Isaiah 28:27

27 A heavy sledge is never used to thresh black cumin; rather, it is beaten with a light stick. A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin; instead, it is beaten lightly with a flail.

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 Does he not finally plant his seeds— black cumin, cumin, wheat, barley, and emmer wheat— each in its proper way, and each in its proper place?

26 The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding.

27 A heavy sledge is never used to thresh black cumin; rather, it is beaten with a light stick. A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin; instead, it is beaten lightly with a flail.

28 Grain for bread is easily crushed, so he doesn’t keep on pounding it. He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn’t pulverize it.

29 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher, and he gives the farmer great wisdom.