Isaiah 30:24

30:24 The oxen and donkeys used in plowing ¹ 

will eat seasoned feed winnowed with a shovel and pitchfork. ² 

Isaiah 41:16

41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;

the wind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Jeremiah 4:11

4:11 “At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem ³  will be told,

‘A scorching wind will sweep down

from the hilltops in the desert on ⁴  my dear people. ⁵ 

It will not be a gentle breeze

for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 15:7

15:7 The Lord continued, ⁷ 

“In every town in the land I will purge them

like straw blown away by the wind. ⁸ 

I will destroy my people.

I will kill off their children.

I will do so because they did not change their behavior. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:2

51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. ¹⁰ 

They will winnow her and strip her land bare. ¹¹ 

This will happen when ¹²  they come against her from every direction,

when it is time to destroy her. ¹³ 

Luke 3:17

3:17 His winnowing fork ¹⁴  is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, ¹⁵  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹⁶ 

[30:24]  ¹ tn Heb “the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground.”

[30:24]  ² sn Crops will be so abundant that even the work animals will eat well.

[4:11]  ³ tn Heb “this people and Jerusalem.”

[4:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “A scorching wind from the hilltops in the desert toward…”

[4:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” The term “daughter of” is appositional to “my people” and is supplied in the translation as a term of sympathy and endearment. Compare the common expression “daughter of Zion.”

[4:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “not for winnowing and not for cleansing.” The words “It will not be a gentle breeze” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation here for clarification.

[15:7]  ⁷ tn The words “The Lord continued” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to show the shift back to talking about the people instead of addressing them. The obvious speaker is the Lord; the likely listener is Jeremiah as in vv. 1-4.

[15:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land.” The word “gates” is here being used figuratively for the cities, the part for the whole. See 14:2 and the notes there.

[15:7]  ⁹ tn Or “did not repent of their wicked ways”; Heb “They did not turn back from their ways.” There is no casual particle here (either כִּי [ki], which is more formally casual, or וְ [vÿ], which sometimes introduces casual circumstantial clauses). The causal idea is furnished by the connection of ideas. If the verbs throughout this section are treated as pasts and this section seen as a lament, then the clause could be sequential: “but they still did not turn…”

[51:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I will send foreign people against Babylonia.” The translation follows the reading of the Greek recensions of Aquila and Symmachus and the Latin version (the Vulgate). That reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and several of the modern versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, NAB, and God’s Word). It fits better with the verb that follows it than the reading of the Hebrew text and the rest of the versions. The difference in the two readings is again only the difference in vocalization, the Hebrew text reading זָרִים (zarim) and the versions cited reading זֹרִים (zorim). If the Hebrew text is followed, there is a wordplay between the two words, “foreigners” and “winnow.” The words “like a wind blowing away chaff” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the reader what “winnow” means.

[51:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “They will strip her land bare like a wind blowing away chaff.” The alternate translation would be necessary if one were to adopt the alternate reading of the first line (the reading of the Hebrew text). The explanation of “winnow” would then be necessary in the second line. The verb translated “strip…bare” means literally “to empty out” (see BDB 132 s.v. בָּקַק Polel). It has been used in 19:7 in the Qal of “making void” Judah’s plans in a wordplay on the word for “bottle.” See the study note on 19:7 for further details.

[51:2]  ¹² tn This assumes that the particle כִּי (ki) is temporal (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). This is the interpretation adopted also by NRSV and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 349. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 345) and J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 747, n. 3) interpret it as asseverative or emphatic, “Truly, indeed.” Many of the modern English versions merely ignore it. Reading it as temporal makes it unnecessary to emend the following verb as Bright and Thompson do (from הָיוּ [hayu] to יִהְיוּ [yihyu]).

[51:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the day of disaster.”

[3:17]  ¹⁴ sn A winnowing fork is a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blows away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:17]  ¹⁵ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building for housing livestock).

[3:17]  ¹⁶ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.