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HARROW.—In 2Sa_12:31—a passage which had become corrupt before the date of 1Ch_20:3—as rendered in EV [Note: English Version.] , David is represented as torturing the Ammonites ‘under harrows of iron.’ The true text and rendering, however, have reference to various forms of forced labour (see RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), and the ‘harrows’ become ‘picks of iron’ or some similar instrument.
The Heb. verb tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘harrow’ in Job_39:10 is elsewhere correctly rendered ‘break the clods’ (Hos_10:11; also Isa_28:24, but Amer. RV [Note: Revised Version.] has here ‘harrow’). In Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] ii. 306 several reasons were given for rejecting the universal modern rendering of the original by ‘harrow.’ This conclusion has since been confirmed by the discovery of the original Hebrew of Sir_38:26 where ‘who setteth his mind to “harrow” in the furrows’ would be an absurd rendering. There is no evidence that the Hebrews at any time made use of an implement corresponding to our harrow. Stiff soil was broken up by the plough or the mattock. Cf. Agriculture, § 1.
A. R. S. Kennedy.