July 7

Threshing

Ruth 2:17; Ruth 3:2

The Book of Ruth is so rich in its indications of oriental and ancient Hebrew customs, that, in dealing with them, we are—to use an appropriate figure—but as gleaners in the harvest-field which it offers.

We are told that Ruth leaving continued her gleaning until the evening, then “beat out what she had gleaned.” This is contrary to our custom—for our gleaners carry home the corn with the straw. One reason for this may be, that the gleaners were more bountifully considered among the Hebrews, and were thus enabled to collect a quantity of corn greater than they could conveniently transport with the straw. This was certainly the case with Ruth—for her corn, when threshed out, formed no less than “about an ephah of barley”—being not much less than a bushel. Such produce of one woman’s gleaning for one day, would not be regarded with much satisfaction by our cultivators. Nor was it usual among the Hebrews, for it excited the surprise of Naomi when her daughter-in-law brought home the rich produce of her day’s labor. But Ruth had been specially favored through the delicate attention of Boaz, who had privately instructed the reapers to let fall some of the handfuls, and leave them on purpose that she might glean them; and to suffer her to glean even among the sheaves without rebuke. This custom of beating out the corn upon the harvest-field still subsists in Palestine. Robinson remarks, in passing a harvest-field near Gaza—“Several women were beating out with a stick handfuls of the grain which they seemed to have gleaned.”

Corn, though more bulky in the straw, is with as more conveniently carried in that form; and one reason for threshing it out on the spot, doubtless arose from the facility which the dress of the eastern woman affords of carrying away the corn when separated from the straw. It will have occurred to the reader to ask how Ruth could bear away nearly sixty pounds’ weight of corn. One of our own women could carry corn only in her apron, and she could not carry much of it so, in fear lest the strings should break or be unloosened. But the eastern woman has an unfailing resource in such cases in her veil. It was in this that Ruth on a subsequent occasion bore away a still larger quantity of corn that Boaz presented her with at the threshing floor. This veil is among poor women made of cloth quite strong enough for such services, and coarse enough not to be damaged by it; for which, indeed, it is much used.

Eastern Veils

In the East, corn is not stacked, as with us, and taken to be threshed as occasion requires. All but the last process of grinding the corn is performed at once, upon or close by the harvest-field, and forms part of the proper labor of the harvest season. Thus we find that Boaz not only threshed his corn, but winnowed it immediately after it was reaped. In this state, ready for the mill, all corn is stowed away in the East until it may be required for use.

Both the threshing and the winnowing are performed in the open air. This would be impossible with us, on account of the uncertainty of the weather. But the Syrian agriculturist has no thought of the weather at harvest time. He knows it will not rain, and therefore makes all his arrangements accordingly. Rain in the time of harvest was so much out of the course of nature, that when at that season thunder and rain came at the call of Samuel, it was recognized by all the people as a miraculous sign. 1 Samuel 12:17-18. This gives a degree of certainty and regularity to the laborers of harvest, which strangely contrasts with the anxiety, interruption, haste, and pressing labor which accompany that season in our more variable climes, where the most arduous and unintermitting exertions are often necessary to secure the crop in some possibly brief interval of fine weather. Hence not only days, but often nights, of toil in harvest time. The eastern cultivator may also labor by night, yet it is not from haste or apprehension, but to avoid the oppressive heat of the day; or, in the case of winnowing, to take advantage of the evening breeze.

The threshing-floor is a clear and level space upon the ground, laid with a well-beaten compost of clay and cow-dung. The small quantity of corn which rewards the industry of the gleaner may be beaten cab with a staff; but the large produce of the harvest-field is never thus dealt with in the East. It is either beaten out by the frequent treading of cattle, or forced out by some heavy implement being dragged over it. The former was the more ancient and common mode, and is often alluded to in Scripture. The sheaves being opened out upon the floor, the grain is trodden out usually by oxen, arranged from three to five abreast, and driven in a circle, or indeed in any direction, over the floor.

Threshing by Treading of Cattle

It was one of the lesser laws of mercy, of which many are found in the books of Moses, that the oxen engaged in this labor should not be muzzled to prevent them from tasting the corn. Note: Deuteronomy 25:4. This freedom of the laboring animals is now the rule throughout the East; nor do we remember, in any instance in which the operation came under our own notice, to have seen them subject to any restraint in this respect. It is probable that the harvest of Boaz was threshed by oxen. But this is not certain, for we find threshing instruments in use not far from Bethlehem in the time of David, to whom Araunah offers them for fuel, and the oxen by which they were drawn for sacrifice. Note: 2 Samuel 24:22. Their existence is also implied in the expression which occurs in Scripture—“made them like the dust by threshing,” Note: 2 Kings 13:7. which is a result not so much of the treading of cattle, as of the working of the threshing implement, which cuts up the straw, and makes it fit for fodder. The ancient Hebrews seem to have possessed both of the implements now in use. One of them, very much used in Syria, is composed of two thick boards, fastened together side by side, and bent upward in front, to prevent its course being obstructed by accumulations of straw. The under part is furnished with rough stones, embedded in holes made for the purpose, and sometimes with iron spikes instead of stones. This is commonly drawn over the corn by oxen, a man or boy standing upon it to increase the weight.

Threshing Implements

The other consists of a frame, in which are fixed three rollers, armed with iron teeth, and surmounted by a seat in which the driver sits—not so much for his own ease as to add the advantage of his weight. It is drawn by two oxen, and breaks up the straw more effectually than the one first described, and is in other respects a better implement; but it is now not often seen in Palestine, though often enough seen in other parts of Syria, and very common in Egypt.

Threshing Implements

The winnowing was performed by throwing up the grain with a fork against the wind, by which the broken straw and chaff were dispersed, and the grain fell to the ground. The grain was afterwards passed through a sieve to separate the morsels of earth and other impurities, and it then underwent a final purification by being tossed up with wooden scoops, or short-handed shovels, such as we see figured in the monuments of Egypt.

How exactly the ancient agricultural customs of the book of Ruth are preserved to this day in Palestine, may be seen from the following extract from Robinson—“The wheat harvest here in the mountains (or Hebron) had not yet (May 24) arrived; but they were threshing barley, adas or lentiles, and also vetches, called by the Arabs kersenna, which are raised chiefly for camels. The various parcels had apparently lain here for several days; the people would come with their cattle and work for two or three hours, and then go away. Some had three animals, some four; and once I saw two young cattle and a donkey driven round together. Note: This conjunction, even in labor, of diverse animals, was forbidden by the law of Moses in plowing, which prohibition must also have extended to threshing. The ox and ass are particularly mentioned, and the instance before us gives the practice against which the injunction was leveled. The unequal nature of the animals must have rendered the conjunction distressing to both, and the, horns of the ox could not but have been of some annoyance to the ass. In several of the floors they were now winnowing the grain by tossing it up against the wind with a fork.

“Here are needed no guard around the tent; the owners of the crops came every night and slept upon their threshing floors to guard them, and this we found to be universal in all the region of Gaza. We were here in the midst of scenes precisely like those of the book of Ruth, where Boaz winnowed barley, and laid himself down at night to guard the heap of corn.” Note: Biblical Researches, ii. 445, 446. The custom is by no means confined to the neighborhood of Gaza. Throughout the East, the owner guards thus the precious produce of his fields at night while thus exposed—and that in person, like Boaz, unless he be a very great man indeed, or unless he has sons to perform the duty for him. Boaz had no sons; and although he had an overseer of the laborers of the field, he watches his corn in person, that too great temptation to connive at depredation might not be placed in the way of persons whose interests were not altogether one with his own.