This is why the Torah forbids using different species together and why Paul told Christians not to yoke themselves in marriage with unbelievers [Deuteronomy 22:10, 2 Corinthians 6:14 King James]. An easy yoke fits comfortably and allows the beasts to work well. Jesus said that when his followers walk and work, yoked together with him, the discipline involved is not onerous [Matthew 11:29,30].

Unlike our own old-fashioned ploughs which, where they still exist, have two handles, the Bible lands' plough has only one. Jesus accurately talks of putting a hand, not hands, to the plough [Luke 9:62]. The other hand is left free to hold the goad.

The goad is a long pole with a sharp point at one end used to control an unbroken or difficult beast. Each time it kicks out, the ploughman ensures that its foot comes up against the point. It soon learns docility. The other end of the goad is shaped for scraping mud off the ploughshare and removing stones wedged in an animal's hoof. Paul, like a headstrong ox, kicked against the pricks of the truth that God was trying to show him [Acts 26:14].

After ploughing, farmers sowed the seed by hand and Jesus noted how it fell in different places and flourished or withered accordingly [Mark 4:1-9]. He then compared the kingdom of heaven to a field where darnel grew amongst the wheat [Matthew 13:24-30]. Darnel is indistinguishable from wheat until both are ripe. Then, the heavier wheat heads bend while the lighter darnel remains upright. Just before harvest, workers go through the fields picking it out. It is poisonous and can make people very ill if any is left and gets ground into the flour.

The months between Passover and Pentecost, April to June, are the harvest season. Appropriate grain ceremonies took place in the Temple at these times. Barley ripens first while the wheat follows a few weeks later. This is why, in the story of the plagues, the hail destroyed the flax and barley but not the wheat and spelt which were less advanced [Exodus 9:31,32]. Spelt was a kind of wild wheat.

A sickle is a smaller implement than a scythe and it is more convenient for certain tasks. The word sickle or scythe is always used in the Bible in connection with reaping. It may be a simple command not to put your sickle into your neighbour's field to steal his crops. Sometimes it is a metaphor for reaping the harvest of souls at the end of the world [Deuteronomy 23:26, Revelation 14:14-19]. Either way, farmers reaped the harvest by hand in this primitive way. They then stacked the produce at the threshing floor, ready for the next stage.

The threshing floor is a flat, rock surface on high, open ground which catches the summer breeze. There the farmer piles his crop and sets his oxen walking over it until the grain falls from the stalks. "You shall not muzzle the ox," states the Torah, "when he treads the corn". Paul uses this statement to back up his dictum that church leaders deserve proper support [Deuteronomy 25:4, 1 Timothy 5:17,18].

The oxen then drag a wooden board, studded with metal, over the threshing floor to break up the long stalks and further separate the grain from them. This is the "threshing sledge with teeth" to which Isaiah likened Israel's ultimate triumph over her persecutors [Isaiah 41:14-16]. David was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite when the plague in Israel ceased. He purchased it for the site of the Temple and bought the yokes and threshing sledges as wood for his sacrifice [2 Samuel 24:18-25].

A threshing roller is a rectangular wooden frame within which are rows of small wheels. It is surmounted by a seat where someone sits to give weight as its wheels cut up the straw. This contraption is mentioned with the sledge in an informative passage about ploughing, sowing and threshing [Isaiah 28:23-28 RSV]. In Latin it was called a tribulum, from which the word tribulation comes.