The Voice of God in the Tillage of the Field
Isaiah 28:23-29
Give you ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.


The Scriptures are full of the fresh air of the country; it is easy to see that many of the writers of them were country people, or, if not, at least went about the world with their eyes open, and had a keen interest in those matters of the street and the field that make up the life of the people. When Moses described the Land of Promise to the Israelites it was a husbandman's description that he gave of it. It was "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olives and honey." The Psalmists looked out upon the open face of nature, and saw in it a world eloquent of God — the dew and the rain, the valleys and the hills, the lilies and the cedars spake of Him. He made the earth soft with showers, and blessed the springing thereof. One prophet describes the evil case of the people in this way: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Another calls the same people to repentance: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you" The great Lord Himself, standing in the midst of His worlds, bade men "consider the lilies of the field," and in His doctrine said, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow." And when Isaiah, in the words before us, draws out a detailed account of the operations of husbandry, in order to drive home lessons in Divine things, he was well within a long line of precedents.

(E. Medley, B. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

WEB: Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!




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