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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 9:9 - 9:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Muzzle (φιμώσεις)
See on Mat 22:12, Mat 22:34; see on Mar 4:39. Some texts read κημώσεις a muzzle, from κημός a muzzle See Deu 25:4.
Ox - treadeth
The custom of driving the oxen over the corn strewed on the ground or on a paved area, was an Egyptian one. In later times the Jews used threshing instruments, dragged by the beasts through the grain Herodotus says that pigs were employed for this purpose in Egypt, but the monuments always represent oxen, or, more rarely, asses. In Andalusia the process may still be seen, the animals pulling the drag in a circle through the heap of grain; and in Italy, the method of treading out by horses was in use up to a comparatively recent date.
The verb ἀλοάω to tread, occurring only here, Deu 25:10, and 1Ti 5:18, is etymologically related to ἅλων halon, threshing-floor (see on Mat 3:12), which also means the disk of the sun or moon, or a halo, thus implying the circular shape of the floor. Dr. Thomson says: “The command of Moses not to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn is literally obeyed to this day by most farmers, and you often see the oxen eating from the floor as they go round. There are niggardly peasants, however, who do muzzle the ox” (“The Land and the Book”). This custom was in strong contrast with that of Gentile farmers, who treated their laboring animals cruelly, sometimes employing inhuman methods to prevent them from eating while threshing. All students of the Egyptian monuments are familiar with the hieroglyphic inscription in a tomb at Eileithyas, one of the oldest written poems extant:
“Thresh ye for yourselves,
Thresh ye for yourselves,
Thresh ye for yourselves, O oxen.
Measures of grain for yourselves,
Measures of grain for your masters.”
Doth God take care for oxen?
The A.V. misses the true point of the expression. Paul, of course, assumes that God cares for the brute creation; but he means that this precept of Moses was not primarily for the oxen's sake but for man's sake. He is emphasizing the typical and spiritual meaning of the command. Render, as Rev., Is it for the oxen that God careth?