Yoke

The Yoke in the Bible

In the Bible the yoke appears as an actual farming implement. It is also frequently used as a figure for the condition of laboring in subjection to another.

• Deliverance: In Leviticus 26:13 God says that in bringing Israel out of Egypt he has "broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright."
• Oppressive rule: In 1 Kings 12:4 the people ask Rehoboam to lighten the heavy yoke that Solomon had laid on them.
• Jeremiah's wooden yoke: In Jeremiah 27–28, Jeremiah makes bonds and a yoke and puts them on his neck, proclaiming that Judah and the neighboring nations must serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Hananiah prophesies that within two years the yoke of the king of Babylon will be broken, and he breaks Jeremiah's yoke. Jeremiah then delivers the word that yokes of iron will replace the yokes of wood (Jeremiah 28:13–14). The text records that Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year (Jeremiah 28:17).
• New Testament: Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29–30). In Acts 15:10 Peter likens the demand that Gentile believers keep the law to a yoke. Galatians 5:1 warns believers not to be "entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Background

A yoke was commonly a crossbar that bound two animals side by side. Deuteronomy 22:10 forbids plowing with an ox and an ass yoked together. Deuteronomy 21:3 and Numbers 19:2 require for purification rites a heifer upon which no yoke has come.

The principal Hebrew term is ʿol (עֹל). Jeremiah 27–28 also uses motah (מוֹטָה), meaning the bar of a yoke. The New Testament Greek term is zygos (ζυγός).

Significance Across Scripture

In the Old Testament the yoke symbolizes domination by foreign nations (Deuteronomy 28:48, "a yoke of iron"). God's breaking of the yoke signifies deliverance (Isaiah 9:4; 10:27). Isaiah 58:6 describes the fast that pleases God as one in which "ye break every yoke." Lamentations 3:27 regards bearing "the yoke in his youth" as good discipline.

The New Testament carries forward both of these strands, setting release from crushing burdens alongside the life of the disciple who willingly takes up the yoke of Christ. Later Jewish literature is known to contain the expression "the yoke of the kingdom of heaven."

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Interpreters differ over "my yoke" in Matthew 11:29. Some read it as a contrast with the heavy burdens laid on people by the Pharisees (Matthew 23:4). Others take it to refer to discipleship as a whole, the life of learning from Jesus.
• Two illustrations are common in preaching. One holds that because a yoke is borne by two animals together, Jesus shares the yoke with the believer. The other suggests that Jesus, as a carpenter, would have made well-fitting yokes. Neither point is stated directly in the text.
• In Korean churches, 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," has commonly been applied to marriage between believers and unbelievers. Other interpreters, reading the verse in context as a warning against compromise with idolatry, do not limit it to the question of marriage.
• In Philippians 4:3 the "yokefellow" refers to a co-worker of Paul. Some hold that the underlying Greek word, syzygos, is a personal name.

In the Korean Church

Matthew 11:28–30 is widely used as a text for sermons of comfort and as an evangelistic slogan. The expression "to take up the yoke" is also used to describe accepting and carrying out a church office or calling.