Food & daily life
Yoke
A harness for animals pulling a plow or load; also an image of burden or service.
Also called · wooden yoke · burden
What it means
A yoke rests on the neck or head of a draft animal to transmit its pulling force. It can also link animals working together.
Deuteronomy 21 requires a heifer that has neither been worked nor drawn under a yoke for a ritual concerning an unsolved killing. Here the yoke is a physical object.
How it appears in the Bible
In 1 Kings 12, the people compare Solomon’s hard service to a heavy yoke and ask for relief. In Matthew 11, Jesus invites the weary to take his yoke and learn from him, saying that his yoke is easy and his burden light.
Translation note
The passage determines whether a yoke is a physical harness, a burden of rule, or an image of following someone’s teaching.