FARMING, AGRICULTURE AND NATURE

MIXING OF SPECIES

1. Lev.19:19 Don’t let your livestock mate with those of another kind (breed with another kind).

2. Lev.19:19 Don’t plant your fields with two kinds of seed.

3. Deut.22:9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with two kinds of seed. If you do, both the two harvested crops and the yield from the vines must be forfeited.

4. Deut.22:10 Thou shalt not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

FRUITS OF THE TREES

5. Lev.19:23 When you enter the land and plant various kinds of fruit trees, you are to regard its fruit as forbidden – for three years it will be forbidden to you and not eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, for praising YHWH. But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it will produce even more for you; I am YHWH your Elohim.

The Book of Jubilees Chapter 7 And in the seventh week in the first year thereof, in this jubilee, Noah planted vines on the mountain on which the ark had rested, named Lubar, one of the Ararat Mountains, and they produced fruit in the fourth year, and he guarded their fruit, and gathered it in this year in the seventh month. And he made wine therefrom and put it into a vessel, and kept it until the fifth year, until the first day, on the new moon of the first month […] And behold, ye will go and build for yourselves cities, and plant in them all the plants that are upon the earth, and moreover all fruit-bearing trees. For three years the fruit of everything that is eaten will not be gathered: and in the fourth year its fruit will be accounted holy (and they will offer the first-fruits), acceptable before the Most High, who created heaven and earth and all things […] And in the fifth year make ye the release so that ye release it in righteousness and uprightness, and ye shall bу righteous, and all that you plant shall prosper.

SEVENTH YEAR (SABBATICAL YEAR)

6. Ex.23:10 Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat. And what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Lev.25:2 When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself is to observe a Sabbath rest for YHWH. Six years you will sow your field. Six years you will prune your grapevines and gather their produce. But in the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for YHWH. You will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines. You are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous harvest, and you are not to gather the grapes of your untended vine. It is to be a year of complete rest for the land. But what the land produces during the year of Sabbath will be food for all of you – you, your servant, your maid, your employee, anyone living near you, your livestock and the wild animals on your land. Everything the land produces may be used for food. Lev.25:20 If you ask, “If we aren’t allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces, what are we going to eat the seventh year?” then I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year, so that the land brings forth enough produce for all three years. The eighth year you will sow seed but eat the old, stored produce until the ninth year. That is, until the produce of the eighth year comes in, you will eat the old, stored food.        

Unfortunately, in our societies people dictate their own rules. They change the routes of rivers, and poison the soil with pesticides in order to increase productivity. By trying to make the creation “better” they actually destroy nature’s harmony and balance created by YHWH.

RELATION TO ANIMALS

7. Deut.22:6 If, as you are walking along, you happen to see a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground with chicks or eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the chicks or the eggs, you are not to take the mother with the chicks. You must let the mother go, but you may take the chicks for yourself. So that things will go well with you, and you will prolong your life.

        8. Lev.22:28 Whether it is a cow or ewe, do not kill both her and her young on the same day.

        9. Deut.25:4 You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 

Prov.12:10 A righteous man takes care of his animal but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

1Tim.5:17 Give a bonus to elders who do a good job, especially the ones who work hard at preaching and teaching. Scripture tells us, “Don’t muzzle a working ox,” and, “A worker deserves his pay.”