPH OF THE TRUTH. This is twofold.
1. The disappearance of all that is evil, the scattering of the chaff (ver. 16).
2. The exaltation of Christ: "Thou shelf glory in the Holy One of Israel." Inthe day of redemption men will glory in no one and in nothing but in the Lord that redeemed them; they will enthrone him in their hearts and in the world.
IV THE PRIZE OF VICTORY. "And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord." The Church will not be filled with a perilous complacency; it will rejoice in the Lord its God in the honor in which he is universally held; in the love with which all hearts are filled toward him; in the service which every human life is paying him. These ingredients will fill to the brim its pure cup of joy. C.
Doing surprising things in the strength of God.
Compare with the very striking figure of this text, 2Co_10:4, 2Co_10:5, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God." While there may be designed prophetical allusion to the mastery of Babylonian evils, to the triumphs of the Maccabean era, and to the spiritual victories of Messiah, the general meaning of the figure is that Israel, in the strength of Jehovah, shall overcome all the obstacles to the fulfilment of his destiny. Porter describes the "threshing-instruments" as "flat, heavy, wooden slabs, some five feet long by three wide, slightly turned up in front. The under surface is thickly studded with hobs of hard stone or iron. A massive prison door, with its rows of projecting nail-heads, will give the best idea of a mowrej, as the instrument is now called. Each is drawn by a "yoke of oxen." The driver stands on the mowrej, urging the oxen on with his formidable ox-goad. The oxen advance in front, "treading out the grain," and the mowrej follows, crushing and cutting the straw with its "teeth," till it is reduced almost to dust." With this instrument the Roman tribulum, from which we get our suggestive word "tribulation," should be compared. There is a marked poetical exaggeration in the association of a threshing-instrument with hills and mountains, designed to impress on us that "nothing is too hard for the Lord," or for his people when they are strengthened by him. Making application of the text to our own circumstances, we note
I LIFE AS A WHOLE OFTEN SEEMS BEYOND US; out Of our control; we fear to enter on it we fed we cannot make the best of it. It is so with only such expectations as we can form, on the basis of what is known or other men"s lives. It would indeed be so, if God were to show us beforehand the scenes through which we were to be led. Yet let us but lay hold of the strength of God, and our whole life shall be a mountain which we shall thresh and beat small. It shall not master us; we will master it, and make it yield its best.
II THE SPECIAL DEMANDS OF LIFE OFTEN SEEM BEYOND US. Face to face with duty, we anxiously say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" For us to undertake these duties seems as absurd as for a mowrej to think of threshing a mountain. And yet experience abundantly confirms the fact that, when a man is called of God to do anything, God surely gives him strength for the doing, What is "impossible with men is possible with God," and with all those whom God aids. For things that are right there is no such word as "impossible" in a Christian"s vocabulary. Compare Jonathan defeating the Philistines, David overcoming Goliath, and the Apostle Paul saying, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." We have often seen the marvel of God"s overcomings when the pressure of circumstances was extreme, and the thwarting of enemies painful. "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel the God-helped man thou shalt become a plain. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A new sharp threshing instrument
Isa_41:15
A new sharp threshing instrument
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.