For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her - rather, 'is like a threshing-floor at the time of threshing,' or 'at the time when it is trodden.' The treading or threshing is here put before the harvest, out of the natural order, because the prominent thought is the treading down or destruction of Babylon. In the East the treading out of the grain took place only at harvest time. Babylon is like a threshing-floor not trodden for a long time; but the time of harvest, when her citizens shall be trodden under foot, shall come (Calvin). 'Like a threshing-floor full of corn, so is Babylon now full of riches, but the time of harvest shall come, when all her prosperity shall be cut off' (Ludovicus de Dieu). Grotius distinguishes the "harvest" from the "threshing;" the former is the slaying of her citizens, the latter the pillaging and destruction of the city (cf. Joel 3:13; Revelation 14:15; Revelation 14:18).