Agriculture
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(2 Macc. 12:1; Gen. 26:12, and elsewhere). From the most remote antiquity, agriculture has been reckoned one of the chief branches of human activity. Even in the garden of Eden, agriculture was laid as a duty upon our first parents (Gen. 2:15; 3:17). Adam’s eldest son, Cain, was a tiller of the ground (4:2). Noah, after the Flood, occupied himself with agriculture, and all the patriarchs, in their pastoral life, did not disdain it either (Gen. 26:14; Job 1:3, 15). In general, agriculture enjoyed universal respect among the Hebrews, and even the rich and noble did not shun it.
We see examples of this in Boaz, Gideon, Saul, the prophet Elisha, and others (Judg. 6:11; 1 Sam. 11:5; 1 Kings 19:19). Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22), attached very great importance to agriculture for the land of Judea, and after the Israelites took possession of the Promised Land, agriculture became one of the foundations of the Mosaic Law. The land belonged to Jehovah. “The land is mine,” God Himself says of it (Lev. 25:23), and in granting it to His people, He commanded that it be divided equally according to the number of males.
Accordingly, under Joshua the land was divided into portions, and each, by a special surveying, received a definite plot (Josh. 27:5 [as given]; Amos 7:17, and elsewhere). The Promised Land was extremely fertile, and agricultural labor was richly rewarded; only sufficient watering was needed. For this, besides springs and streams, the customary autumn and spring rains of Palestine served, along with the abundant dew from heaven, which was highly prized as the greatest of God’s blessings (Deut. 8:7; 11:10–15; 32:2, and elsewhere); artificial means for improving and fertilizing the soil were not neglected either: fields were cleared of stones (Hos. 12:11 [as given]) and weeds (Prov. 24:30, 31), various channels were dug and water was led into the fields (Ps. 1:3; Prov. 21:1), and the soil was fertilized by burning straw, chaff, and the like upon it, and covering it