Harrow

Harrow - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

(Heb. harits), a tribulum or sharp threshing sledge; a frame armed on the under side with rollers or sharp spikes (2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3).

Heb. verb sadad, to harrow a field, break its clods (Job 39:10; Isa. 28:4; Hos. 10: 11). Its form is unknown. It may have resembled the instrument still in use in Egypt.

Harrow - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HAR'ROW, n. An instrument of agriculture, formed of pieces of timber sometimes crossing each other, and set with iron teeth. It is drawn over plowed land to level it and break the clods, and to cover seed when sown.

HAR'ROW, v.t. To draw a harrow over, for the purpose of breaking clods and leveling the surface, or for covering seed sown; as, to harrow land or ground.

1. To break or tear with a harrow.

Will he harrow the valleys after thee? Job 39

2. To tear; to lacerate; to torment.

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul--

3. To pillage; to strip; to lay waste by violence. [Not used.]

4. To disturb; to agitate.

har'-o (sadhadh): Sadhadh occurs in 3 passages (Job 39:10; Isa 28:24; Ho 10:11). In the first 2 it is translated "harrow," in the last "break the clods." That this was a separate operation from plowing, and that it was performed with an instrument drawn by animals, seems certain. As to whether it corresponded to our modern harrowing is a question. The reasons for this uncertainty are:

(1) the ancient Egyptians have left no records of its use;

(2) at the present time, in those parts of Palestine and Syria where foreign methods have not been introduced, harrowing is not commonly known, although the writer has been told that in some districts the ground is leveled after plowing with the threshing-sledge or a log drawn by oxen. Cross-plowing is resorted to for breaking up the lumpy soil, especially where the ground has been baked during the long rainless summer. Lumps not reduced in this way are further broken up with a hoe or pick. Seed is always sown before plowing, so that harrowing to cover the seed is unnecessary. See AGRICULTURE. Figuratively used of affliction, discipline, etc. (Isa 28:24).

James A. Patch