Four different modes of threshing are here referred to:
1. With a rod or flail. This was for the small delicate seeds, such as fitches and cummin. It was also used for grain when only a small quantity was to be threshed, or when it was necessary to conceal the operation from an enemy. It was doubtless in this manner that Ruth, when she was in the field of Boaz, “beat out” at evening what she had gleaned during the day.
2. With the charuts, “threshing instrument.” This was a machine in some respects resembling the ordinary stone-sledge of American farmers. Professor Hackett describes one he saw at Beirut: “The frame was composed of thick pieces of plank, turned up in front like our stone-sledge, and perforated with holes underneath for holding the teeth. The teeth consisted of pieces of sharp basaltic rock about three inches long, and hardly less firm than iron itself. This machine is drawn over the grain by horses or oxen, and serves, together with the trampling of the feet of the animals, to beat out the kernels and cut up the straw preparatory to winnowing” (Illustrations of Scripture, p 161). The teeth were sometimes of iron. See Amos 1:33Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: (Amos 1:3). The tribulum of the Romans resembled this instrument.
3. Agalah, “cartwheel,” is supposed to have been the same as the morag, “threshing instrument,” mentioned in 2 Samuel 24:2222And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. (2 Samuel 24:22); 1 Chronicles 21:2323And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. (1 Chronicles 21:23); and Isaiah 41:1515Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. (Isaiah 41:15), though some make the morag and the charuts the same.
This instrument is still known in Egypt by the name of mowrej. It consists of three or four heavy rollers of wood, iron, or stone, roughly made and joined together in a square frame, which is in the form of a sledge or drag. The rollers are said to be like the barrels of an organ with their projections. The cylinders are parallel to each other, and are stuck full of spikes having sharp square points. It is used in the same way as the charuts. The driver sits on the machine, and with his weight helps to keep it down. This instrument is probably referred to in Proverbs 20:2626A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them. (Proverbs 20:26), where it is said, “A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.”
(It is proper to say that authorities are not agreed as to the difference between the charuts, the agalah, and the morag. In the above account we have endeavored, as far as possible, to harmonize the conflicting opinions of various expositors.)
4. The last mode of threshing referred to in the text is that of treading out the grain, for an explanation of which see note on Deuteronomy 25:44Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. (Deuteronomy 25:4) (#207).