The unvarying East : modern scenes and ancient Scriptures / E.J. Hardy.

  • Hardy, E. J. (Edward John), 1849-1920.
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Credit: The unvarying East : modern scenes and ancient Scriptures / E.J. Hardy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a man going to work carries it on his shoulder. It has only one handle, and this the ploughman holds in his right hand and presses down to prevent the plough getting out of the furrow. If he looked back he could not do this ; so the words of our Lord are strictly accurate : “No man, having put his hand [not “ hands ”]• to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God ” (Luke ix. 62). When we know the kind of plough referred to we understand the words “ They shall beat their swords into ploughshares ” (Isaiah ii. 4). This means that they shall beat their swords into rims of metal and place them around the shares of their small wooden ploughs. A goad is an indispensable accompaniment of a plough. The pointed upper end serves, instead of rein or whip, to guide and urge on the oxen. The other end has on it a kind of chisel, and this is used to clean off from the share earth and weeds. “ The words of the wise are as goads ’’ (Ecclesiastes xii. 11). This means that they guide or keep in the right path (furrow). “ It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks ” (Acts xxvi. 14) is a proverbial expression taken from the action of an unruly ox, which, when pricked by the goad, kicks back and wounds himself. It was to sharpen the chisel end of goads that the Philistines allowed the Israelites to have files (i Samuel xiii. 21). And'yet six hundred Philistines found that a goad could be a formidable weapon, for with a goad Shamgar slew that number of them (Judges iii. 31).