Reference: Agriculture
Easton
Tilling the ground (Ge 2:15; 4:2-3,12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession of the Promised Land, their circumstances favoured in the highest degree a remarkable development of this art. Agriculture became indeed the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth.
Illustration: Eastern Agriculture
The year in Palestine was divided into six agricultural periods:-
I. SOWING TIME.
Tisri, latter half
(beginning about the autumnal equinox.)
Marchesvan.
Kisleu, former half.
Early rain due = first showers of autumn.
II. UNRIPE TIME.
Kisleu, latter half.
Tebet.
Sebat, former half.
III. COLD SEASON.
Sebat, latter half.
Adar.
[Veadar.]
Nisan, former half.
Latter rain due (De 11:14; Jer 5:24; Ho 6:3; Zec 10:1; Jas 5:7; Job 29:23).
IV. HARVEST TIME.
Nisan, latter half.
(Beginning about vernal equinox. Barley green. Passover.)
Ijar.
Sivan, former half., Wheat ripe. Pentecost.
V. SUMMER (total absence of rain)
Sivan, latter half.
Tammuz.
Ab, former half.
VI. SULTRY SEASON
Ab, latter half.
Elul.
Tisri, former half., Ingathering of fruits.
The six months from the middle of Tisri to the middle of Nisan were occupied with the work of cultivation, and the rest of the year mainly with the gathering in of the fruits. The extensive and easily-arranged system of irrigation from the rills and streams from the mountains made the soil in every part of Palestine richly productive (Ps 1:3; 65:10; Pr 21:1; Isa 30:25; 32:2,20; Ho 12:11), and the appliances of careful cultivation and of manure increased its fertility to such an extent that in the days of Solomon, when there was an abundant population, "20,000 measures of wheat year by year" were sent to Hiram in exchange for timber (1Ki 5:11), and in large quantities also wheat was sent to the Tyrians for the merchandise in which they traded (Eze 27:17). The wheat sometimes produced an hundredfold (Ge 26:12; Mt 13:23). Figs and pomegranates were very plentiful (Nu 13:23), and the vine and the olive grew luxuriantly and produced abundant fruit (De 33:24).
Lest the productiveness of the soil should be exhausted, it was enjoined that the whole land should rest every seventh year, when all agricultural labour would entirely cease (Le 25:1-7; De 15:1-10).
It was forbidden to sow a field with divers seeds (De 22:9). A passer-by was at liberty to eat any quantity of corn or grapes, but he was not permitted to carry away any (De 23:24-25; Mt 12:1). The poor were permitted to claim the corners of the fields and the gleanings. A forgotten sheaf in the field was to be left also for the poor. (See Le 19:9-10; De 24:19.)
Agricultural implements and operations.
The sculptured monuments and painted tombs of Egypt and Assyria throw much light on this subject, and on the general operations of agriculture. Ploughs of a simple construction were known in the time of Moses (De 22:10; comp. Job 1:14). They were very light, and required great attention to keep them in the ground (Lu 9:62). They were drawn by oxen (Job 1:14), cows (1Sa 6:7), and asses (Isa 30:24); but an ox and an ass must not be yoked together in the same plough (De 22:10). Men sometimes followed the plough with a hoe to break the clods (Isa 28:24). The oxen were urged on by a "goad," or long staff pointed at the end, so that if occasion arose it could be used as a spear also (Jg 3:31; 1Sa 13:21).
Illustration: Ploughing
When the soil was prepared, the seed was sown broadcast over the field (Mt 13:3-8). The "harrow" mentioned in Job 39:10 was not used to cover the seeds, but to break the clods, being little more than a thick block of wood. In highly irrigated spots the seed was trampled in by cattle (Isa 32:20); but doubtless there was some kind of harrow also for covering in the seed scattered in the furrows of the field.
The reaping of the corn was performed either by pulling it up by the roots, or cutting it with a species of sickle, according to circumstances. The corn when cut was generally put up in sheaves (Ge 37:7; Le 23:10-15; Ru 2:7,15; Job 24:10; Jer 9:22; Mic 4:12), which were afterwards gathered to the threshing-floor or stored in barns (Mt 6:26).
The process of threshing was performed generally by spreading the sheaves on the threshing-floor and causing oxen and cattle to tread repeatedly over them (De 25:4; Isa 28:28). On occasions flails or sticks were used for this purpose (Ru 2:17; Isa 28:27). There was also a "threshing instrument" (Isa 41:15; Am 1:3) which was drawn over the corn. It was called by the Hebrews a moreg, a threshing roller or sledge (2Sa 24:22; 1Ch 21:23; Isa 3:15). It was somewhat like the Roman tribulum, or threshing instrument.
When the grain was threshed, it was winnowed by being thrown up against the wind (Jer 4:11), and afterwards tossed with wooden scoops (Isa 30:24). The shovel and the fan for winnowing are mentioned in Ps 35:5; Job 21:18; Isa 17:13. The refuse of straw and chaff was burned (Isa 5:24). Freed from impurities, the grain was then laid up in granaries till used (De 28:8; Pr 3:10; Mt 6:26; 13:30; Lu 12:18).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Jehovah God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. As time went by, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to Jehovah.
When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer (vagabond) on the earth.
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.
We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat. My sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you should not reap to the very corners of your field. You should not gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not glean your vineyard. Do not gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. Leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am Jehovah your God.
Tell the Israelites: 'When you come to the land I am going to give you and you harvest grain, bring a bundle of the first grain you harvest to the priest. He will present it to Jehovah so that you will be accepted. He will present it on the day after Passover. read more. On the day you present the bundle, you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects as a burnt offering to Jehovah. Present a grain offering of four quarts of flour mixed with olive oil with it. This will be a sacrifice by fire made to Jehovah. It will be a soothing aroma. Use one quart of wine for the wine offering. Do not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this same day. Then bring the offering to your God. It is a long lasting law for generations to come wherever you live. Count seven full weeks from the day after Passover, the day you bring the bundle of grain as an offering presented to Jehovah
Jehovah spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded: Give the following regulations to the people of Israel: 'When you enter the land that Jehovah is giving you, honor Jehovah by not cultivating the land every seventh year. read more. Plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. But the seventh year is to be a sabbath year of complete rest for the land. It is a year dedicated to Jehovah. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not even harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted. Do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It is a year of complete rest for the land. Even though the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you, your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.
At Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with only one bunch of grapes on it. They carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.
I will send rain on your land at the proper time, both in the fall and in the spring. You will gather your own grain, new wine, and olive oil.
Release all debts at the end of every seven years. This is how you should release. Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called Jehovah's release. read more. You may collect from a foreigner, but your hand should release that debt which is yours with your brother. There should not be any poor people among you. Jehovah your God will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession. He will bless you only if you listen carefully to Jehovah your God and faithfully obey all these commandments I give you today. Jehovah your God will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations. But you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations. But no nation will ever rule over you. This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. Be generous to these poor people. Freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hardhearted and stingy with them. When the seventh year, the year when payments on debts are canceled, is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to Jehovah about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. Give the poor what they need, because then Jehovah will make you successful in everything you do.
Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed that you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled. Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together.
Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together.
When you enter your neighbor's vineyard you may eat grapes until you are full. But you shall not put any in your basket. When you enter your neighbor's standing grain you may pluck the heads with your hand. But you must not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.
When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.
Jehovah will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land Jehovah your God gives you.
Asher is the most blessed with sons. May his brothers favor him. And may he dip his foot in oil.
The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
She said to me: Let me come into the grain-field and pick up the grain after the cutters. So she came, and has been here from morning till now, without resting even for a minute.
She rose to glean. Boaz commanded his servants, saying: Let her glean among the sheaves, and do not bother her.
She gathered the heads of grain till evening. After crushing out the seed, it came to about an ephah of grain.
Now get a new cart ready for two dairy cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart. Take their calves away and leave them in their stall.
Araunah said: Take what you want and offer your sacrifice. Here are some cattle for the sacrifice. You can use the threshing-boards and the wooden yokes for the fire.
Solomon provided Hiram with one hundred thousand bushels of wheat and one hundred and ten thousand gallons of pure olive oil every year to feed his men.
a messenger came running to Job. We were plowing the fields with the cattle, he said, and the donkeys were in a nearby pasture.
a messenger came running to Job. We were plowing the fields with the cattle, he said, and the donkeys were in a nearby pasture.
How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
The needy go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves.
They waited for me as for the rain. They opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
Can you bind the wild bull in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?
He is like a tree planted by streams of water. It yields its fruit in season and its leaves do not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Let them be like chaff blown by the wind as the angel of Jehovah chases them.
You water its furrows abundantly; you settle its ridges and soften it with showers. You bless its growth.
Your barns will be filled with plenty. Your vats will overflow with new wine.
Jehovah controls the mind of a king as easily as he directs the course of a stream. He turns it where ever he wishes.
What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the face of the poor? Declares Jehovah of Hosts.
You will go up in flames like straw and hay! You have rejected the law of the holy God Jehovah the All-Powerful Holy One of Israel. Now your roots will rot, and your blossoms will turn to dust.
The nations will rush like the raging of many waters. But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away. They will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling dust before the whirlwind.
Does the plowman keep plowing all day in order to sow seed? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod. Bread flour must be ground. Therefore he does not thresh it forever, break it with his cartwheel, or crush it with his horsemen.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels. Brooks and streams will be on every lofty mountain and every high hill. When the day of the great slaughter comes, towers will fall.
Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind and a place to hide from storms. They will be like streams flowing in a desert, like the shadow of a giant rock in a barren land.
Blessed are those who plant beside every stream and those who let cattle and donkeys roam freely.
Blessed are those who plant beside every stream and those who let cattle and donkeys roam freely.
See I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will reduce the hills to chaff.
Then it will be said to these people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind from the heights will blow in the desert toward my people. It will not be a wind that winnows or cleanses.
They do not say in their hearts, to themselves: 'We should respect Jehovah our God. He sends rain at the right time, the autumn rain and the spring rain. He makes sure that we have harvest seasons.'
This is what Jehovah says: Dead bodies will fall like manure on the field. They will be like grain that has been cut but not gathered.'
Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded with the wheat of Minnith. Cakes, honey, oil and balm were paid for your merchandise.
Let us get to know Jehovah! Let us press on (run after) (follow) to get to know him. As surely as the sun rises he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
The people of Gilead are evil. They are worthless. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal. But their altars will become like piles of rubble beside a plowed field.
I will not hold back punishment, said Jehovah, For the many transgressions of Damascus. This is because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
They do not know Jehovah's thoughts. Neither do they understand his counsel. He has gathered them like the sheaves of cut grain to the threshing floor.
In the spring ask Jehovah for rain. It is Jehovah who makes storm clouds and lightning. He will give showers of rain for the vegetation in the field.
Look at the birds of the sky, they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you worth more than they?
Look at the birds of the sky, they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you worth more than they?
Jesus' disciples were hungry. It was Sabbath day and yet Jesus and his disciples went through the grain fields plucking ears and eating them.
He told them many illustrations. He said: A farmer went out to sow. Some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds devoured them. read more. Others fell on rocky places and did not have much soil. When they grew, the sun scorched them, and because they had no root they withered and died. Others fell upon the thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them. Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
He that was sown upon the good ground hears the word, and understands it. He bears fruit, producing sometimes a hundredfold, sometimes sixty, and sometimes thirty.
Let both grow together until the harvest. In the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather weeds first, and bind them in bundles to burn them. Then gather the wheat into my barn.'
Jesus responded: No man, who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
He said: I would pull down my barns and build larger barns. I will store all my grain and goods there.
Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and late rains.
Fausets
While the patriarchs were in Canaan, they led a pastoral life, and little attended to tillage; Isaac and Jacob indeed tilled at times (Ge 26:12; 37:7), but the herdsmen strove with Isaac for his wells not for his crops. The wealth of Gerar and Shechem was chiefly pastoral (Ge 20:14; 34:28). The recurrence of famines and intercourse with Egypt taught the Canaanites subsequently to attend more to tillage, so that by the time of the spies who brought samples of the land's produce from Eshcol much progress had been made (De 8:8; Nu 13:23). Providence happily arranged it so that Israel, while yet a family, was kept by the pastoral life from blending with and settling among idolaters around. In Egypt the native prejudice against shepherds kept them separate in Goshen (Ge 47:4-6; 46:34). But there they unlearned the exclusively pastoral life and learned husbandry (De 11:10), while the deserts beyond supplied pasture for their cattle (1Ch 7:21).
On the other hand, when they became a nation, occupying Canaan, their agriculture learned in Egypt made them a self subsisting nation, independent of external supplies, and so less open to external corrupting influences. Agriculture was the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth; it checked the tendency to the roving habits of nomad tribes, gave each man a stake in the soil by the law of inalienable inheritances, and made a numerous offspring profitable as to the culture of the land. God claimed the lordship of the soil (Le 25:23), so that each held by a divine tenure; subject to the tithe, a quit rent to the theocratic head landlord, also subject to the sabbatical year. Accumulation of debt was obviated by prohibiting interest on principal lent to fellow citizens (Le 25:8-16,28-55). Every seventh, sabbatic year, or the year of Jubilee, every 50th year, lands alienated for a time reverted to the original owner.
Compare Isaiah's "woe" to them who "add field to field," clearing away families (1 Kings 21) to absorb all, as Ahab did to Naboth. Houses in towns, if not redeemed in a year, were alienated for ever; thus land property had an advantage over city property, an inducement to cultivate and reside on one's own land. The husband of an heiress passed by adoption into the family into which he married, so as not to alienate the land. The condition of military service was attached to the land, but with merciful qualifications (Deuteronomy 20); thus a national yeomanry of infantry, officered by its own hereditary chiefs, was secured. Horses were forbidden to be multiplied (De 17:16). Purificatory rites for a day after warfare were required (Nu 19:16; 31:19). These regulations, and that of attendance thrice a year at Jerusalem for the great feasts, discouraged the appetite for war. The soil is fertile still, wherever industry is secure. The Hauran (Peraea) is highly reputed for productiveness.
The soil of Gaza is dark and rich, though light, and retains rain; olives abound in it. The Israelites cleared away most of the wood which they found in Canaan (Jos 17:18), and seem to have had a scanty supply, as they imported but little; compare such extreme expedients for getting wood for sacrifice as in 1Sa 6:14; 2Sa 24:22; 1Ki 19:21; dung and hay fuel heated their ovens (Eze 4:12,15; Mt 6:30). The water supply was from rain, and rills from the hills, and the river Jordan, whereas Egypt depended solely on the Nile overflow. Irrigation was effected by ducts from cisterns in the rocky sub-surface. The country had thus expansive resources for an enlarging population. When the people were few, as they are now, the valleys sufficed to until for food; when many, the more difficult culture of the hills was resorted to and yielded abundance.
The rich red loam of the valleys placed on the sides of the hills would form fertile terraces sufficient for a large population, if only there were good government. The lightness of husbandry work in the plains set them free for watering the soil, and terracing the hills by low stone walls across their face, one above another, arresting the soil washed down by the rams, and affording a series of levels for the husbandman. The rain is chiefly in the autumn and winter, November and December, rare after March, almost never as late as May. It often is partial. A drought earlier or later is not so bad, but just three months before harvest is fatal (Am 4:7-8). The crop depended for its amount on timely rain. The "early" rain (Pr 16:15; Jas 5:7) fell from about the September equinox to sowing time in November or December, to revive the parched soil that the seed might germinate. The "latter rain" in February and March ripened the crop for harvest.
A typical pledge that, as there has been the early outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, so there shall be a latter outpouring previous to the great harvest of Israel and the Gentile nations (Zec 12:10; Joe 2:23,28-32). Wheat, barley, and rye (and millet rarely) were their cereals. The barley harvest was earlier than the wheat. With the undesigned propriety that marks truth, Ex 9:31-32 records that by the plague of hail "the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled i.e. in blossom, but the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up." Accordingly, at the Passover (just after the time of the hail) the barley was just fit for the sickle, and the wave sheaf was offered; and not until Pentecost feast, 50 days after, the wheat was ripe for cutting, and the firstfruit loaves were offered. The vine, olive, and fig abounded; and traces everywhere remain of former wine and olive presses.
Cummin (including the black "fitches," Isa 28:27), peas, beans, lentils, lettuce, endive, leek, garlic, onion, melon, cucumber, and cabbage also were cultivated. The Passover in the month Nisan answered to the green stage of produce; the feast of weeks in Sivan to the ripe; and the feast of tabernacles in Tisri to the harvest home or ingathered. A month (Veader) was often intercalated before Nisan, to obviate the inaccuracy of their non-astronomical reckoning. Thus the six months from Tisri to Nisan was occupied with cultivation, the six months from Nisan to Tisri with gathering fruits. The season of rains from Tisri equinox to Nisan is pretty continuous, but is more decidedly marked at the beginning (the early rain) and the end (the latter rain). Rain in harvest was unknown (Pr 26:1).
The plow was light, and drawn by one yoke. Fallows were cleared of stones and thorns early in the year (Jer 4:3; Ho 10:12; Isa 5:2). To sow among thorns was deemed bad husbandry (Job 5:5; Pr 24:30-31). Seed was scattered broadcast, as in the parable of the sower (Mt 13:3-8), and plowed in afterward, the stubble of the previous crop becoming manure by decay. The seed was trodden in by cattle in irrigated lands (De 11:10; Isa 32:20). Hoeing and weeding were seldom needed in their fine tilth. Seventy days sufficed between sowing barley and the wave sheaf offering from the ripe grain at Passover. Oxen were urged on with a spearlike goad (Jg 3:31). Boaz slept on the threshingfloor, a circular high spot, of hard ground, 80 or 90 feet in diameter, exposed to the wind for winnowing, (2Sa 24:16-18) to watch against depredations (Ru 3:4-7). Sowing divers seed in a field was forbidden (De 22:9), to mark God is not the author of confusion, there is no transmutation of species, such as modern skeptical naturalists imagine. Oxen unmuzzled (De 25:4) five abreast trod out the grain on the floor, to separate the grain from chaff and straw; flails were used for small quantities and lighter grain (Isa 28:27).
A threshing sledge (moreg), Isa 41:15) was also employed, probably like the Egyptian still in use, a stage with three rollers ridged with iron, which cut the straw for fodder, while crushing out the grain. The shovel and fan winnowed the grain afterward by help of the evening breeze (Ru 3:2; Isa 30:24); lastly, it was shaken in a sieve. Am 9:9; Ps 83:10, and 2Ki 9:37 prove the use of animal manure. The poor man's claim was remembered, the self sown produce of the seventh year being his perquisite (Le 25:1-7): hereby the Israelites' faith was tested; national apostasy
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Abimelech took sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.
Abimelech took sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.
They took their flocks and their herds, their asses and whatever was in the city and in the field.
They took their flocks and their herds, their asses and whatever was in the city and in the field.
We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat. My sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.
We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat. My sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.
Be sure to tell him that you have taken care of livestock all your lives, just as your ancestors did. In this way he will let you live in the region of Goshen. Joseph said this because Egyptians will have nothing to do with shepherds (consider shepherds loathsome).
Be sure to tell him that you have taken care of livestock all your lives, just as your ancestors did. In this way he will let you live in the region of Goshen. Joseph said this because Egyptians will have nothing to do with shepherds (consider shepherds loathsome).
We have come to live in this country. The famine is so severe in the land of Canaan that there is no pasture for our flocks. Please give us permission to live in the region of Goshen.
We have come to live in this country. The famine is so severe in the land of Canaan that there is no pasture for our flocks. Please give us permission to live in the region of Goshen. The king said to Joseph: Now that your father and your brothers have arrived,
The king said to Joseph: Now that your father and your brothers have arrived, the land of Egypt is theirs. Let them settle in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land. If there are any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.
the land of Egypt is theirs. Let them settle in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land. If there are any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.
The flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was budding.
The flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was budding. But the wheat crops ripen later, and they were not damaged.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you should not reap to the very corners of your field. You should not gather the gleanings of your harvest.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you should not reap to the very corners of your field. You should not gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not glean your vineyard. Do not gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. Leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am Jehovah your God.
Do not glean your vineyard. Do not gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. Leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am Jehovah your God.
Jehovah spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded: Give the following regulations to the people of Israel: 'When you enter the land that Jehovah is giving you, honor Jehovah by not cultivating the land every seventh year.
Give the following regulations to the people of Israel: 'When you enter the land that Jehovah is giving you, honor Jehovah by not cultivating the land every seventh year. Plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years.
Plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. But the seventh year is to be a sabbath year of complete rest for the land. It is a year dedicated to Jehovah. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards.
But the seventh year is to be a sabbath year of complete rest for the land. It is a year dedicated to Jehovah. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not even harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted. Do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It is a year of complete rest for the land.
Do not even harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted. Do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It is a year of complete rest for the land. Even though the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you,
Even though the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you, your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.
your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten. Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years.
Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land.
Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. In this way you will set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold must be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves may return to their families.
In this way you will set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold must be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves may return to their families. That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Do not plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land.
That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Do not plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces.
The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces. In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property.
In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property. In the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.
In the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.
Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while.
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while.
If he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again.
If he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again. If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time.
If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee.
If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. Houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee.
Houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee. The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own.
The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released. This is because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites.
If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released. This is because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their property from generation to generation.
But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their property from generation to generation. If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home.
If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. Do not collect interest or make any profit from him. Respect your God by respecting other Israelites' lives.
Do not collect interest or make any profit from him. Respect your God by respecting other Israelites' lives. Do not collect any interest on your money or on the food you give them.
Do not collect any interest on your money or on the food you give them. I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God.
I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your God. If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave.
If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him like a slave. He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee.
He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors.
Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves.
They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. Do not treat them harshly. Respect your God.
Do not treat them harshly. Respect your God. You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you.
You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property.
You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property. You may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly.
You may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly. Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family.
Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family. He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother.
He has the right to be set free by a relative, such as a brother. His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom.
His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker.
Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer. This is like the wages of a hired worker. If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years.
If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years.
If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly.
He should serve his buyer as a hired worker during those years. His buyer should not treat him harshly. If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee.
If he cannot buy his freedom he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee. The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'
The Israelites belong to me! They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God!'
Then the land will enjoy its time to honor Jehovah while it lies deserted. You will be in your enemies' land. Then the land will joyfully celebrate its time to honor Jehovah.
Then the land will enjoy its time to honor Jehovah while it lies deserted. You will be in your enemies' land. Then the land will joyfully celebrate its time to honor Jehovah. All the days it lies deserted, it will celebrate the time to honor Jehovah it never celebrated while you lived there.
All the days it lies deserted, it will celebrate the time to honor Jehovah it never celebrated while you lived there.
At Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with only one bunch of grapes on it. They carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.
At Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with only one bunch of grapes on it. They carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.
Whoever is outdoors and touches someone who was killed or has died naturally or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave will be unclean for seven days.
Whoever is outdoors and touches someone who was killed or has died naturally or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave will be unclean for seven days.
Everyone who killed a person or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp seven days. You and your prisoners of war must use the ritual water on the third and seventh days in order to take away your sin.
Everyone who killed a person or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp seven days. You and your prisoners of war must use the ritual water on the third and seventh days in order to take away your sin.
The land has wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. The land has honey and olive trees for olive oil.
The land has wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. The land has honey and olive trees for olive oil.
The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns.
At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns.
He must not increase his herd of horses. He must not send the people to return to Egypt to get more horses. For Jehovah said to you: You should never again return that way.
He must not increase his herd of horses. He must not send the people to return to Egypt to get more horses. For Jehovah said to you: You should never again return that way.
Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed that you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.
Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed that you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.
Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.
Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.
Finish paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing. Then you shall give it to the Levite, the stranger, and the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
Finish paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing. Then you shall give it to the Levite, the stranger, and the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
The mountain will be yours. For it is a wood, and you will cut it down. The farthest limits will be yours. You will drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they are strong.
The mountain will be yours. For it is a wood, and you will cut it down. The farthest limits will be yours. You will drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they are strong.
The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
Boaz is of our kindred, with whose servant girls you have been. He winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor.
Boaz is of our kindred, with whose servant girls you have been. He winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor.
When he lies down, notice the place where he lies down. Go in, uncover his feet and lay down. He will tell you what you should do.
When he lies down, notice the place where he lies down. Go in, uncover his feet and lay down. He will tell you what you should do. Ruth said: All that you say to me I will do.
Ruth said: All that you say to me I will do. She went down to the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law told her.
She went down to the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law told her. After Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of barley. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
After Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of barley. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
The cart came to the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there. There was a great stone. They cut the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
The cart came to the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there. There was a great stone. They cut the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
When the angel stretched out his arm to destroy Jerusalem, Jehovah changed his mind about the disaster. Enough! He said to the angel who was destroying the people. Put down your weapon. The angel of Jehovah was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When the angel stretched out his arm to destroy Jerusalem, Jehovah changed his mind about the disaster. Enough! He said to the angel who was destroying the people. Put down your weapon. The angel of Jehovah was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David saw the angel who had been killing the people. He said to Jehovah: I have sinned. I have done wrong. What have these sheep done? Please let your punishment be against me and against my father's family.
David saw the angel who had been killing the people. He said to Jehovah: I have sinned. I have done wrong. What have these sheep done? Please let your punishment be against me and against my father's family. Gad came to David and said: Go, set up an altar for Jehovah at Araunah the Jebusite's threshing floor.
Gad came to David and said: Go, set up an altar for Jehovah at Araunah the Jebusite's threshing floor.
The dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel. They will not be able to say: This is Jezebel.'
The dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel. They will not be able to say: This is Jezebel.'
Zabad his son and Shuthelah his son. The native-born men of Gath killed Ezer and Elead, when they went down to seize their livestock.
Zabad his son and Shuthelah his son. The native-born men of Gath killed Ezer and Elead, when they went down to seize their livestock.
Hungry people eat what a stubborn fool gathers. They take it even from among the thorns. Thirsty people pant after his wealth.
Hungry people eat what a stubborn fool gathers. They take it even from among the thorns. Thirsty people pant after his wealth.
The light of the king's face causes life. His favor is like a gentle rain in spring.
The light of the king's face causes life. His favor is like a gentle rain in spring.
I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man lacking understanding.
I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man lacking understanding. It was all grown over with thorns and nettles, and the wall of stone was broken down.
It was all grown over with thorns and nettles, and the wall of stone was broken down.
Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor does not become a fool.
Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor does not become a fool.
He dug the soil all around and removed its stones. He planted it with the choicest vine. And he built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones.
He dug the soil all around and removed its stones. He planted it with the choicest vine. And he built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels.
Blessed are those who plant beside every stream and those who let cattle and donkeys roam freely.
Blessed are those who plant beside every stream and those who let cattle and donkeys roam freely.
See I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will reduce the hills to chaff.
See I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will reduce the hills to chaff.
Jehovah says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up your unplowed fields, and do not plant among thorns.
Jehovah says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up your unplowed fields, and do not plant among thorns.
You are to build a fire out of dried human excrement, bake bread on the fire, and eat it where everyone can see you.
You are to build a fire out of dried human excrement, bake bread on the fire, and eat it where everyone can see you.
So God said: Very well. I will let you use cow dung instead. You can bake your bread on that.
So God said: Very well. I will let you use cow dung instead. You can bake your bread on that.
I said: Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, Jehovah, and I will come and pour out righteousness on you.
I said: Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, Jehovah, and I will come and pour out righteousness on you.
Be glad you children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God! For he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes it to rain, the early rain and the latter rain, in the first month.
Be glad you children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God! For he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes it to rain, the early rain and the latter rain, in the first month.
In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions! (Ac 2:17; Isa 44:3)
In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions! (Ac 2:17; Isa 44:3) I will also pour out my Spirit upon the male and female servants in those days. (Ac 10:45; Zec 12:10; Eze 36:27)
I will also pour out my Spirit upon the male and female servants in those days. (Ac 10:45; Zec 12:10; Eze 36:27) I will show wonders in the sky and on the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
I will show wonders in the sky and on the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible (awesome) Day of Jehovah comes!
The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible (awesome) Day of Jehovah comes! It will happen that who ever calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved. There will be those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem that will escape, even among the survivors whom Jehovah calls.
It will happen that who ever calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved. There will be those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem that will escape, even among the survivors whom Jehovah calls.
Come to Bethel and transgress! Come to Gilgal and multiply transgression! Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days.
Come to Bethel and transgress! Come to Gilgal and multiply transgression! Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days.
I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One received rain. The other did not receive rain and it dried up.
I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One received rain. The other did not receive rain and it dried up. Two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water. They were not satisfied and yet you have not returned to me, said Jehovah.
Two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water. They were not satisfied and yet you have not returned to me, said Jehovah.
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations! Like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel will not fall on the earth.
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations! Like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel will not fall on the earth.
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of kindness and of supplication. They will look to the one whom they pierced; and they will mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son. There will be a bitter lamentation for him, like one who grieves for his first-born.
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of kindness and of supplication. They will look to the one whom they pierced; and they will mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son. There will be a bitter lamentation for him, like one who grieves for his first-born.
If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, won't he care for you even more? You of little faith!
If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, won't he care for you even more? You of little faith!
He told them many illustrations. He said: A farmer went out to sow.
He told them many illustrations. He said: A farmer went out to sow. Some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds devoured them.
Some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds devoured them. Others fell on rocky places and did not have much soil.
Others fell on rocky places and did not have much soil. When they grew, the sun scorched them, and because they had no root they withered and died.
When they grew, the sun scorched them, and because they had no root they withered and died. Others fell upon the thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.
Others fell upon the thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them. Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and late rains.
Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and late rains.
Hastings
Throughout the whole period of their national existence, agriculture was the principal occupation of the Hebrews. According to the priestly theory, the land was the property of Jahweh; His people enjoyed the usufruct (Le 25:23). In actual practice, the bulk of the land was owned by the towns and village communities, each free husbandman having his allotted portion of the common lands. The remainder included the Crown lands and the estates of the nobility, at least under the monarchy. Husbandry
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
If you see your enemy's cow or donkey running loose, take it back to him.
Plant your land and gather in what it produces for six years.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you should not reap to the very corners of your field. You should not gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Obey my laws. Never crossbreed different kinds of animals. Do not plant two kinds of crops in your field. Never wear clothes made from two kinds of material.
Count seven full weeks from the day after Passover, the day you bring the bundle of grain as an offering presented to Jehovah
Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years.
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while.
I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt so that you are no longer slaves of the Egyptians. I have broken their power over you and made you live as a free people.
You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Count off seven weeks from the beginning of your grain harvest.
You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Count off seven weeks from the beginning of your grain harvest.
Do not move your neighbor's boundary mark. The ancestors have set this in your inheritance. You will inherit this in the land Jehovah your God gives you to possess.
If your brother's bull or sheep stray do not ignore them. Bring them back to your brother.
Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together.
When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.
Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark. All the people will say: Amen.
Jehovah will strike you with infectious diseases, with swelling and fever. He will send drought and scorching winds to destroy your crops. These disasters will be with you until you die.
The angel of Jehovah came to the village of Ophrah. He sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.
Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi: Now let me go into the fields and pick up the heads of grain after anyone in whose eyes I find favor. She said to her: Go, my daughter.
She gathered the heads of grain till evening. After crushing out the seed, it came to about an ephah of grain.
Everyone in Israel had to go to the Philistines to sharpen the blade of his plow, his mattock, ax, or sickle.
Araunah said: Take what you want and offer your sacrifice. Here are some cattle for the sacrifice. You can use the threshing-boards and the wooden yokes for the fire.
He also built fortified towers in the open country and dug many cisterns, because he had large herds of livestock in the western foothills and plains. Because he loved farming, he encouraged the people to plant vineyards in the hill country and to farm the fertile land.
This is not so for the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
A wise king sifts out the wicked. He rolls the threshing wheel over them.
It will turn into a desert, neither pruned nor cultivated. It will be covered with thorns and briars. I will command the clouds not to send rain.
All the hills where crops were once planted will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.
When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cummin and scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? He instructs him in right judgment and his God teaches him. read more. The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels.
His breath is like an overflowing stream. It raises neck high and sifts the nations with a sieve of destruction. It places a bit in the mouths of the people to lead them astray.
See I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will reduce the hills to chaff.
Ten men from the group pleaded with Ishmael: Do not kill us! We have wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey hidden in the country. So he left them alone and did not kill them along with the others.
I am the All-Powerful Jehovah, the God of Israel, and I make this promise: Soon Babylon will be leveled and packed down like a threshing place at harvest time.
Consider this, I will weigh you down just as a wagon is weighed down when it is full of grain.
I struck you with scorching and mildew. The caterpillar has devoured the multitudes of your gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive-trees. Yet you have not returned to me, said Jehovah.
I struck you with scorching and mildew. The caterpillar has devoured the multitudes of your gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive-trees. Yet you have not returned to me, said Jehovah.
Do horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with cattle? You have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood (bitterness)!
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations! Like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel will not fall on the earth.
I struck you with scorching winds, mildew and hail to ruin everything you tried to grow, declared Jehovah, but you still did not repent.
Look at the birds of the sky, they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you worth more than they?
Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
Who are you Lord? He asked. The Lord said: I am Jesus whom you persecute.
Smith
Agriculture.
This was little cared for by the patriarchs. The pastoral life, however, was the means of keeping the sacred race, whilst yet a family, distinct from mixture and locally unattached, especially whilst in Egypt. When grown into a nation it supplied a similar check on the foreign intercourse, and became the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth. "The land is mine,"
was a dictum which made agriculture likewise the basis of the theocratic relation. Thus every family felt its own life with intense keenness, and had its divine tenure which it was to guard from alienation. The prohibition of culture in the sabbatical year formed a kind of rent reserved by the divine Owner. Landmarks were deemed sacred,
De 19:14
and the inalienability of the heritage was insured by its reversion to the owner in the year of jubilee; so that only so many years of occupancy could be sold.
Rain.--Water was abundant in Palestine from natural sources.
De 8:7; 11:8-12
Rain was commonly expected soon after the autumnal equinox. The period denoted by the common scriptural expressions of the "early" and the "latter rain,"
De 11:14; Jer 5:24; Ho 6:3; Zec 10:1; Jas 5:7
generally reaching from November to April, constituted the "rainy season," and the remainder of the year the "dry season." Crops.--The cereal crops of constant mention are wheat and barley, and more rarely rye and millet(?). Of the two former, together with the vine, olive and fig, the use of irrigation, the plough and the harrow, mention is made ln the book of
Job 31:40; 15:33; 24:6; 29:19; 39:10
Two kinds of cumin (the black variety called fitches),
and such podded plants as beans and lentils may be named among the staple produce. Ploughing and Sowing.--The plough was probably very light, one yoke of oxen usually sufficing to draw it. Mountains and steep places were hoed.
New ground and fallows,
were cleared of stones and of thorns,
early in the year, sowing or gathering from "among thorns" being a proverb for slovenly husbandry.
Sowing also took place without previous ploughing, the seed being scattered broad cast and ploughed in afterwards. The soil was then brushed over with a light harrow, often of thorn bushes. In highly-irrigated spots the seed was trampled by cattle.
Seventy days before the passover was the time prescribed for sowing. The oxen were urged on by a goad like a spear.
The proportion of harvest gathered to seed sown was often vast; a hundred fold is mentioned, but in such a way as to signify that it was a limit rarely attained.
Sowing a field with divers seed was forbidden.
De 22:9
Reaping and Threshing.--The wheat etc., was reaped by the sickle or pulled by the roots. It was bound in sheaves. The sheaves or heaps were carted,
to the floor--a circular spot of hard ground, probably, as now, from 50 to 80 or 100 feet in diameter.
On these the oxen, etc., forbidden to be muzzled,
De 25:4
trampled out the grain. At a later time the Jews used a threshing sledge called morag,
Isa 41:15; 2Sa 24:22; 1Ch 21:23
probably resembling the noreg, still employed in Egypt --a stage with three rollers ridged with iron, which, aided by the driver's weight crushed out, often injuring, the grain, as well as cut or tore the straw, which thus became fit for fodder. Lighter grains were beaten out with a stick.
The use of animal manure was frequent.
etc. Winnowing.--The shovel and fan,
indicate the process of winnowing--a conspicuous part of ancient husbandry.
Evening was the favorite time,
when there was mostly a breeze. The fan,
was perhaps a broad shovel which threw the grain up against the wind. The last process was the shaking in a sieve to separate dirt and refuse.
Fields and floors were not commonly enclosed; vineyard mostly were, with a tower and other buildings.
Nu 22:24; Ps 80:13; Isa 5:5; Mt 21:33
comp. Judg 6:11 The gardens also and orchards were enclosed, frequently by banks of mud from ditches. With regard to occupancy, a tenant might pay a fixed money rent,
or a stipulated share of the fruits.
A passer by might eat any quantity of corn or grapes, but not reap or carry off fruit.
De 23:24-25; Mt 12:1
The rights of the corner to be left, and of gleaning [CORNER; GLEANING], formed the poor man's claim on the soil for support. For his benefit, too, a sheaf forgotten in carrying to the floor was to be left; so also with regard to the vineyard' and the olive grove.
See Corner
See Gleaning
Le 19:9-10; De 24:19
See Verses Found in Dictionary
God called the dry land earth. The gathering of the waters He called seas. God saw that it was good. Then God said: Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them. It was so.
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.
Count seven times seven years (seven sabbaths of years), a total of forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. read more. In this way you will set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold must be restored to the original owner or the descendants, and any who have been sold as slaves may return to their families. That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Do not plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces. In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property. In the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while.
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me! It is not your land! You only live there for a little while. When property is sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it. read more. If any of you Israelites become so poor that you are forced to sell your property, your closest relative must buy it back. If that relative has the money. Later, if you can afford to buy it, you must pay enough to make up for what the present owner will lose on it before the next Year of Celebration, when the property would become yours again. If he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again. If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. Houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee. The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released. This is because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their property from generation to generation. If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, you should help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home.
Where the road went through the vineyards, it was narrow, with stonewalls on both sides. Now the angel of Jehovah stood there.
Jehovah your God will lead you into a good land. It is a land with rivers that do not dry up. Springs and underground streams flow through the valleys and the hills.
Obey every commandment I command you today. Then you may be strong and go in and possess the land you will cross over to possess. Then you may prolong your days on the land Jehovah swore to give to your fathers and their descendants. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. read more. The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you go to possess is a land of hills and valleys. It drinks water from the rain from the clouds in the sky. Jehovah your God cares about this land. Jehovah watches over it day after day and year by year.
I will send rain on your land at the proper time, both in the fall and in the spring. You will gather your own grain, new wine, and olive oil.
Do not move your neighbor's boundary mark. The ancestors have set this in your inheritance. You will inherit this in the land Jehovah your God gives you to possess.
Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed that you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.
When you enter your neighbor's vineyard you may eat grapes until you are full. But you shall not put any in your basket. When you enter your neighbor's standing grain you may pluck the heads with your hand. But you must not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.
When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.
The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
The angel of Jehovah came to the village of Ophrah. He sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.
Boaz is of our kindred, with whose servant girls you have been. He winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor.
You, your sons, and your servants will farm the land for your master Saul's family and bring in the harvest. This will provide food for them. Mephibosheth will always be a guest at my table. Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
Hungry people eat what a stubborn fool gathers. They take it even from among the thorns. Thirsty people pant after his wealth.
He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.
How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
My roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches.
let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended, JOB QUITE TALKING.
Can you bind the wild bull in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?
Let them be like chaff blown by the wind as the angel of Jehovah chases them.
Wild boars from the forest graze on it. Wild animals devour it.
I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man lacking understanding. It was all grown over with thorns and nettles, and the wall of stone was broken down.
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon. He leased the vineyard to keepers. Every one was to bring a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.
He dug the soil all around and removed its stones. He planted it with the choicest vine. And he built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones.
Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge and break down the wall that protects it. I will let wild animals eat it and trample it down.
All the hills where crops were once planted will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.
The nations will rush like the raging of many waters. But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away. They will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling dust before the whirlwind.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin. But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod.
The cattle and the donkeys that work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed with forks and shovels.
Blessed are those who plant beside every stream and those who let cattle and donkeys roam freely.
See I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will reduce the hills to chaff.
Jehovah says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up your unplowed fields, and do not plant among thorns.
They do not say in their hearts, to themselves: 'We should respect Jehovah our God. He sends rain at the right time, the autumn rain and the spring rain. He makes sure that we have harvest seasons.'
They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. These are the things that they had loved, served, gone after, sought, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered or buried, but they will become manure on the ground.
Let us get to know Jehovah! Let us press on (run after) (follow) to get to know him. As surely as the sun rises he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
I said: Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, Jehovah, and I will come and pour out righteousness on you.
Consider this, I will weigh you down just as a wagon is weighed down when it is full of grain.
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations! Like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel will not fall on the earth.
In the spring ask Jehovah for rain. It is Jehovah who makes storm clouds and lightning. He will give showers of rain for the vegetation in the field.
His winnowing shovel is in his hand. He will clean his threshing floor and gather his wheat into a barn. He will then burn the husks in a fire that cannot be put out.
Jesus' disciples were hungry. It was Sabbath day and yet Jesus and his disciples went through the grain fields plucking ears and eating them.
Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
Listen to another illustration. A master of a house made a vineyard, and put a wall around it. He made a wine press and built a tower. Then he rented it to workers and traveled to another country. When the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit.
Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and late rains.