Harrow

is the rendering in the Eng. Vers. of the following Hebrew words: חָרַיוֹ, charits' (lit. a cutting, hence a slice of curdled milk, "cheese," 1Sa 17:18) 'a tribulum or threshing (q.v.) sledge (2Sa 12:31; 1Ch 20:3); elsewhere only the verb שָׂדִד, sadad' (lit. to level off), to harrow a field (Job 39:10; "break the clods," Isa 28:4; Ho 10:11). See Kitto, Daily Bible Illust. 3, 39, 6, 397. The form of the ancient Hebrew harrow, if any instrument properly corresponding to this term existed, is unknown. Probably it was, — as still in Egypt (Niebuhr, Trav. 1, 151), merely a board, which was dragged over the fields to level the lumps. Among the Romans it consisted of a hurtle (crates) of rods with teeth (Pliny, 18. 43; comp. Virg. Georg. 1, 94). See generally Ugolini, Comm. de re rustica vett. Hebr. 5, 21 (in his Thesaur. 29:p. 332 sq.); Paul-sen, Ackerb. p. 96. "In modern Palestine, oxen are sometimes turned in to trample the clods, and in some parts of Asia a bush of thorns is dragged over the surface; but all these processes, if used, occur (not after, but) before the seed is committed to the soil." SEE AGRICULTURE.