O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
My threshing - i:e., my people (the Jews), trodden down by Babylon.
And the grain of my floor - Hebrew, the son of my floor; all that is on the floor; i:e., my people, treated as grain laid on the floor for threshing: implying, too, that by affliction, a remnant (grain) would be separated from the ungodly (chaff). Even when on the floor of corrective threshing, God's people are still regarded, by Him as 'sons,' 'Tribulation' is derived from 'tribulum,' a threshing instrument, happily implying that it is designed to remove the chaff, and to retain the pure wheat of the character. See Isaiah 28:27-28. Some, from Jeremiah 51:33, make Babylon the object of the threshing; but Isaiah is plainly addressing his countrymen, as the next words show, not the Babylonians. The Babylonians I will not thresh, but utterly crush, whereas you, my people, I will thresh, so as to fan out the chaff, and stow the grain safe in my granary.
One out of Seir asks, What of the night! Is there a hope of the dawn of deliverance? Isaiah replies, The morning is beginning to dawn; but night is also coming (to you). Compare Psalms 137:7. The Hebrew captives would is delivered, and taunting Edom punished.