The ox that treadeth out the corn. — Better, the ox while treading out the corn. In this verse the question of the previous one is answered. The Law does say the same: “For it is written in the Law of Moses,” etc. The pointed and emphatic mention of the Law of Moses would give the words great weight with Jewish opponents. On a space of hard ground called a threshing-floor the oxen were driven to and fro over the corn collected there, and thus the separation of the grain from the husk was accomplished.
Doth God take care for oxen? — We must not take these and the following words as a denial of the divine regard for the brute creation, which runs through the Mosaic law and is exemplified in Jonah 4:11, but as an expression of the Apostle’s belief as to the ultimate and highest object of God’s love. The good which such a provision as the Law achieved for the oxen was nothing compared to the good which it accomplished for man. God did not do this simply as a provision for the ox, but to teach us men humanity — to teach us that it is a divine principle that the labourer should have his reward.