Isaiah 41:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 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.
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
new
חָדָ֔שׁcha.Dash
H2319
new · adjective, masculine singular absolute
sharp
חָר֣וּץcha.Rutz
H2742
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
threshing
לְמוֹרַג֙le.mo.Rag
H4173
a threshing sledge · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
having
בַּ֖עַלBa.'al
H1167
a master · noun, common masculine singular construct
teeth
פִּֽיפִיּ֑וֹתpi.fi.Yot
H6374
an edge or tooth · adjective, feminine plural absolute
thresh
תָּד֤וּשׁta.Dush
H1758
to trample or thresh · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
mountains
הָרִים֙ha.Rim
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
small
וְתָדֹ֔קve.ta.Dok
H1854
to crush (or intransitively) crumble · conjunction + verb, qal, 2nd person masculine singular
make
תָּשִֽׂיםta.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hills
וּגְבָע֖וֹתu.ge.va.'ot
H1389
a hillock · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
chaff
כַּמֹּ֥ץka.Motz
H4671
chaff (as pressed out · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many p…
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Zechariah 4:7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings,…
Habakkuk 3:12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
Isaiah 21:10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
Isaiah 28:27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beat…
Psalms 18:42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 41:10-20
The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to Israel as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated, Fear thou not; and again (Isa 41:13), Fear not; and (Isa 41:14), "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the enemy, doubt not the promise of…
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.
mountains . . . hills--kingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile to Israel (Isa 2:14).
John Gill on Isaiah 41:15
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 Isaiah 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…
Lo, I have made thee. The Prophet still speaks of the restoration of the Church, and promises that she will be so victorious over her enemies as to crush and reduce them to powder; and he declares this by a highly appropriate metaphor. The Jews, whom he addresses, were nearly crushed, but he declares that, on the contrary, they shall crush their enemies, so that, after having been delivered, they shall render to them what had been done to themselves. It was necessary that this should be added, for, if they had not regained new strength, they would always have been exposed to the unlawful passions of their enemies; and therefore they needed that God should give them strength to repel the atta…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 15-16) I have made you like a new threshing sledge, with sharp teeth. You will crush the mountains and reduce them to dust; you will make them like fine dust. You will scatter them to the wind, and a whirlwind will blow them away. Then you will rejoice in the Lord; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel. LXX: Behold, I have made you like new grinding wheels of a wagon, in the manner of saws: and you will grind the mountains and crush the hills: and you will scatter them like dust and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will disperse them. But you will rejoice in the Lord and in the holy ones of Israel. And what follows: I have set thee as a new threshing cart, having tearing beaks, signifies that the preaching of the Gospel crushes the opposing powers and lifts up the spiritual wickedness that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; which, according to the variety of pride, are called mountains and hills. And when these are taken away and scattered like a whirlwind, let Israel exult and rejoice in the Holy Lord of Israel. We can also say that an ecclesiastical man, having the serpents of evangelical preaching on a new wagon, which does not work at all in the oldness of the letter, but in the freshness of the spirit, crushes the hardest hearts of unbelievers: separating the wheat from the chaff, and breaking mountains and hills, that is, all the leaders of heretics, who, being crushed and broken, are reduced to dust and taught that they are nothing, so that those who were gathered wickedly may be divided into their own good.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agriculture — Tilling the ground (Gen. 2:15; 4:2, 3, 12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession…
Agency · IN EXECUTING — IN EXECUTING
Agriculture Or Husbandry · Implements of: The teethed threshing instrument — Implements of: The teethed threshing instrument
Mountains · Illustrative: (Threshing of,) of heavy judgments — Illustrative: (Threshing of,) of heavy judgments
Threshing · Was performed: By instruments with teeth — Was performed: By instruments with teeth
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The consolatory words, "Fear not," are now repeated, for the purpose of once more adding the promise that Israel will not succumb to its foes, but will acquire power over its enemies. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and handful Israel: I will help thee, saith Jehovah; and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made thee a threshing roller, a sharp new one, with double edges: thou wilt thresh mountains, and pound them; and hills thou wilt make like chaff. Thou wilt winnow them, and wind carries them away, and tempest scatters them: and thou wilt rejoice in Jehovah, and glory in the Holy One of Israel." Israel, which is now helplessly oppressed, is called "worm of Jacob" (gen. appo…
In exile, Israel was in a lowly state. • God is the Redeemer. He works mightily to rescue and restore people from sin and its consequences (for Israel, the Exile; for application to Jesus, see Luke 2:38; 21:28; Rom 3:24; 1 Cor 1:30; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:1-14; Titus 2:14; Heb 9:12).
Rashi on Isaiah 41:15
a...grooved threshing sledge It is a heavy wooden implement made with many grooves, similar to the ironsmiths’ tool known as ‘lime’ in French, a file, and they drag it over the straw of the ears of grain and it cuts them until they become fine straw.
new When it is new, before the points of its grooves are smoothed off, it cuts very much, but when it becomes old, the points of the grooves are smoothed off.
with sharp points Heb. פִּיפִיוֹת. Those are the points of the grooves.
you shall thresh the mountains kings and princes.
