Isaiah 28:27

27 A farmer doesn't use heavy boards to crush dill; he doesn't use a wagon wheel to crush cumin. He uses a small stick to break open the dill, and with a stick he opens the cumin.

Isaiah 28:27 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 28:27

For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument,
&c.] A wooden sledge, dray, or cart, drawn on wheels; the bottom of which was stuck with iron teeth, and the top filled with stones, to press it down with the weight thereof, and was drawn by horses, or oxen, to and fro, over the sheaves of corn, laid in proper order, whereby the grain was separated from the husk: (See Gill on 1 Corinthians 9:9) but fitches, the grain of them being more easily separated, such an instrument was not used in threshing them: neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin;
the cart wheel of the above instrument was not turned upon the cummin, that being also more easily threshed, or beaten out, and therefore another method was used with these, as follows: but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a
rod:
in like manner as corn is with us threshed out with a flail; so the Lord proportions the chastisement, and corrections of his people to the grace and strength that he gives them; he afflicts them either more gently, or more severely, as they are able to bear it; with some he uses his staff and rod, and with others his threshing instrument and cart wheel; some being easier and others harder to be wrought upon by the afflictive dispensations of Providence; see ( 1 Corinthians 10:13 ) or this may point out the difference between the punishment of wicked men and the chastisement of the saints.

Isaiah 28:27 In-Context

25 He makes the ground flat and smooth. Then he plants the dill and scatters the cumin. He plants the wheat in rows, the barley in its special place, and other wheat as a border around the field.

26 His God teaches him and shows him the right way.

27 A farmer doesn't use heavy boards to crush dill; he doesn't use a wagon wheel to crush cumin. He uses a small stick to break open the dill, and with a stick he opens the cumin.

28 The grain is ground to make bread. People do not ruin it by crushing it forever. The farmer separates the wheat from the chaff with his cart, but he does not let his horses grind it.

29 This lesson also comes from the Lord All-Powerful, who gives wonderful advice, who is very wise.