Tribulation

Revelation 1:9:  “Companion in tribulation.”

            The seven stars were sometimes known as the wain, or threshing sledge called a “tribulum, (Gk).”  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.  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 “Jebus” is bus meaning ‘to tread down, trample (BDB).

            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.