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Manners & Customs

Sacrificing Sheep

The sheep was used in Bible times more than any other animal for sacrificial purposes. A young male lamb was used in most cases as a thanksgiving offering, as atonement for transgression, or as redemption of a more valuable animal. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]...

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Goats

GOATS Care of goats - leadership ability. There are many goats being cared for by Bible land shepherds. A shepherd looks after them much as he would care for a flock of sheep. Sometimes the goats belong to one flock along with the sheep, and in this case: It is usually a he-goat that is the special leader of the whole (Jeremiah 50:8; Proverbs 30:...

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Goat Meat

Use of the meat of kids. The meat of an adult male goat is of course rather tough, and so not ordinarily used. The female goats are seldom killed because they are needed to increase the flock. Thus it is the meat of the young male kid that is largely used in Bible lands. In Old Testament times, when visitors were entertained, often a kid was made r...

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Waiting for Rain Before Ploughing

PRELIMINARY PREPARATION FOR PLANTING THE GRAIN Waiting for rain before beginning to plough. In Israel, ploughing is done after the early rains have softened the earth (cf. Psalm 65:10). These rains usually come the latter part of October or the first part of November. If they do not come then, the farmer must wait for them before he can plough his...

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Ancient Plough

The Plough. One type of Syrian or Palestinian plough is made up of two wooden beams which are joined together, and at the front end it is hooked to a yoke, and at the rear end it is fastened to a crosspiece, the upper part of which serves as the handle, and the lower part holds the iron ploughshare or colter. Even today many may be seen in Bible la...

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Oxen

ANIMALS USED IN PLOUGHING Use of oxen. In Bible times oxen were used almost exclusively for ploughing. For this reason the expression "a yoke" was used by the Hebrews to mean the measure of land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day (cf. I Samuel 14:14, and Isaiah 5:10). "Oxen" as the Hebrews used the term, meant both sexes of the animal, cow...

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Fertilizer

Fertilizer seldom used. The Eastern farmer seldom adds fertilizer to his soil in raising grain. Many a hillside used by the farmer for his crop has a quantity of small, soft lime-stones scattered over it. Part of the lime in the stones is dissolved with each rainstorm, and mixing with the soil, makes it better qualified for a good stand of grain. T...

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Parable of the Sower

Sowing as illustrated by the parable of JESUS. The process of sowing, and what happens to the seed, is well illustrated by the Parable of the Sower. No better picture could be given of the Oriental process of sowing the grain than that given by JESUS in this parable (Matthew 13:3-8; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8). "Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and ...

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Thieves

Thieves. Thieves are also great foes of the grain farmer. This has been especially true in modern times when the government has not been stable and efficient, as sometimes under the Turkish rule. Under those conditions, when the crop of grain has been planted a distance from the villages where the Fellahin farmers have lived, or if it was planted n...

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Passover Lamb

The offering of the Passover Lamb was the most important religious act of the year. This lamb had to be a male, which was selected after minute examination, in order that it be free from any blemish, and it was to be a first year lamb. It was killed on the fourteenth of the month Abib (after the Babylonian captivity Nisan, about the equivalent of o...

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