Hebrew word · H1758

דּוּשׁ

bedisho

to tread

To tread or trample, mainly of threshing grain: oxen, or sledges pulled by oxen, crushing the stalks to free the kernels. Used figuratively for crushing a defeated enemy.

Appears 16 times in 14 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to tread out, thresh

1a) (Qal) to tread on, trample on, thresh

1b) (Niphal) to be trampled down

1c) (Hophal) to be threshed

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Amos 1:3

Range of meaning

To tread or trample, mainly of threshing grain: oxen, or sledges pulled by oxen, crushing the stalks to free the kernels. Used figuratively for crushing a defeated enemy.

Against the English

Most versions keep 'threshed', which is right. NLT writes 'beat down my people... as grain is threshed', which spells out the comparison and adds 'my people'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 25:4 (an ox 'while it treads out' grain). Hos 10:11 (Ephraim as a heifer that loves to thresh). Judg 8:7, where Gideon threatens to 'thresh your flesh with desert thorns' and then punishes the men of Succoth. 2 Kgs 13:7, where the king of Aram made Israel's army 'like the dust at threshing (ladush)', using the same verb for the same enemy. Mic 4:13 and Isa 41:15 also use threshing for military victory.

From the study of Habakkuk 3:12

Range of meaning

To tread out grain, to thresh. It also means to trample or crush, sometimes brutally (Judges 8:7, 'I will thresh your flesh with thorns').

Against the English

KJV, BSB, ESV, WEB and YLT say 'thresh,' which keeps the farming picture. NASB and NLT say 'trampled' (as I recall), which is clearer to modern readers but loses the threshing-floor image and its echoes.

How it drifted

No change in meaning, but most modern readers no longer know what threshing involved, so 'thresh' can read as a vague synonym for 'beat.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 25:4: 'Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out (bedisho) the grain.' Hosea 10:11: a heifer that 'loves to thresh.' In Amos 1:3 Damascus 'threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron,' a war atrocity. In 2 Kings 13:7 Aram made Israel 'like dust at threshing.' In Micah 4:12–13 God gathers nations 'like sheaves to the threshing floor' and tells Zion to 'arise and thresh.' See also Isaiah 41:15. Akkadian has a related verb (dâšu, 'to trample/thresh'), and Assyrian kings used trampling imagery in their war boasts (per CAD; noted with moderate confidence).

From the study of Deuteronomy 25:4

Range of meaning

To tread, trample, and so to thresh, separating grain from stalk and husk by trampling or by dragging a threshing sledge over it. It is also used figuratively for crushing enemies (Amos 1:3, Damascus 'threshed Gilead with sledges of iron'; Micah 4:13; Habakkuk 3:12). The related noun dayish means 'threshing season' (Leviticus 26:5).

Against the English

'Treading out the grain' (BSB, WEB) and 'threshing' (YLT) are both accurate. The KJV's supplied '[the corn]' in brackets is not in the Hebrew. The text simply says 'in its threshing'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hosea 10:11 describes Ephraim as 'a trained heifer that loves to thresh'. Threshing was the job a young cow liked, probably because an unmuzzled animal could eat as it worked. Isaiah 28:27–28 describes different threshing methods for different crops. Josephus (Antiquities 4.233) paraphrases this law as a ban on muzzling the animals that work with us on the threshing floor at harvest.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1
  1. Deuteronomy 25:4 בְּדִישֽׁוֹ׃ ס when threshes it

    Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

    Here: Literally 'in its threshing': the preposition 'in/while' + the verb 'tread' used as a noun + 'its'. The 'its' refers to the ox, which is the one doing the threshing, so it means 'while it is threshing'. It is not an object, as in 'threshes it'. The time limit matters: the ban covers the very moment when the animal is walking over food.

Judges · 1
  1. Judges 8:7 וְדַשְׁתִּי֙ and I will thresh

    “Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

2 Kings · 1
  1. 2 Kings 13:7 לָדֻֽשׁ׃ to trample

    Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

1 Chronicles · 1
  1. 1 Chronicles 21:20 דָּ֥שׁ he threshed

    Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

Job · 1
  1. Job 39:15 תְּדוּשֶֽׁהָ׃ it will trample it

    She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them.

Isaiah · 6
  1. Isaiah 25:10 וְנָ֤דוֹשׁ כְּהִדּ֥וּשׁ and it will be trampled down, as is trampled down

    For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trodden into the dung pile.

    Here: Passive future: 'and Moab will be threshed/trampled'. The verb is the ordinary word for threshing grain, done by oxen and sledges on a threshing floor. It was also used for crushing a defeated enemy (Amos 1:3).

  2. Isaiah 28:27 י֣וּדַשׁ it is threshed

    Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.

  3. Isaiah 28:28 אָד֣וֹשׁ יְדוּשֶׁ֑נּוּ certainly <to thresh>, anyone threshes it

    Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed. Though the wheels of the cart roll over it, the horses do not crush it.

  4. Isaiah 41:15 תָּד֤וּשׁ you will thresh

    Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

    Here: "You will thresh." The verb is now masculine singular, addressing Jacob/Israel directly instead of the feminine "worm." Threshing means treading or dragging over the harvest to break it apart. The word is also used for trampling defeated enemies (Amos 1:3; Mic 4:13; Hab 3:12).

Jeremiah · 1
  1. Jeremiah 50:11 דָשָׁ֔ה threshing

    “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,

    Here: 'Threshing': a heifer driven over the grain on the threshing floor. By law such an animal was not muzzled (Deuteronomy 25:4), so it ate as it worked. It is a well-fed animal getting fat on someone else's harvest.

Hosea · 1
  1. Hosea 10:11 לָד֔וּשׁ to thresh

    Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thresh; but I will place a yoke on her fair neck. I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, and Jacob will break the hard ground.

Amos · 1
  1. Amos 1:3 דּוּשָׁ֛ם threshed they

    This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron.

    Here: 'Their threshing', a verbal noun with 'their' attached. It is a farm word for crushing grain on the threshing floor, here used of people.

Micah · 1
  1. Micah 4:13 וָד֣וֹשִׁי and thresh

    Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

    Here: 'And thresh!' The verb means trampling grain on the threshing floor, as an ox does. It picks up v.12, where God has gathered the nations 'like sheaves to the threshing floor'.

Habakkuk · 1
  1. Habakkuk 3:12 תָּד֥וּשׁ you trample down

    You marched across the earth with fury; You threshed the nations in wrath.

    Here: 'You thresh.' This is the farm action of driving oxen or a heavy threshing sledge over cut grain until the stalks are crushed and the kernels break loose. Applied to nations, it means trampling them flat as if they were sheaves on a threshing floor.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.