Sowing

Grain was sowed in the weeks before the first autumn rains, in October. The farmer walked along the newly ploughed field and scattered seeds as evenly as possible, using a sweeping motion. He carried the seeds in a bag or in the folds of his clothing.

When several people were working at the same time, someone could walk behind the plough to throw the seed straight into the newly ploughed furrow. There is a reference to this in Isaiah 28:25, “He sows rows of wheat and barley”.

A kind of funnel could also be fixed to the plough, allowing the seeds to flow down through the funnel and neatly in rows into the newly ploughed earth.
This method was already in use in Mesopotamia in the second millennium BC. According to the apocryphal Book of Jubilees from the second century BC, Abraham introduced this method of sowing to Canaan.

It was still possible for some of the seeds not to land in the field but among the weeds or on the rocks. This is neatly illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-8, Mark 4:2-8 and Luke 8:4-8.

In Jewish law there are a number of rules for sowing. For example, in Leviticus 25 it says that a farmer may sow for six years in a row, but not the seventh year. In that year, the Seventh Year, he must leave his field fallow. According to Leviticus 19:19, a farmer may not plant different crops in the same field.

In the Bible the terms “sow” and “reap” are often used as a metaphor for cause and consequence. A well-known verse from Hosea 8:7 says, “When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm!”
In the parable of the sower in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, the seed is a metaphor for the word of God.