You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day you must rest. That is true even when it is the time to plough your fields. It is also true at harvest time. You must rest on the seventh day each week.

They must lead the cow down to a valley where no one has ploughed the ground or planted seed. There must be a stream of water in the valley. There they must break the cow's neck.

You must not tie an ox and a donkey together to pull a plough.

The king will choose some of your sons to be officers in his army. Some will be leaders of 1,000 soldiers. Others will be leaders of 50 soldiers. Some of your sons will have to plough the king's fields. They will have to cut his crops at harvest time. They will have to make weapons for the king to fight wars. They will have to fix his chariots.

So the Israelites had to ask the Philistines to mend their ploughs, axes, hoes and knives that they used on their farms.

The Israelites had to pay eight grams of silver for the Philistines to make each plough or hoe sharp again. They paid four grams of silver for each axe, knife or ox-goad.

Elisha becomes Elijah's servant

Elijah went away from Sinai. He found Shaphat's son, Elisha. Elisha was ploughing a field with 12 pairs of oxen. Elisha himself was using the 12th pair of oxen to plough. Elijah went to Elisha and he threw his robe over him.

So Elisha went back to his field. He took his pair of oxen and he killed them as a sacrifice. He burned wood from the plough to cook the meat. He gave the meat to the people who were there and they ate it. Then he left home to go with Elijah and to become his helper.

A servant brought a message to Job. He said, ‘We were using your oxen to plough the fields. Your donkeys were eating grass beside them.

It will not let you tie it to a plough. It will not agree to prepare your fields in the valleys.

Its stomach has sharp pieces, like bits of a pot that someone has broken. When it moves along, it ploughs the soil under it.

When people plough their fields, you send rain to make the earth wet. You make the ground soft with the rain, so that crops grow there.

They hit my back with whips. They made long marks on it, like farmers who are ploughing their fields.

It will be like a farmer who ploughs his field, and breaks the earth into pieces. Just like that, they will break the bones of wicked people. They will throw their bones on the ground at the entrance to Sheol.

When a farmer has no oxen to plough his fields, he does not have to feed them. But he needs strong oxen to grow plenty of crops.

A lazy farmer does not plough his fields in winter. As a result, he has nothing to eat when harvest time arrives.

God will be the judge between different nations. When they argue together, he will say who is right. They will take their swords and they will make them into ploughs. Their spears will become knives to cut their vines. Nations will no longer need weapons to attack other nations. They will not prepare to fight wars any more.

A farmer ploughs the ground because he wants to plant seeds in it. He does not continue to plough for ever.

The Lord says this to the people of Jerusalem and all Judah: ‘Prepare yourselves, like a farmer who ploughs his fields. Do not plant your seeds where weeds are growing.

I am your friend and I will take care of you. Men will plough your ground and they will plant seeds in it.

You will plough the empty land again to provide food. People who travel there will no longer think that the land is useless.

Ephraim was like a cow that I had taught to stamp on grain. She loved to work for me. But now I will make her do hard work! I will put a heavy yoke on her beautiful neck. Judah will also have to plough the ground. Jacob's descendants must work to dig up the hard ground.

Be like a farmer who plants good seed. Plant things that are good and right. Then your harvest will be faithful love. Plough the hard ground and prepare it for the Lord to bless you. It is time for you to turn back to the Lord. Then he will bless you with good things, like rain that falls on the ground!

Make your ploughs into swords. Make the tools that you use on the farm into spears. The weak man must say, ‘I am strong!’

Horses cannot run on rocks. People do not try to plough the sea. But you Israelites have changed what is fair and honest into something bad. You have made justice seem like poison.