Isaiah 22. 22; Deuteronomy 22. 8.

2. In earlier chapters we have seen how the Hebrew leaders drew
lessons about God from shepherd life (Psalm 23), and from farm life
(Isaiah 5. 1-7). What lesson did a great prophet learn in regard to
God from the experiences of an artisan? (Jeremiah 18. 1-6.)

3. Why was it necessary to build a tower in a Canaanite vineyard, as
suggested in Isaiah 5. 2 and Mark 12. 1?

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Amos 5. 19.

CHAPTER IX

KEEPING HOUSE INSTEAD OF CAMPING OUT

Let us suppose that we have been invited to spend a day or two as
guests in the home of one of these Hebrew families who have just
settled in Canaan and begun to learn the new arts and customs of the
land. It is one of the poorer homes. We have slept through the night
on our mat spread on the dirt floor of the house, with our cloak over
us to keep us warm. Before daylight we are awakened by the older
people moving about in the dim light of the burning wick in the saucer
of oil. Soon everyone is awake. The mats are rolled up and piled in a
corner. In the early dawn one of the older girls takes a jar on her
shoulder and goes for water to the spring, which is outside the
village half way up the hill.

If we are expecting to be called to breakfast, we shall be
disappointed. There is no regular morning meal, although everyone
helps himself to a bite or two of bread from the bread basket in the
corner of the room. By and by father and the older boys take the ox
and the ass from the shed just back of the one-roomed house (we are
lucky if the animals were not kept all night in the house itself) and
start for the field. And the women also have their day's work before
them in the house. First of all, there is a bag of wheat to be ground
into flour.

HOME TASKS

In the desert the wheat or barley, when they had it, was merely
pounded between two rough stones such as could be picked up anywhere.
The flour, or meal, which was made in this way was not very good.
Here in Canaan, each house had a rude stone hand-mill for grinding
grain. It consists of a large lower stone with a saddle-shaped hollow
on the upper side. The upper stone is somewhat like a large, very
heavy rolling pin. The grain is poured into the hollow and the upper
stone is rolled back and forth over it while the flour gradually sifts
out over the sides on to the cloth which is spread on the ground
underneath the mill. It is a monotonous task, and very often two
peopl