Food & daily life
Yoke
A beam for harnessing draft animals and a biblical image of service or burden.
Also called · wooden yoke · burden
What it means
A yoke joined animals so they could pull a plow or carry out other heavy work.
Because it controlled labor and bore weight, biblical writers used it figuratively for rule, obligation, or oppression.
How it appears in the Bible
Jesus invites the weary to take his yoke and describes it as kind and its burden as light.
Translation note
Whether literal or figurative must be determined from the passage.