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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CHAPTER VIII

VILLAGE LIFE IN CANAAN

The farmers of ancient Canaan all lived in villages.  No farmer would have dreamed of building an isolated house for his family on his own field out of sight of his nearest neighbor as our American farmers do.  The danger from robbers would have been too great.  Instead of that, the Hebrew farmer lived in the nearest village or town.  Early in the morning he went out to his field, and in the evening returned to his home inside the protecting village walls.