Isaiah 30:24

Comp. Paul's "Doth God take care for oxen?" (1 Corinthians 9:9).

that ear (the obsolete English word for "plough"), strictly till, R.V.

clean provender salted fodder, i.e. the best fodder (Job 6:5) mixed with grains of salt. The devotion of cattle to salt in any form is well known. Gesenius quotes an Arabic proverb which says that "sweet fodder is the camel's bread, salted fodder is his comfit." The word for "fodder" (bělîl) is usually explained as "mixture" (farrago) of corn with beans, vetches, &c. According to Wetzstein (in Delitzsch's Comm. on this verse) it means "ripe barley." In Syriac it denotes "fresh corn."

winnowed with the shovel and with the fan i.e. prepared with the utmost care. The modern Arabic equivalent of the word rendered "fan" denotes a six-pronged fork (Wetzstein, in Delitzsch's Isaiah, 2nd ed.). As to the process see on ch. Isaiah 17:13.