'Yoke' in the Bible
“By your sword you shall live,And your brother you shall serve;But it shall come about when you become restless,That you will break his yoke from your neck.”
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
“This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;
therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
Now therefore, take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them.
He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.” Then the dread of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out as one man.
“Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”
So he said to them, “What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”
The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!
Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
“Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”
So he said to them, “What counsel do you give that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”
The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us.’ Thus you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!
Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.
For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.
to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.
“I was angry with My people,I profaned My heritageAnd gave them into your hand.You did not show mercy to them,On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
“Is this not the fast which I choose,To loosen the bonds of wickedness,To undo the bands of the yoke,And to let the oppressed go freeAnd break every yoke?
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you remove the yoke from your midst,The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
“For long ago I broke your yokeAnd tore off your bonds;But you said, ‘I will not serve!’For on every high hillAnd under every green treeYou have lain down as a harlot.
“I will go to the greatAnd will speak to them,For they know the way of the LordAnd the ordinance of their God.”But they too, with one accord, have broken the yokeAnd burst the bonds.
“It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand.
But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,” declares the Lord, “and they will till it and dwell in it.”’”
I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.
Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field.”’”
‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves.
“The yoke of my transgressions is bound;By His hand they are knit together.They have come upon my neck;He has made my strength fail.The Lord has given me into the handsOf those against whom I am not able to stand.
It is good for a man that he should bearThe yoke in his youth.
“In Tehaphnehes the day will be darkWhen I break there the yoke bars of Egypt.Then the pride of her power will cease in her;A cloud will cover her,And her daughters will go into captivity.
Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.
Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,But I will come over her fair neck with a yoke;I will harness Ephraim,Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.
I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;And I bent down and fed them.
“So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you,And I will tear off your shackles.”
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’
Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.