Ox goad

From Free net encyclopedia

The ox goad is a traditional farming implement, used to spur or guide a plowing animal. It may be compared to a cattle prod. Though many people are unfamiliar with them toady, goads have been common throughout the world. The garrocha, a Mexican goad, is used in bull fighting.

Physical characteristics

A goad is traditionally a wooden stick or pole with a pointed tip, sometimes of iron or another metal. Some had a flat blade at the other end for breaking clods, or for clearing the plowshare.

Some are reported to have measured between 8 and 10 feet, others between 5 and 7 feet. The goad is cited as the origin of two units of measurement: the rod, which is 16.5 feet; and the goad, which is 4.5 feet. Some were 2 inches in diameter at the thickest end; others were 6.

The Massachusetts Fairs Association describes what type of goad they allow in their Rules Governing Pulling Contests.

Biblical usage

According to Easton's Bible Dictinary, the ox goad is "mentioned only in Judg. 3:31, the weapon with which Shamgar (q.v.) slew six hundred Philistines. "The ploughman still carries his goad, a weapon apparently more fitted for the hand of the soldier than the peaceful husbandman. The one I saw was of the 'oak of Bashan,' and measured upwards of ten feet in length. At one end was an iron spear, and at the other a piece of the same metal flattened. One can well understand how a warrior might use such a weapon with effect in the battle-field" (Porter's Syria, etc.)".

However, "goads" appears in two other places: I Samuel 13:21 and Ecclesiastes 12:11. The word "pricks" refers to the same instrument, and is used in Act 9:5 and Acts 26:14.

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.