'In the Beginning' in the Bible

And it came to pass in the beginning of a new year, in the times when kings are wont to go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

and delivered them unto the hands of the Gibeonites, which hanged them in the hill before the LORD. And they fell all seven together in the first days of harvest: even in the beginning of barley harvest.