LEARNING TO BE FARMERS
The wandering Hebrew shepherds were not savages nor barbarians. In
many ways Abraham and his friends were cultured, civilized people; but
their civilization was of a different kind from that of the settled
farmers and villagers of Canaan. So when the Hebrews crossed the
Jordan and gradually fought their way to the highland fields and
villages where they were able to settle down and live as farmers and
vineyard keepers instead of shepherds, they soon found that they had
much to learn. The only teachers to whom they could turn were the
Canaanites. Very soon, therefore, they made friends with their
Canaanite neighbors.
"Tell us how to plant wheat," the Hebrews said to them, for example;
or, "Will you please show us how to prune these grape vines?" or,
"Won't you give us a few lessons in driving oxen? We can't make these
young steers pull."
LEARNING TO RAISE AND USE CATTLE
This lesson about the training and care of cattle was one of the first
and most necessary parts of their new education. As shepherds they
knew all about sheep and goats; and this knowledge was still valuable,
for on many a Canaanite hillside goats could thrive where no other
animal could live. But as farmers they must also raise cattle, not
only because of the milk, and the beef, but because they needed the
oxen to draw their carts and plows and harrows. Oxen and asses, not
horses, were the work animals of the farmers of those days. Oxen
were more powerful than asses. Horses were seldom seen at all. They
were used chiefly in war by the great military emperors of Egypt and
Assyria.
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| [Illustration: EGYPTIAN PLOWING |
| (Similar to Hebrew Method.)] |
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| [Illustration: EGYPTIANS THRESHING AND WINNOWING |
| (Hebrews used same methods.)] |
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| [Illustration: EGYPTIAN OR HEBREW THRESHING FLOOR] |
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| Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Foundation |
| Fund. |
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=Driving an ox team.=--So we can imagine the young Canaanites of those
days watching a Hebrew farmer taking his first lesson with a team of
oxen. There was a wooden yoke to lay on their necks; there was the
two-wheeled farm cart with its long tongue to be fastened to the yoke.
There was the goad, a long pole with a sharp point, to stick into the
animals' flanks if they should balk. And probably there were many
useful tricks to be learned; for example, words like our "Gee" and
"Haw" and "Whoa," to shout at the animals when it was necessary to
turn to the left or the right or to stop altogether.
Plowing was one of the most difficult of the tasks to be done with
oxen. The furrows had to be run straight and true. And the plows were
clumsy affairs--not like our shining steel plows to-day--just a long
pole with a short diagonal crosspiece, sharpened at the lower end, or
tipped with a small bronze share.
CROPS OF ANCIENT CANAAN
The Hebrews raised the same crops as the earlier Canaanites. The
leading ones were wheat, barley, olives, grapes, and figs. The two
grain crops were, of course, the most necessary to life. They were
planted in the early spring, and harvested in the summer. The grain
was sown broadcast, by hand, just as Jesus describes in his great
parable of the sower.
=Ancient agriculture.=--Harvesting and threshing were done almost
entirely by hand. The grain was cut with sickles. Some of the old
sickles have recently been found by investigators, buried deep in the
mounds where ruined Canaanite cities lie hidden. Some of these sickles
are of metal, and others are made of the jawbones of oxen or asses,
with sharp flints driven into the tooth sockets. After the grain was
cut it was tied in bundles and carried to the threshing floor, which
was usually a wide, level space of hard ground or rock. Oxen were
driven back and forth across the grain on the floor, drawing a heavy
weight, until all or nearly all the kernels were shaken or crushed out
of the heads. It usually took several days to thresh all the grain
from an average-sized field. Then the straw was raked away, and the
grain was left mixed with chaff and dust. The next windy day the
winnowers, with large "fans," or wooden shovels, came and tossed the
mingled chaff and dust and grain in the wind. The kernels of wheat
fell back and the chaff and dust were blown away. Last of all, the
good clean grain was gathered in baskets and bags, and hauled to the
farmer's house, or to the granary, which was a round brick building
standing beside or behind his house.
VINEYARDS AND OLIVES
Another new experience of the Hebrews in Canaan was the culture of
grapevines. The vineyards were often on hillsides, especially those
facing the south, and hence warmed by the early spring sunshine. The
soil on these hillsides had to be terraced so that the rain would not
wash it away. The vines had to be planted, trained on trellises, and
pruned. At the time of the grape harvest many of the grapes,
especially of the sweeter varieties, were set aside for raisins. They
were spread out on sheets in the hot sunshine until they were dry and
wrinkled. Then they were packed away in jars, where they settled into
delicious cakes. Figs were dried and packed in the same way.
=The manufacture of wine.=--Many of the grapes were used for wine. The
juice of these was trodden out in wine-presses. These were large
hollows several feet square, cut in the solid rock on the hillside.
There were always two of them, one lower than the other, with
connecting passages. The bunches of grapes were piled in great heaps
in the higher of the two, and then it was great fun for the boys and
girls and youths and maidens to jump barefooted and barelegged among
the purple clusters, and trample them until the foaming red juice ran
down into the lower of the stone chambers, where it was taken up with
gourd dippers and poured into skins. The youngsters would come home
with their legs and shirts all stained and spotted red.
=Olive orchards.=--Almost every Canaanite farm had a few olive trees
or a small olive orchard. The olives were prized for the oil which was
squeezed from them. This oil was used as we use butter, with bread and
in cooking. It was also burned in lamps. In fact, it was their chief
fuel for lighting purposes.
The olive press was a large stone with a hollow in the top. From the
bottom of the hollow, a hole was drilled through to the outside of the
stone. Across the hollow swung a wooden beam, one end riveted to a
tree or another stone, and the other end carrying weights. The ripe
olives were shaken from the trees, and basket full after basket full
poured into the hollow stone. Then the weighted beam would be laid
across the top, with flat stones under it, fitting down into the
hollow over the olives. The oil, trickling out below, was strained and
stored in jars.
HARD WORK AND BRIGHT HOPES
Most of these different kinds of crops called for an immense amount of
hard work and drudgery. Think of the weariness of the reapers,
swinging their sickles in the wheat or barley all day long under the
hot Syrian sun. Think of the winnowers, tossing the grain into the
wind. Think of the aching backs of the plower and the sower. Of course
there were happy hours, also. It was great fun to ride home behind the
oxen, on a cart packed full and pressed down with golden sheaves. The
time of treading out the grapes was a festival of laughter,
love-making, and song. And in the rainy season, after a year of
plentiful harvests, when the granaries and cellars were well stored,
there must have been many happy days of quiet rest and play in Hebrew
homes.
But most of all, what cheered them on was the hope of better days to
come, when their children at least, or their children's children,
would not have to toil quite so hard or so long each day, and when the
danger of famine and starvation would not loom up quite so grimly as
in the old days in the desert when one summer of drought might mean
death for all. Here in Canaan, they thought, we will surely be happy
by and by.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Explain the following Scripture passages, in the light of the
customs described in this chapter: Isaiah 63. 2; Deuteronomy 25. 4;
Matthew 3. 12.
2. Psalm 23. 1 draws a great lesson about God from the experiences of
shepherd life. What lesson about God is drawn from farm life in Isaiah
5. 1-7?
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| [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN REAPING] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE HOES] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE SICKLE] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE OR HEBREW PLOWSHARES] |
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| Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |
| Fund. |
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