Plow

plou (חרשׁ, ḥārash; ἀροτριόω, arotrióō): No implement of the Bible is more frequently illustrated today than the plow. This is partly because there is every reason to believe that the plows still used throughout Egypt, Palestine, and Syria are counterparts of the ancient ones. The first plows were probably an adaptation of the ancient Egyptian hoe, where the handle was lengthened in order that animals might be hitched to it. To make it easier to break up the ground, it was pointed, and handles were added by which it could be guided. The ancient plow probably varied in type in different sections of the country, as it does today. In one form a young tree Of oak or other strong wood of a diameter of 3 or 4 inches is cut off just below a good-sized branch and again 15 or 20 inches above. The upper end of the severed trunk is pointed and forms the share. Between this and the side branch is fitted a brace. The branch is cut off 10 or 12 ft. from the trunk and forms the pole. A lighter stick, about 3 ft. long, projects upward from the share and forms the handle. The plow used in Syria is of slightly different construction. The handle and share are one continuous piece, so cut that there is a slight bend at the middle. The share is pointed and is used bare in the plains, or in more stony regions is shod with iron. The pole is of 2 pieces joined end to end. The thicker end of the pole is notched, so that it may be attached firmly to the share. The whole plow is so light that it can be easily carried on a man's shoulder. These plows literally scratch the soil, as the Hebrew word implies. They do not turn over the ground as the modern implement does. The plowman guides the plow with one hand, and with the other sometimes goads the oxen, and at other times with the chisel end of his goad breaks away the lumps of earth or other material which impedes the progress of his plow. See YOKE.

In addition to the words which are found above, the following terms occur: עבד, ‛ābhadh (literally, “to serve”), “worked” or “plowed” (Deu_21:4); פּלח, pālaḥ (literally, “to break open,” Psa_141:7).

One special law is mentioned in connection with plowing, namely that an ox and an ass should not be yoked together (Deu_22:10), a prohibition which is utterly disregarded today. Oxen were principally used for plowing (Job_1:14). Often several yokes of oxen followed each other plowing parallel furrows across the field, a sight still common on the plains of Syria (1Ki_19:19). Plowing was done by bond servants (Luk_17:7; compare ‛ābhadh, Deu_21:4). Plowing cannot be done before the rains (Jer_14:4); on the other hand the soil is too sticky to plow in the winter time (Pro_20:4). The law requiring one day of rest in every seven days included plowing time (Exo_34:21).

Figurative: “The plowers plowed upon my back” typified deep affliction (Psa_129:3; compare Psa_141:7). “Plow iniquity” is urged in the sense of “plant iniquity.” Doing evil was sure to bring evil consequences (Job_4:8; compare Mic_3:12). As surely as planting comes after plowing, so surely will Yahweh carry out His decree of destruction (Isa_28:23-25). “Judah shall plow,” i.e. become enslaved (Hos_10:11); compare “Foreigners shall be your plowmen” (Isa_61:5). “Will one plow there with oxen?” (Amo_6:12), “neither plowing nor harvest” (Gen_45:6) are figures of desolation. Zion plowed as a field, i.e. utterly destroyed (Jer_26:18). The plowman shall overtake the reaper, i.e. the soil shall be so fertile as to require no rest - typical of great abundance (Amo_9:13). No opportunity to plow because of lack of rain is a desolate picture of drought (Jer_14:4). As the plowman expects to share in the fruits of the harvest, so might an apostle expect his temporal needs to be provided for (1Co_9:10). “If ye had not plowed with my heifer,” i.e. used my wife, was Samson's reply to those who had secured the answer to his riddle from her (Jdg_14:18). “Beat their swords into plowshares” (or hoes) (Isa_2:4; Mic_4:3) typified peace; “beat your plowshares into swords” - war (Joe_3:10). “Having put his hand to the plow, and looking back,” i.e. longing for evil things when one has set his face toward doing what is right, unfits a man for the kingdom of God (Luk_9:62; compare Gen_19:26; Phi_3:13).

Job 1:14 

 the oxen were ploughing: the five hundred yoke of oxen Job had, Job_1:3, which were all out in the fields, and employed in ploughing them; and to plough with such was usual in those times and countries, as it now is in some places; see 1Ki_19:19 

and the asses feeding beside them; beside the oxen, where they were ploughing, in pasture ground, adjoining to the arable land; and beside the servants that were ploughing with the oxen: "at their hands" (b); as it may be literally rendered, just by them, under their eye and care; or "in their places" (c); where they should be, and where they used to feed (d); these were the five hundred asses, male and female, reckoned among Job's substance, Job_1:3, which were brought hither to feed, and some for the servants to ride on; this ploughed land being at some distance from Job's house; and others to carry the seed that was was to be sown here: now the situation and employment of these creatures are particularly mentioned, to show that they were in their proper places, and at their proper work; and that what befell them was not owing to the want of care of them, or to the indolence and negligence of the servants. 

nd found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth; which may be understood either of twelve couple of oxen drawing one plough; which was a large number, but will not seem strange when it is observed, that Abelmeholah, where Elisha was ploughing, lay in the vale of Jordan, which was a clayey stiff ground, and required such a number of oxen to plough it up, especially at the first tilling of it, as this might be (a); compare 1Ki_4:12 A late traveller (b) observes, that at Damegraed, in upper Egypt on the Nile, six oxen yoked to plough had a great deal of difficulty to turn up the ground; or else, as the Jewish writers generally understand it, there were twelve ploughs, and a yoke of oxen to each, and a ploughman to attend everyone, and Elisha attended the twelfth; or was with one of the twelve, as the Targum, and might have the oversight of them all; Kimchi thinks, and so Abarbiuel after him, that this signified that he should be leader of the twelve tribes of Israel: 

and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him; the skirts of it. 

(z) Travels, &c. p. 204. (a) See Fuller's Pisgah-Sight, &c. B. 2. ch. 8. p. 175. (b) Norden's Travels in Egypt and Arabia, vol. 2. p. 85.

February1, 2012

Number 14:1-15:41

January 31, 2012

Numbers 11:1-13:33

FARM TOOLS USED IN BIBLE TIMES

IRRIGATION

Egyptian painting from tomb of Ipui, Thebes, 13th century BC, showing slave working an irrigation machine.

ir-i-gā´shun: No equivalent for this word is found in Biblical writings, although the use of irrigation for maintaining vegetable life is frequently implied (Ecc_2:5, Ecc_2:6; Isa_58:11). To one familiar with the methods of irrigation practiced in Palestine, Syria and Egypt, the passage, “where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs” (Deu_11:10), is easily explained. The water is brought in channels to the gardens, where it is distributed in turn to the different square plots bounded by banks of earth, or along the rows of growing vegetables planted on the sides of the trenches. In stony soil the breach in the canal leading to a particular plot is opened and closed with a hoe. Any obstruction in the trench is similarly removed, while in the soft, loamy soil of the coastal plain or in the Nile valley these operations can be done with the foot; a practice still commonly seen.

The remains of the great irrigation works of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians leave no doubt as to the extent to which they used water to redeem the deserts. In Palestine and Syria there was less need (Deu_10:7; Deu_11:11) for irrigation. Here there is an annual fall of from 30 to 40 inches, coming principally during the winter. This is sufficient for the main crops. The summer supply of vegetables, as well as the fruit and mulberry trees, requires irrigation. Hardly a drop of many mountain streams is allowed to reach the sea, but is used to water the gardens of the mountain terraces and plains. This supply is now being supplemented by the introduction of thousands of pumps and oil engines for raising the water of the wells sufficiently to run it through the irrigation canals. Where a spring is small, its supply is gathered into a birket, or cistern, and then drawn off through a large outlet into the trenches, sometimes several days being required to fill the cistern. In Ecc_2:6, Solomon is made to say, “I made me pools of water, to water therefrom the forest.” This passage helps to explain the uses of the so-called Pools of Solomon, South of Jerusalem. In this same district are traces of the ancient terraces which were probably watered from these pools. See AGRICULTURE; GARDEN.

To one familiar with the methods of irrigation practiced in Palestine, Syria and Egypt, the passage, “where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs” (Deu_11:10), is easily explained. The water is brought in channels to the gardens, where it is distributed in turn to the different square plots bounded by banks of earth, or along the rows of growing vegetables planted on the sides of the trenches. In stony soil the breach in the canal leading to a particular plot is opened and closed with a hoe. Any obstruction in the trench is similarly removed, while in the soft, loamy soil of the coastal plain or in the Nile valley these operations can be done with the foot; a practice still commonly seen.

The remains of the great irrigation works of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians leave no doubt as to the extent to which they used water to redeem the deserts. In Palestine and Syria there was less need (Deu_10:7; Deu_11:11) for irrigation. Here there is an annual fall of from 30 to 40 inches, coming principally during the winter. This is sufficient for the main crops. The summer supply of vegetables, as well as the fruit and mulberry trees, requires irrigation. Hardly a drop of many mountain streams is allowed to reach the sea, but is used to water the gardens of the mountain terraces and plains. This supply is now being supplemented by the introduction of thousands of pumps and oil engines for raising the water of the wells sufficiently to run it through the irrigation canals. Where a spring is small, its supply is gathered into a birket, or cistern, and then drawn off through a large outlet into the trenches, sometimes several days being required to fill the cistern. In Ecc_2:6, Solomon is made to say, “I made me pools of water, to water therefrom the forest.” This passage helps to explain the uses of the so-called Pools of Solomon, South of Jerusalem. In this same district are traces of the ancient terraces which were probably watered from these pools.

Ecc 2:6 I made me pools of water,.... For cascades and water works to play in, as well as to keep and produce fish of all kinds: mention is made of the king's pools, Neh_2:14; the fish pools at Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim, perhaps belonged to Solomon, Son_7:4; Little more than a league from Bethlehem are pools of water, which at this day are called the fish pools of Solomon; they are great reservatories cut in the rock, the one at the end of the other; the second being a little lower than the first, and the third than the second, and so communicate the water from one to another when they are full (c); and of which Mr. Maundrell (d) gives the following account:

"They are about an hour and a quarter distant from Bethlehem, southward; they are three in number, lying in a row above each other, being so disposed, that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third; their figure is quadrangular; the breadth is the same in all, amounting to above ninety paces; in their length there is some difference between them, the first being about an hundred sixty paces long; the second, two hundred; the third, two hundred twenty; they are all lined with a wall, and plastered, and contain a great depth of water.''

And to these, he observes, together with the gardens adjoining, Solomon is supposed to allude, Ecc_2:5. There are to be seen, he says (e), some remains of an old aqueduct, which anciently conveyed the waters from Solomon's pools to Jerusalem; this is said to be the genuine work of Solomon, and may well be allowed to be in reality what it is pretended for. So Rauwolff (f) says,

"beyond the tower of Ader, in another valley, not far from Bethlehem, they show still to this day a large orchard, full of citron, lemon, orange, pomegranate, and fig trees, and many others, which King Solomon did plant in his days; with ponds, canals, and other water works, very pleasantly prepared, as he saith himself, Ecc_2:5; this is still in our time full of good and fruitful trees, worthy to be seen for their sakes, and ditches there: wherefore I really believe it to be the same Josephus (g) makes mention of, called Ethan, about twelve mile from Jerusalem; where Solomon had pleasant gardens and water pools, to which he used to ride early in a morning.''

to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees; the young nurseries, which in time grew up to large fruit bearing trees; which, being numerous and thick, looked like a wood or forest, as the word is; and which canals and nurseries both added greatly to the delight and pleasure of those places. In this manner the Indians water their gardens; who commonly have in them a great pit, or kind of fish pool, which is full of rain water; and just by it there is a basin of brick, raised about two feet higher than the ground: when therefore they have a mind to water the garden, it is filled with water from the fish pool, or pit; which, through a hole that is at the bottom, falls into a canal, that is divided into many branches, proportionable in size to their distance from the basin, and carries the water to the foot of each tree, and to each plot of herbs; and when the gardeners think they are watered enough, they stop up, or turn aside, the canals with clods of earth (i). The beauty of a plant, or tree, is thus described by Aelianus (k);

"branches generous, leaves thick, stem or trunk firm and stable, roots deep; winds shaking it; a large shadow cast from it; changing with the seasons of the year; and water, partly brought through canals, and partly coming from heaven, to water and nourish it; and such beautiful, well watered, and flourishing trees, contribute much to the pleasure of gardens.''

(c) Thevenot's Travels, B. 2. ch. 47. p. 202. (d) Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 88. edit. 7. (e) Ibid. p. 90. (f) Travels, part 3. ch. 22. p. 322. Vid. Egmont and Heyman's Travels, vol. 1. p. 367, 368. (g) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 7. s. 13. (h) Ut supra, p. 50, 51. (Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, edit. 7.) (i) Agreement of Customs between the East Indians and Jews, Art. 21. p. 78. (k) Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 14.

January 30,212

Numbers 8:1-10:36

January 29, 2012

Numbers 7:1-89

January 28, 2012

Numbers 4:34-6:27