YOKE

(1.) Fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, etc. (Num. 19:2; Deut. 21:3). It was a curved piece of wood called _'ol_.

(2.) In Jer. 27:2;28:10, 28: 12 the word in the Authorized Version rendered "yoke" is _motah_, which properly means a "staff," or as in the Revised Version, "bar."

These words in the Hebrew are both used figuratively of severe bondage, or affliction, or subjection (Lev. 26:13; 1-Kings 12:4; Isa. 47:6; Lam. 1:14;3:27). In the New Testament the word "yoke" is also used to denote servitude (Matt. 11:29, Matt. 11: 30; Acts 15:10; Gal. 5:1).

(3.) In 1-Sam 11:7, 1-Sam 11: 1-Kings 19:21, 1-Kings 19: Job 1:3 the word thus translated is _tzemed_, which signifies a pair, two oxen yoked or coupled together, and hence in 1-Sam 14:14 it represents as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, like the Latin _jugum_. In Isa. 5:10 this word in the plural is translated "acres."