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Easton's Bible Dictionary
(1) Fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding
to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, etc. ( Numbers
19:2 ; Deuteronomy
21:3 ). It was a curved piece of wood called 'ol .
(2) In Jeremiah
27:2 ; 28:10
, 12
the word in the Authorized Version rendered "yoke" is motah , which properly means
a "staff," or as in the Revised Version, "bar." These words in the Hebrew are
both used figuratively of severe bondage, or affliction, or subjection ( Leviticus
26:13; 1
Kings 12:4 ; Isaiah
47:6 ; Lamentations
1:14 ; 3:27
). In the New Testament the word "yoke" is also used to denote servitude ( Matthew
11:29 ,
11:30 ; Acts
15:10 ; Galatians
5:1 ).
(3) In 1
Samuel 19:21 , Job
1:3 the word thus translated is tzemed, which signifies a pair, two oxen yoked
or coupled together, and hence in 1
Samuel 14:14 it represents as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in
a day, like the Latin jugum . In Isaiah
5:10 this word in the plural is translated "acres."
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(1) A well-known implement of husbandry, frequently used
metaphorically for subjection, e.g. ( 1
Kings 12:4 , 12:9
- 11
; Isaiah
9:4 ; Jeremiah
5:5 ) hence an "iron yoke" represents an unusually galling bondage. ( Jeremiah
28:48 ; 28:13
)
(2) A pair of oxen, so termed as being yoked together. ( 1
Samuel 11:7 ; 1
Kings 19:19 , 19:21
) The Hebrew term is also applied to asses, ( Judges
19:10 ) and mules, ( 2
Kings 5:17 ) and even to a couple of riders. ( Isaiah
21:7 )
(3) The term is also applied to a certain amount of land, ( 1
Samuel 14:14 ) equivalent to that which a couple of oxen could plough in a
day, ( Isaiah
5:10 ) (Authorized Version "acre"), corresponding to the Latin jugum.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
yok:
(1) The usual word is 'ol (Genesis
27:40, etc.), less commonly the (apparently later) form moTah (Isaiah
58:6, etc.; in Nab 1:13 moT), which the Revised Version (British and American)
in Jeremiah
27 , 28
translates "bar" (a most needless and obscuring change). The Greek in Apocrypha
(Sirach 28:19, etc.) and in the New Testament (Matthew
11:29, etc.) is invariably zugos. 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 (Genesis
27:40, etc.). It was provided with straight "bars" (moToth in Leviticus
26:13; Ezekiel
34:27) projecting downward, against which the shoulders of the oxen pressed,
and it was held in position by thongs or "bonds" (moceroth in Jeremiah
2:20 ; 5:5
; 27:2
; 30:8
; 'aghuddoth in Isaiah
58:6, "bands"), fastened under the animals' throats. Such yokes could of course
be of any weight (1
Kings 12:4), depending on the nature of the work to be done, but the
use of "iron yokes" (Deuteronomy
28:48 ; Jeremiah
28:13) 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 Hosea
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 Jeremiah
27 , 28).
Attention needs to be called only to Lamentations
3:27, where "disciplining sorrow" is meant, and to Jeremiah
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 Matthew
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 tsemedh (1
Samuel 11:7, etc.), or zeugos (Luke
14:19).
See also UNEQUAL; YOKE-FELLOW.
Burton Scott Easton
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, motah, 'ol, tsemedh, yoke
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