Isaiah 28:24
in Isaiah 28Does the plowman plow for planting every day? Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Doth he that ploweth to sow plow continually? doth he continually open and harrow his ground?
KJV
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
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This verse in Isaiah 28
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Doth the plowman ... - The question here asked implies that he does “not” plow all the day. The interrogative form is often the most emphatic mode of affirmation. All day - The sense is, does he do nothing else but plow? Is this the only thing which is necessary to be done in order to obtain a harvest? The idea which the prophet intends to convey here is this. A farmer does not suppose that he can obtain a harvest by doing nothing else but plow. There is much else to be done.
This site's exposition
Give ye ear, and hear my voice
on Isaiah 28:23-26
The chapter turns from woe to parable without warning, an appeal to listen, hearken, and hear, before the plowman is asked whether he plows forever or eventually breaks his ground to sow. Verse twenty five answers with the plowman's own variety, fitches, cummin, wheat, barley, and rie each cast in their own place rather than scattered without order. Verse twenty six credits the plowman's skill to instruction from his God, ordinary farming knowledge named as a gift rather than mere trial and error, which Henry reads as the parable's premise, if God teaches a farmer this much care, his dealings with Judah carry no less design.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is because they give me virgins. I gather the rose from the thorns, the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell. "Does the plowman plow all day to sow?" Shall he not also enjoy the fruit of his labor? Wedlock is the more honored, the more what is born of it is loved. Why, mother, do you grudge your daughter her virginity? She has been reared on your milk, she has come from your womb, she has grown up in your bosom. Your watchful affection has kept her a virgin.
(Vers. 23 seqq.) Pay attention and listen to my voice: listen and hear my speech. Does the plowman plow all day to sow, break up the soil, and harrow it? When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow dill, scatter cumin, plant wheat in rows, barley, millet, and rye in their proper place? For his God instructs him and teaches him the right way.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he sets out the consolation under the likeness of a farmer: shall the ploughman plough all the day, through which he shows three things, namely, the intention of God to punish like the ploughman, that they might bear fruit, to sow. Gith, a kind …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Therefore those scoffing Israelites were guilty of great folly, in flattering themselves, because of God's long patience towards them; for God will certainly take a time to thresh, and break them with his judgments, as at present he plowed and harrowed them, and so prepared them for it by his threatenings.
Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow?.... Or, "every day"; he ploughs in order to sow; by ploughing he prepares the ground for sowing, that is his end in ploughing; and he may plough a whole day together when he is at it, but he does not plough every day in the year; he has other work to do besides ploughing, as is later mentioned; such as breaking of clods, sowing seed, and threshing the grain after it is ripe, and reaped, and gathered.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the judgments that were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon after executed by the king of Assyria, who laid their country waste, and carried the people into captivity.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
all day--emphatic; he is not always ploughing: he also "sows," and that, too, in accordance with sure rules (Isa 28:25). doth he open--supply "always." Is he always harrowing?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3383: “The Plowman” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
UNLESS they are cultivated, fields yield us nothing but briars and thistles. In this we may see ourselves. Unless the great Husbandman shall till us by His Grace, we shall produce nothing that is good, but everything that is evil. If one of these days I shall hear that a country has been discovered where wheat grows without the work of the farmer, I may then, perhaps, hope to find one of our race who will bring forth holiness without the Grace of God.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3383: “The Plowman” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
UNLESS they are cultivated, fields yield us nothing but briars and thistles. In this we may see ourselves. Unless the great Husbandman shall till us by His Grace, we shall produce nothing that is good, but everything that is evil. If one of these days I shall hear that a country has been discovered where wheat grows without the work of the farmer, I may then, perhaps, hope to find one of our race who will bring forth holiness without the Grace of God. Up to this day, all land on which the foot of man has trodden has needed labor and care. And even so among men, the need of gracious tillage is universal! Jesus says to all of us, "You must be born-again." Unless God the Holy Spirit breaks up the heart with the plow of the Law and sows it with the Seed of the Gospel, not a single ear of holiness will any of us produce, even though we may be children of godly parents and may be regarded as excellent moral people by those with whom we live! Yes, and the plow is needed not only to produce that which is good, but to destroy that which is evil! There are diseases which, in the course of ages, wear themselves out and do not appear again among men. And there may be forms of vice which, under changed circumstances, do not so much abound as they used to do—but human nature will always remain the same and, therefore, there will always be plentiful crops of the weeds of sin in man's fields—and nothing can keep these under but spiritual husbandry carried on by the Spirit of God. You cannot destroy weeds by exhortations, nor can you tear out the roots of sin from the soul by moral persuasion. Something sharper and more effectual must be brought to bear upon them.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲכֹ֣ל | hakhol | ¿ all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַיּ֔וֹם | haiyom | the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יַחֲרֹ֥שׁ | yacharosh | does he plow | H2790 → | 74 times |
| הַחֹרֵ֖שׁ | hachoresh | the plowman | H2790 → | 74 times |
| לִזְרֹ֑עַ | lizroa' | to sow | H2232 → | 56 times |
| יְפַתַּ֥ח | yefatach | does he loosen? | H6605 → | 144 times |
| וִֽישַׂדֵּ֖ד | visaded | and he may harrow? | H7702 → | |
| אַדְמָתֽוֹ׃ | ʾadmato | land his | H127 → | 225 times |
הֲכֹ֣ל¿ all
hakholH3605 →5413 times
הַיּ֔וֹםthe day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
יַחֲרֹ֥שׁdoes he plow
yacharoshH2790 →74 times
הַחֹרֵ֖שׁthe plowman
hachoreshH2790 →74 times
לִזְרֹ֑עַto sow
lizroa'H2232 →56 times
יְפַתַּ֥חdoes he loosen?
yefatachH6605 →144 times
וִֽישַׂדֵּ֖דand he may harrow?
visadedH7702 →
אַדְמָתֽוֹ׃land his
ʾadmatoH127 →225 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 4:3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.
it leads to
- Hosea 10:12
Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- Luke 8:7
Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the seedlings.
- Luke 8:14
The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does…
- Galatians 6:7–8
Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Mark 4:18–19
Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word,
- Hosea 10:12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3383: “The Plowman” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 22.20; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.