Isaiah 21:10
in Isaiah 21O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
O thou my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Isaiah 21
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
O my threshing - The words ‘to thresh,’ ‘to tread down,’ etc., are often used in the Scriptures to denote punishments inflicted on the enemies of God. An expression likes this occurs in Jer 51:33, in describing the destruction of Babylon: ‘The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her.’ In regard to the mode of threshing among the Hebrews, and the pertinency of this image to the destruction of the enemies of God, see the note at Isa 28:27. Lowth, together with many others, refers this to Babylon, and regards it as an address of God to Babylon in the midst of her punishment: ‘O thou, the object on which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shall lie under my afflicting hand like grain spread out upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat.’ But the expression can be applied with more propriety to the Jews; and may be regarded as the language of “tenderness” addressed by God through the prophet to his people when they should be oppressed and broken down in Babylon: ‘O thou, my people, who hast been afflicted and crushed; who hast been under my chastening hand, and reduced to these calamities on account of your sins; hear what God has spoken respecting the destruction of Babylon, and your consequent certain deliverance.’ Thus it is the language of consolation; and is designed, like the prophecies in Isa. 13; 14, to comfort the Jews, when they should be in Babylon, with the certainty that they would be delivered. The language of “tenderness” in which the address is couched, as well as the connection, seems to demand this interpretation. And the corn of my floor - Hebrew, ‘The son of my threshing floor’ - a Hebraism for grain that was on the floor to be threshed. The word ‘son’ is often used in this special manner among the Hebrews (see the note at Mat 1:1). That which I have heard ... […]
This site's exposition
Fallen, fallen is Babylon
on Isaiah 21:9-10
The central cry is "Fallen, fallen is Babylon", which Revelation 14:8 and 18:2 take up of Babylon at the end. Delitzsch notes that the Hebrew perfect is used here of a future event, as in chapter 53. Verse 10 addresses Judah, "O my people, crushed on the threshing floor".
This site's exposition
crushed on the threshing floor
Wesley notes that every burden against a foreign land was declared to Israel and for its use. Clarke takes the threshing as discipline that separates the grain from the chaff. Jeremiah 51:33 turns the same threshing floor on Babylon.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Notice how in this passage he does not call those of the circumcision to hear the un-speakable words, but only those whom he calls "forsaken and tortured." These were those of the time of the apostles who regretted and lamented the evil of humanity.
(Verse 10.) My threshing floor and my sons of the barn, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. LXX: Listen, you who have been forsaken, and mourn: listen to what I heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who has announced to us. And what follows from the person of the Prophet saying: My thrashing, and the son of my threshing-floor, which I heard from the Lord God of Hosts, I have announced to you; according to the Hebrew, it has this meaning: O people, who are to be stored in my barns, whom I have thus trampled in various hardships, so that I might separate the chaff from him, and pure wheat might be stored in my barns, which I heard from the Lord God of Hosts would come to the whole world, I have announced to you who are in the world, all of you. But others say that the superior person is indeed the Lord Savior, because He Himself spoke to the Apostles: 'What I have heard from the Father, I have made known to you' (John 15:15). And because it is written in the Septuagint, 'Listen, you who have been left behind and feel sorrow' (Isaiah 5:9), the sense of their interpretation seems to me to be: 'O Apostles, of whom Isaiah writes: 'Unless the Lord had left us a remnant, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah' (Romans 9), whose remnants the Apostle teaches to be saved. You who have been left from the people of the Jews in order to be saved; and you feel sorrow over the ruin of your nation, about which we also read elsewhere: 'I am filled with sorrow and continuous pain for my brethren, who are Israelites according to the flesh' (Romans 9:2-3): I announce to you the things that I have heard from God the Father, which God of Israel predicts will come to you.'
(Verse 10.) Crush my people, O threshing floor of mine, which I heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. And what follows, 'My threshing, and the son of my floor,' it makes an apostrophe to Jerusalem, and to the Temple which is situated in the area of Orna, and it says to it: 'O Jerusalem, and people, sons of my Temple, do not think it unbelievable what I have said; for they are not my words, but the words of the Lord, and through my mouth, his words resounded.'
The Medieval Church1 voice
518. Fourth, the declaration of the prophet to the people is set out: O my thrashing, the words of the prophet, or of Christ, that Jerusalem is to be thrashed with many tribulations, children of my floor, that is, the temple, which is located on …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come. This prophecy concerning Dumah is very short, and withal dark and hard to be understood. Some think that Dumah is a part of Arabia, and that the inhabitants descended from Dumah the sixth son of Ishmael, as those of Kedar (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
This is probably spoken of Babylon. The corn - Which I will cause to be threshed upon the floor. You - Unto you my people; for all the prophecies, even concerning other nations, were published to them, and for their use and comfort.
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
O my threshing - “O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat!” The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God’s enemies.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
My threshed grain and the product of my threshing floor My hallowed grain, the stack of wheat which I was commanded by the Holy Spirit to rectify you and lead you on the straight path, like a man who threshes and winnows his grain on the threshing floor.
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Kings who are skillful to wage war, shall come against her to plunder her, like a husbandman who is skillful to thrash the floor. The prophet said, The voice of the WORD of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, which I have heard, I have declared unto you.
The harsh prophecy of Dumah That is Edom, and so does Scripture say (Ezekiel:32): “Who is like Tyre, like Dumah in the midst of the sea?”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מְדֻשָׁתִ֖י | medushati | O threshed one my | H4098 → | |
| וּבֶן־ | uven- | and [the] son of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| גָּרְנִ֑י | gareni | threshing floor my | H1637 → | |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | ʾasher | [that] which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| שָׁמַ֗עְתִּי | shama'ti | I have heard | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| מֵאֵ֨ת | meet | from with | H854 → | 929 times |
| יְהוָ֧ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| צְבָא֛וֹת | tzevaot | of hosts | H6635 → | 485 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֥י | ʾelohei | [the] God of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| הִגַּ֥דְתִּי | higadti | I have told | H5046 → | 370 times |
| לָכֶֽם׃ ס | lakhem | to <the> you |
מְדֻשָׁתִ֖יO threshed one my
medushatiH4098 →
וּבֶן־and [the] son of
uven-H1121 →4930 times
גָּרְנִ֑יthreshing floor my
gareniH1637 →
אֲשֶׁ֣ר[that] which
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
שָׁמַ֗עְתִּיI have heard
shama'tiH8085 →1159 times
מֵאֵ֨תfrom with
meetH854 →929 times
יְהוָ֧הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
צְבָא֛וֹתof hosts
tzevaotH6635 →485 times
אֱלֹהֵ֥י[the] God of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
הִגַּ֥דְתִּיI have told
higadtiH5046 →370 times
לָכֶֽם׃ סto <the> you
lakhem
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Matthew 3:12His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
it leads to
- Malachi 4:1
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of…
- Matthew 13:30
Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
- Luke 3:17
His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Isaiah 41:16
You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 51:2
I will send strangers to Babylon to winnow her and empty her land; for they will come against her from every side in her day of disaster.
- Malachi 4:1
Through
Micah 4:13Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the LORD,…
it leads to
- Isaiah 41:15–16
Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 2:44
In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms…
- Isaiah 18:7
At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by…
- Isaiah 41:15–16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 2:3; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.