Winnow

Winnowing was the process of separating grain from chaff after threshing, accomplished by tossing the mixture into the air with a wooden fan or fork so that wind carried away the lighter chaff while the heavier grain fell back to the threshing floor. Biblical references to winnowing include Ruth 3:2, where Boaz is winnowing barley at the threshing floor, providing the setting for Ruth's approach. Isaiah 30:24 promises that the oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat clean fodder "which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan." Jeremiah uses the image to describe divine judgment on Babylon (Jeremiah 51:2) and false prophets (Jeremiah 23:28). John the Baptist's prophecy of the coming Messiah employs the winnowing fork as the central image: the one who comes after him will thoroughly purge his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17) — judgment that separates the genuine from the counterfeit.