Fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, etc. ( Numbers 19:2 ; Deuteronomy 21:3 ). It was a curved piece of wood called 'Ol . In Jeremiah 27:2 ; 28:10,12 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 ( Leviticus 26:13 ; 1 Kings 12:4 ; Isaiah 47:6 ; Lamentations 1:14 ; 3:27 ). In the New Testament the word "yoke" is also used to denote servitude ( Matthew 11:29,30 ; Acts 15:10 ; Galatians 5:1 ). In 1Sam 1 Samuel 19:21 , Job 1:3 the word thus translated is Tzemed , Which signifies a pair, two oxen yoked or coupled together, and hence in 1 Samuel 14:14 it represents as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, like the Latin Jugum . In Isaiah 5:10 this word in the plural is translated "acres."
Source
- part_of
source-manifest/easton— Easton's Bible Dictionary (PD)