Yoke

Yoke in the Greek Ζυγος, is the symbol of bondage or slavery; "Thou shalt serve thy brother," says the patriarch Isaac to his eldest son; "and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck," Gen 27:40. See also Isa 9:4; Isa 10:27; Eze 34:27; Nah 1:13; Jer 27:2-15; Hos 11:4; Mat 11:29-30; "Take my yoke upon you," &c. 1Ti 6:1. "As many servants as are under the yoke," Act 10:15. "To put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples," Gal 5:1. "The yoke of bon­dage," Rev 6:5. "I beheld, and lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had Ζυγος, a yoke, in his hand."

Ζυγος, when used by the scriptural writers to signify a balance," says Dean Woodhouse, "is seen seldom, or perhaps never, to stand alone, as in this passage of the Revelation, but is joined to some other word or expression in the context, which points out this its borrowed significa­tion; for it is only in a borrowed and secondary sense that the word can be taken to signify a balance.

A symbol of subjection and servitude, 1Ki 12:4 ; an iron yoke, of severe oppression, Deu 28:48 . The ceremonial law was a yoke, a burden-some restriction, Mal 15:10 Gal 5:1 . The withdrawing or breaking of a yoke denoted a temporary or an unlimited emancipation form bondage, Isa 58:6 Jer 2:20, and sometimes the disowning of rightful authority, Jer 5:5 . The iron yoke imposed by our sins, none but God can remove, Lam 1:14 ; but the yoke of Christ’s service is easy and light, Mat 11:29,30 .\par

Yoke.

1. A well-known implement of husbandry, frequently used metaphorically for subjection, for example, 1Ki 12:4; 1Ki 12:9-11; Isa 9:4; Jer 5:5, hence, an "iron yoke" represents an unusually galling bondage. Deu 28:48; Jer 28:13.

2. A pair of oxen, so termed as being yoked together. 1Sa 11:7; 1Ki 19:19; 1Ki 19:21. The Hebrew term is also applied to asses, Jdg 19:10, and mules, 2Ki 5:17, and even to a couple of riders. Isa 21:7.

3. The term is also applied to a certain amount of land, 1Sa 14:14, equivalent to that which a couple of oxen could plough in a day, Isa 5:10, (Authorized Version, "acre"), corresponding to the Latin jugum.

mot, the wooden bow (ol) bound to the ox’s neck: the two are combined, "bands of the yoke" (Lev 26:13; Eze 34:27; Jer 2:20, rather "thou hast broken the yoke and burst the bands which I laid on thee," i.e. My laws, setting them at defiance, Jer 5:5; Psa 2:3). Contrast the world’s heavy yoke (1Ki 12:4; 1Ki 12:9; 1Ki 12:11; Isa 9:11) with Christ’s "easy yoke" (Mat 11:29-30). Tsemed, a pair of oxen (1Sa 11:7), or donkeys (Jdg 19:10); a couple of horsemen (Isa 21:7); also what land a pair of oxen could plow in a day (Isa 5:10, "ten acres," literally, ten yokes; Latin: jugum, jugerum; 1Sa 14:14).

Yoke. It was much lighter and larger than ours, so that the cattle stood farther apart. It was simply a stick laid upon the necks of the cattle, to which it was held by thongs instead of wooden bows, and in a similar manner it was attached to the plough-beam. In modern Syria wooden pins are sometimes used instead of thongs, the lower ends of which are held by a parallel stick under the necks of the oxen. The yoke was an appropriate emblem of subjection and of slavery, while the removal of it indicated deliverance. Gen 27:40; Jer 2:20; Mat 11:29-30. Breaking the yoke also represents the rejection of authority. Nan. 1:13.

The harness that secures an animal to a cart or plough; and the beam to which two animals are fastened for any purpose of labour; it is also used to denote the number two, as ’a yoke of oxen.’ 1Sa 11:7. It is employed as a symbol of servitude and slavery. Jer 28:2-14; 1Ti 6:1. Also of the grievous bondage of being under the law. Act 15:10; Gal 5:1. The Lord Jesus invites the believer to take His yoke upon him, and to learn of Him; that is, giving up self-will, to be in submission to the will of God, content to be in the lowest place; and such will find rest to their souls. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. Mat 11:29-30.

Not Being Entangled With The Yoke Of Bondage

Act_15:10; Gal_5:1.

The LORD Breaking Yokes

Lev_26:11-13; Eze_34:27-29.

The Yoke Of Jesus Christ

Mat_11:25-30.

Who Not To Be Equally Yoked With

2Co_6:14-18

YOKE.—The yoke (ζυγός, Mat 11:29 f.) supplied Jesus with one of His agricultural metaphors (cf. Mat 13:38, Luk 12:17; Luk 15:14, Joh 15:1). It was ‘a bar which connects two of a kind usually—as the ox-yoke—fastened by bows on the necks of a pair of oxen and by thongs to the horns or the foreheads of the oxen. It consists generally of a piece of timber hollowed or made curving near each end, and fitted with bows for receiving the necks of the oxen, by which means two are connected for drawing. From a ring or hook in the bow a chain extends to the thing to be drawn’ (Lloyd’s Ency. Dict.). Another use of the word is found in Luk 14:19 (ζεῦγος, translation ‘pair’ in Luk 2:24), where it means a pair of draught-oxen. Now, while the facts of farm-life supplied the form for this metaphor of Jesus, it was not there alone that He found the idea of the metaphor. When from the fields His eye turned to the Scriptures to survey the story of His people, on many a page the yoke met His vision. There it is, in prose, poetry, and prophecy; about it have gathered the country’s glory and grief. To itself it has harnessed the people’s experiences. Ideas of opposing character—joy and woe, freedom and slavery, peace and war, plenty and poverty—are symbolized by it (Deu 28:48, Job 1:3; Job 42:12, Jer 2:20, Isa 58:6, 1Ki 12:4, Lam 3:27). Moreover, it is in His treatment of those bitter-sweet memories and realities of life that the teaching of Jesus, under this figure of speech, touches and keeps a lonely sublimity. Only once (Mat 11:29 f.) He uses the metaphor. Now it is in everyday use. For He ‘touched nothing that He did not adorn.’ And He so adorned the yoke as to draw after it the whole gospel.

When Jesus turned His gaze from the fields of industrial life, and from the book of remembrance of the past to the book of the life of His own generation, He discovered a nation under the yoke, a race under the harrow. He hit the mark when He spoke of yokes. His audience was made up of those who were wearing yokes of all sorts and sizes, but no man with his own yoke harnessed on exactly as his neighbour’s. On the other hand, that audience was suffering under an intolerable strain. Three yokes were galling and killing them—(1) the yoke of the Law, (2) of Rome, (3) of sin. Their leaders (Mat 23:4) bound grievous burdens on the people’s shoulders; nor would they remove them. Of some it was the constant temptation to throw off the yoke of the foreigner. The Zealots (Luk 6:15) were most restive under Rome. They were the political Nationalists of the day. Again, who of them all was not ‘sold under sin’ (Rom 7:14)? These were the yokes of the people. The yoke of Jesus was the will of the Father. He wore it always, never worked without it; never against it, always with it (Joh 8:29). Once He asked thrice if He might take it off (Mat 26:39 ff.) for the road was steep. The yoke of Jesus was the welfare of man. He came to serve (Mar 10:45). To be Saviour was at once the lowliest, loftiest, and loneliest way of working out the welfare of man. And this yoke was tied on with cords of love (Joh 13:1) unto the end. The humanity of Jesus was His yoke. He was, not the angel (Heb 2:9; Heb 2:16), but the man Christ Jesus (1Ti 2:5); and He did the perfect will of the Father under this yoke, frail but firm—the body of His humiliation.

Literature.—Bishop Thorold’s The Yoke of Christ; Expositor, i. vi. [1877] 142, vii. [1878] 348, xi. [1880] 101; Exp. Times, iii. [1892] 512, vi. [1895] 176; Henry Drummond, Pax Vobiscum, 41; W. A. Butler, Sermons, ii. 320; G. A. Chadwick, Pilate’s Gift, 62; G. Macdonald, Hope of the Gospel, 152.

John R. Legge.

See AGRICULTURE.

YOKE.—See Agriculture, 1; Weights and Measures, 1.

yōk:

(1) The usual word is עול, ‛ōl (Gen 27:40, etc.), less commonly the (apparently later) form מוטה, mōṭāh (Isa 58:6, etc.; in Nab Isa 1:13 מוט, mōṭ), which the Revised Version (British and American) in Jer 27; 28 translates “bar” (a most needless and obscuring change). The Greek in Apocrypha (Sirach 28:19, etc.) and in the New Testament (Mat 11:29 f, etc.) is invariably ζυγός, zugós. Egyptian monuments show a yoke that consisted of a straight bar fastened to the foreheads of the cattle at the root of the horns, and such yokes were no doubt used in Palestine also; but the more usual form was one that rested on the neck (Gen 27:40, etc.). It was provided with straight “bars” (mōṭōth in Lev 26:13; Eze 34:27) projecting downward, against which the shoulders of the oxen pressed, and it was held in position by thongs or “bonds” (mōṣērōth in Jer 2:20; Jer 5:5; Jer 27:2; Jer 30:8; ’ăghuddōth in Isa 58:6, “bands”), fastened under the animals’ throats. Such yokes could of course be of any weight (1Ki 12:4 ff), depending on the nature of the work to be done, but the use of “iron yokes” (Deu 28:48; Jer 28:13 f) must have been very rare, if, indeed, the phrase is anything more than a figure of speech.

What is meant by “the yoke on their jaws” in Hos 11:4 is quite obscure. Possibly a horse’s bit is meant; possibly the phrase is a condensed form for “the yoke that prevents their feeding”; possibly the text is corrupt. See JAW.

The figurative use of “yoke” in the sense of “servitude” is intensely obvious (compare especially Jer 27, 28). Attention needs to be called only to Lam 3:27, where “disciplining sorrow” is meant, and to Jer 5:5, where the phrase is a figure for “the law of God.” This last use became popular with the Jews at a later period and it is found, e.g. in Apocrypha Baruch 41:3; Psalter of Solomon 7:9; 17:32; Ab. iii. 7,. and in this sense the phrase is employed. by Christ in Mat 11:29 f. “My yoke” here means “the service of God as I teach it” (the common interpretation, “the sorrows that I bear,” is utterly irrelevant) and the emphasis is on “my.” The contrast is not between “yoke” and “no yoke,” but between “my teaching” (light yoke) and “the current scribal teaching’; (heavy yoke).

(2) “Yoke” in the sense of “a pair of oxen” is צמד, cemedh (1Sa 11:7, etc.), or ζεῦγος, zeúgos (Luk 14:19).

See also UNEQUAL; YOKE-FELLOW.

Gen 27:40 (b) This type is used to indicate the oppression and repression placed upon one person by another person, or upon one nation by another nation.

Mat 11:29 (b) This term is used to indicate the blessed union for service which the Lord desires on the part of His people. The Christian, walking with the Lord and serving Him, finds the work to be easy, and the load is light.

2Co 6:14 (b) In this case the yoke represents an unhappy union of those who are saved with those who are unsaved in any service or work. The Lord commands His people to be linked up only with Christians, and not with those who belong to Satan’s family. This refers to marriage, to business, and to every other form of union. This situation is complicated frequently by those who are saved, born again, after the union is made. GOD made provision for this situation in various parts of His Word.

A yoke was a piece of curved wood placed over the neck of an animal to enable it to pull a plough or a cart (Num 19:2). According to a commonly used metaphor, the yoke was a symbol of hardship and bondage (Gen 27:40; 1Ki 12:4; Isa 9:4; Jer 27:8; Jer 28:1-16; 1Ti 6:1). In this sense Jewish law-keeping was a harsh yoke. It was a burden that the Jewish religious leaders forced upon the people (Act 15:10; Gal 5:1; cf. Mat 23:4).

When people submit to Jesus Christ as their master, they take upon themselves his yoke. Christ’s yoke, however, is not harsh or heavy, but easy and light. Obedience to him does not create weariness, but brings refreshment, joy and meaning to life (Mat 11:28-30; 1Jn 5:3).

Farmers sometimes yoked animals together to form a pair or a team (1Ki 19:19; Luk 14:19; Php 4:3); but Israelite law did not allow them to yoke together two animals of a different kind, such as an ox and an ass (Deu 22:10). Paul used this to illustrate that a Christian should not enter into a binding relationship (such as marriage) with a non-Christian (2Co 6:14).

A pole that was put across the

shoulders of men, usually slaves, or

animals and used in pulling or carrying

heavy loads.