The name is absent

of the oldest legislation ɪ are the feast of unleavened bread
at the beginning of barley harvest, the feast of weeks about
the conclusion of wheat harvest, and sukkôth, i.e. ^t arbours’,
the feast of the ingathering of summer fruits, including the
vintage.

The beasts of burden used in agriculture were the ox
and the ass. The latter was of little use for really heavy
work, and therefore was not to be yoked with the stronger
ox,² though it is mentioned as used in tillage.³ Hybrids
are forbidden by the law/ and it is therefore probable
that the word peredh, fem. pirda, commonly rendered
‘ mules ’, originally denoted asses specially broken in for
riding. The only horses mentioned in the Hebrew Scrip-
tures were cavalry horses,⁵ and these were not bred in
Palestine.

The yoke ('oZ) used in ploughing or drawing loads was
presumably like that which is still in use in Palestine, viz.
a wooden beam slightly shaped where it rested on the
neck, with two pairs of short thick wooden rods mortised
into the beam and projecting downwards from it at right
angles to it, each pair serving as a collar. Above the
beam, half-way between the above-mentioned pairs of rods,
was a short, stout projection to which the plough was
fastened. The wooden rods would be apt to press on the
back of the oxen’s jaws, and Hosea draws a picture of a
humane husbandman, who takes thought for his beasts
and lifts the yoke away from their jaws to enable them to
eat.⁶ The yoke was fastened beneath the neck with bands

¹ Exod. xxiii. 14-16, xxxiv. 18, 22.

² Deut. xxii. ɪo ; Prov. xiv. 4.

³ Isa. xxx. 24. The word ^,ayarim, which the English versions here
render ‘ young asses ’ rather means ‘ fine ass stallions ’.

⁴ Lev. xix. 19.

⁵ The exact point of Amos vi. 12 is not quite clear, but it is pro-
bably merely an example of the impossible. In any case the horses
mentioned are not thought of as used in agriculture, for running in
such a case would be out of the question.

⁶ Hos. xi. 4.

YOKES, PLOUGHS, SOWING         67

(môsërôth),¹ and in dragging loads ropes Çabhôthîm or
habhâlîm) were used as traces.²

The yoke for animals ('oZ) must not be confused with
the mot or môta, also translated ^ζ yoke which was some
sort of pole borne on the shoulders of two men.³ The
word is also used of a similar contrivance intended to be
borne by one man, presumably so arranged on a man’s
shoulder that a load could be fastened to the projecting
ends in front and behind.⁴

Of agricultural implements the one of primary impor-
tance was, of course, the plough. This was perhaps known
as a maharesha,s but the text of the passage in which the
word occurs is too corrupt to speak with certainty. A
ploughshare, of metal (ΠN_j eth},^f> is mentioned ; in lieu of a
whip a goad (dorbɑn)¹ was used to drive the oxen. After
ploughing some sort of harrow was used for breaking clods
and levelling the surface.⁸

Ofthe process of sowing, which was of course broadcast,’
we have no precise information, except that the inferior
seed-crop was sown at the border of the plot of ground,¹⁰ so
that the wheat and the barley when in ear might escape
being plucked by passers-by. ɪɪ

¹ Jer. XXX. 8.

’ Hos. xi. 4. There can be little doubt that the vocalic punctua-
tion here should be amended. Jehovah is not compared to an ox
which draws a wagon—a comparison scarcely compatible with rever-
ence—but, as the subsequent context shows, to a husbandman who
takes kindly care of his beasts. We should therefore read ‘ I (sc. Je-
hovah) made them (sc. Israel) draw ’, &c. For the figure, cf. Hos.
x. 11 ; Isa. v. 18.

³ Num. iv. ɪo, 12, xiii. 23.         ⁴ Jer. xxviii. 10, 13 ; Isa. Iviii. 6.

⁵ I Sam. xiii. 20 f.             ⁶ Joel iii. ɪo (Heb. iv. ɪo) ; Isa. ii. 4.

^, I Sam. xiii. 21.     ⁸ Hos. x. ɪɪ ; Isa. xxviii. 24; Job xxxix. 10.

⁹ Isa. xxviii. 25. There is no reference here to planting the seed
in any sort of shallow furrow. The word rendered in the E.V. ‘ in
rows ’ is merely an incorrect form of the word for barley, and simi-
larly the word rendered ‘ in the appointed place ’ is a mistaken form
of that rendered ‘ spelt ’.

’° Isa. xxviii. 25.             ⁿ Deut. xxiii. 25.

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