Revelation 1:9. Tribulation: “I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation.”

Symbolically, the seven stars, (Ursa Major), were sometimes known as the wain, or threshing sledge called a “tribulum.” The word tribulation comes from this instrument. Just as the grain was threshed and the wine was pressed, so were those who endured tribulation.

In Isaiah 41:15, the remnant of Israel is promised the role of “threshing sledge” to thresh the wicked. The suffering which  the saints endured was avenged by the Lord God Almighty, their Kinsman/Redeemer.

In Jeremiah 51:33 the “daughter of Babylon,” (backslidden Israel), is said to be like a “threshing floor.”  This is a reference to 1 Chronicles. 21:18-22:1 that the temple was built on the “threshing floor” of Ornan, the Jebusite. The root of the word “Jebusite” is Hebrew ‘bus’ meaning “to tread down, trample,” (BDB). When Jerusalem lost her identity with God she became the “daughter of Babylon,” the threshing floor.

The threshing floor was often associated with the wine press either by their proximity or by the fact that both represented the processing of the harvest and both were trodden. The same floor was probably suitable for both purposes.

The wicked city of Jerusalem, under the rulership of the Pharisees, persecuted the Christians to the death and caused them great tribulation. But just as she had caused so many to suffer, she also came to “great tribulation” and was finally totally destroyed in 70 AD.