This noun appears in Amos 9:9 within a powerful metaphor of divine judgment. God declares he will shake the house of Israel among the nations 'as grain is shaken in a sieve,' yet not one kernel will fall to the ground. The image draws from agricultural practice: a sieve separates valuable grain from chaff and debris, with the fine mesh retaining what matters. Amos applies this to the scattering of Israel—dispersed but not destroyed, sifted but not lost. The sieve becomes an instrument of both judgment and preservation.