Isaiah 28:24
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Doth he that ploweth to sow plow continually? doth he continually open and harrow his ground?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed?
Webster's Revision
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
World English Bible
Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?
English Revised Version (ERV)
Doth the plowman plow continually to sow? doth he continually open and break the clods of his ground?
Definitions for Isaiah 28:24
Barnes's Isaiah 28:24 Bible Commentary
Doth the plowman ... - The question here asked implies that he does "not" plow all the day. The interrogative form is often the most emphatic mode of affirmation.
All day - The sense is, does he do nothing else but plow? Is this the only thing which is necessary to be done in order to obtain a harvest? The idea which the prophet intends to convey here is this. A farmer does not suppose that he can obtain a harvest by doing nothing else but plow. There is much else to be done. So it would be just as absurd to suppose that God would deal with his people always in the same manner, as it would be for the farmer to be engaged in nothing else but plowing.
Doth he open ... - That is, is he always engaged in opening, and breaking the clods of his field? There is much else to be done besides this. The word 'open' here refers to the furrows that are made by the plow. The earth is laid open as it were to the sunbeams, and to the showers of rain, and to the reception of seed. The word rendered 'break' (ישׁדד yshadēd) properly means "to harrow," that is, to break up the clods by harrowing Job 39:10; Hosea 10:11.
Wesley's Isaiah 28:24 Bible Commentary
28:24 Doth - The plowman doth not spend all his time in plowing the ground; but he has several times for several works. And so God has his times and seasons for several works, and his providence is various at several times, and towards several people. Therefore those scoffing Israelites were guilty of great folly, in flattering themselves, because of God's long patience towards them; for God will certainly take a time to thresh, and break them with his judgments, as at present he plowed and harrowed them, and so prepared them for it by his threatenings.Open - Understand, all day. Break - Which they used to do with a kind of harrow.