Farming is an activity that dates back to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.

Genesis
¹Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.⁴ This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. ⁵ Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, ⁶ but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. ⁷ Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸ Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. ⁹ The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. … ¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:1-9,15F

Because of the Sin of Eating from the Tree of Life, Adam and Eve Were Cursed in that Farming Became Hard Labor.

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

Cain and Abel – One of Adam and Eve’s Sons Was a Farmer. The Other was a Shepherd.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. ⁴ And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering…Genesis 4:2-4

Noah was a Farmer

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^[a] to plant a vineyard. Genesis 9:20

Although Abraham and his descendants were nomadic shepherds, Jacob [Isaac] also farmed.

¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. Genesis 26:12

“Abraham and his descendants were nomad herdsmen in Canaan, though Isaac and Jacob at times also tilled the soil (26:12; 37:7). Recurrent famines and the sojourn in Egypt taught the Israelites to depend more on agriculture, so that the report of the spies regarding the lush growth in Canaan interested them (Num. 13:23; Deut. 8:8). Agriculture became the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth, since the land of Palestine was suited to an agricultural rather than a pastoral economy. The soil is fertile wherever water can be applied abundantly. The Hauran district is productive. The soil of Gaza is dark and rich, though porous, and retains rain; olive trees abound there.

“The Israelites cleared away most of the wood that they found in Canaan (Josh. 17:18). Wood became scarce; dung and hay heated their ovens (Ezek. 4:12-15; Matt. 6:30). Their water supply came from rain, from brooks that ran from the hills, and from the Jordan. Irrigation was made possible by ducts from cisterns hewn out of rock. As population increased, the more difficult cultivation of the hills was resorted to and yielded abundance. Terraces were cut, one above another, and faced with low stone walls. Rain falls chiefly in autumn and winter, November and December, rarely after March, almost never as late as May. The “early” rain falls from about the September equinox to sowing time in November or December, the “latter” rain comes in January and February (Joel 2:23; Jas. 5:7). Drought two or three months before harvest meant famine (Amos 4:7-8).

Wheat, barley, and rye (millet rarely) were the staple cereals. “Corn” in the KJV, according to British usage, refers to any grain, not specifically to maize (NIV renders “grain”). The barley harvest was earlier than the wheat harvest: “The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later” (Exod. 9:31-32). Accordingly, at the Passover the barley was ready for the sickle, and the wave sheaf was offered. At the Pentecost feast fifty days later, the wheat was ripe for cutting, and the firstfruit loaves were offered. The vine, olive, and fig abounded, and traces remain everywhere of wine and olive presses. Cummin, peas, beans, lentils, lettuce, endive, leek, garlic, onion, cucumber, and cabbage were also cultivated.

“The Passover in the month of Nisan (March-April) occurred in the green stage of produce; the Feast of Weeks in Sivan (May-June), to the ripening stage; and the Feast of Tabernacles in Tishri (September-October), to the harvest. See feasts. The six months from Tishri to Nisan were occupied with cultivation; the six months from Nisan to Tishri, with gathering fruits. Rain from the equinox in Tishri to Nisan was pretty continuous but was heavier at the beginning (the early rain) and the end (the latter rain). Rain in harvest was almost unknown (Prov. 26:1).

“Viticulture (the cultivation of grapes) is pictured in Isa. 5:1-7 and Matt. 21:33-41. Some farming procedures are described in Isa. 28:24-28. The plow was light and drawn by yokes of oxen (1 Ki. 19:19). Oxen were urged on with a spearlike goad, which could double as a deadly weapon (Jdg. 3:31). Fallow ground was broken and cleared early in the year (Jer. 4:3; Hos. 10:1).

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed

“Seed was scattered broadcast, as in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:1-8), and plowed in afterward, the stubble of the preceding crop becoming mulch by decay. In irrigated fields, the seed was trodden in by cattle (Isa. 32:20). The contrast between the exclusive dependence on irrigation in Egypt and the larger dependence on rain in Palestine is drawn in Deut. 11:10-12. To sow among thorns was deemed bad husbandry (Job 5:5; Prov. 24:30-32). Hoeing and weeding were seldom needed in their fine tilth. Seventy days sufficed between barley sowing and the offering of the wave sheaf of ripe grain at Passover.

“Harvest customs in the time of the Judges are described in Ruth 2 and 3. The sowing of varied seed in a field was forbidden (Deut. 22:9). Oxen, unmuzzled (25:4) and five abreast, trod out the grain on a threshing floor of hard beaten earth, to separate the grain from chaff and straw. Flails were used for small quantities and lighter grains (Isa. 28:27). A threshing sledge (41:15) was also used, probably like the Egyptian sledge still in use (a stage with three rollers ridged with iron, which cut the straw for fodder, while crushing out the grain). The shovel and fan winnowed the grain afterward with the help of the evening breeze (Ruth 3:2; Isa. 30:24); lastly it was shaken in a sieve (Amos 9:9; Lk. 22:31). The fruit of newly planted trees was not to be eaten for the first three years. In the fourth it was offered as firstfruits. In the fifth year it might be eaten freely (Lev. 19:23-25). We have glimpses of the relations of farm laborers, steward (manager or overseer), and owner in the book of Ruth, in Matt. 20:1-16, and in Lk. 17:7-9.

“Agriculture was beset with pests: locust, cankerworm, caterpillar, and palmerworm (Joel 2:25 KJV); God calls them “my great army,” as destructive as an invasion by human enemies. Haggai speaks of blight, mildew, and hail (Hag. 2:17). Modern development of agriculture in Palestine under the British mandate and since the establishment of the State of Israel, and parallel but lesser development in the country of Jordan, are restoring the coastal plain, the plains of Esdraelon and Dothan, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the Hauran to their ancient prosperity. See also farming; occupations and professions.” Copyright © 1987, 2011 by ZondeTh