A winnowing shovel by which grain was thrown up against the wind that it might be cleansed from broken straw and chaff (Isa. 30:24; Jer. 15:7; Matt. 3:12). (See AGRICULTURE.)
Fan
Wheat and chaff look alike on the threshing floor until the wind gets to them. The fan was the tool for tossing grain into that wind. In Isaiah 30:24, oxen and donkeys eat feed “winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.” Jeremiah uses the picture for judgment, saying God will “fan them with a fan in the gates of the land,” and sends fanners against Babylon. John the Baptist says of the one coming after him, “Whose fan is in his hand,” to separate wheat from chaff. Matthew 3:1-12 is the place to read it.
4 verses
Isaiah
Isaiah 30:24
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
Jeremiah
Jeremiah 15:7
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
Jeremiah 51:2
And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
Matthew
Matthew 3:12
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
From Easton's Bible Dictionary
Matthew George Easton, 1897
From Smith's Bible Dictionary
William Smith, 1884
a winnowing-shovel , with which grain was thrown up against the wind to be cleansed from the chaff and straw. (Isaiah 30;24; Matthew 3:12) A large wooden fork is used at the present day.