en_tm/translate/bita-farming/01.md

Some images from the Bible related to farming are listed below. The word in all capital letters represents an idea. The word does not necessarily appear in every verse that has the image, but the idea that the word represents does appear.


#### A FARMER represents God, and the VINEYARD represents his chosen people 
> My well beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.  
> He spaded it and removed the stones, and planted it with the choicest vine.  
> He built a tower in the middle of it, and also built a winepress.  
> He waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2)

<blockquote> For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. (Matthew 20:1 ULB)</blockquote>

> There was a man, a person with extensive land. He planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a watchtower, and rented it out to vine growers. Then he went into another country. (Matthew 21:33 ULB)

#### The GROUND represents people's hearts (inner being)
> For Yahweh says this to each person in Judah and Jerusalem: 'Plow your own ground,  
> and do not sow among thorns. (Jeremiah 4:3 ULB)

<blockquote>When anyone hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it.... This is the seed that was sown beside the road. What was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy....What was sown among the thorn plants, this is the person who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.... What was sown on the good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands it. (Matthew 13:19-23 ULB)</blockquote>

> Break up your unplowed ground,
> for it is time to seek Yahweh.... (Hosea 10:12 ULB)

#### SOWING represents actions or attitudes, and REAPING represents judgment or reward 
> Based on what I have observed, those who plow iniquity  
> and sow trouble reap the same. (Job 4:8 ULB)

> Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man plants, that is what he will also harvest. For he who sows seed to his own sinful nature will harvest destruction, but he who sows seed to the Spirit, will harvest eternal life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7-8 ULB)

#### THRESHING and WINNOWING represent the separation of evil people from good people 
After farmers harvest wheat and other types of grain, they bring them to a _threshing floor_, a flat place with hard ground, and have oxen pull heavy wheeled carts or sleds without wheels over the grain to _thresh_ it, to separate the usable grains from the useless chaff. Then they take large forks and _winnow_ the threshed grain by throwing it up in the air so the wind can carry off the chaff while the grains fall back to the threshing floor, where they can be gathered and used for food. (see *thresh* and *winnow* pages in [translationWords](https://unfoldingword.org/en/?resource=translation-words) for help translating "thresh" and "winnow")

> So I will winnow them with a pitchfork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them. I will destroy my people since they will not turn from their ways. (Jeremiah 15:7 ULB)


<blockquote> His winnowing fork is in his hand to thoroughly clear off his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse. But he will burn up the chaff with fire that can never be put out. (Luke 3:17 ULB)</blockquote>

#### GRAFTING represents God's allowing the Gentiles to become his people 
> For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a good olive tree, how much more will these Jews, who are the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of this mystery, in order that you will not be wise in your own thinking. This mystery is that a partial hardening has occurred in Israel, until the completion of the Gentiles come in. (Romans 11:24-25 ULB)

#### RAIN represents God's gifts to his people 
> ...he comes and rains righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12 ULB)
 
 
<blockquote>For the land that drinks in the rain that often comes on it, and that gives birth to the plants useful to those for whom the land was worked—this is the land that receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and is near to a curse. Its end is in burning. (Hebrews 6:7-8 ULB)</blockquote>


> So be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See, the farmer awaits the valuable harvest from the ground. He is patiently waiting for it, until it receives the early and late rains.  (James 5:7 ULB)