To get them to obey better, you can give each one a name, and give them orders by calling their names. You must teach the oxen to walk steadily in a straight line. At the beginning of training, use the oxen only for light work, such as cultivation and light transport.
Gradually make them do more tiring work. After ten days, harness the oxen to a plough see page The oxen must walk in a straight line, and pull steadily. To begin with, do a light ploughing see Booklet No. At the end of each furrow, let the animals rest for 1 or 2 minutes. In this way the oxen gradually become used to all kinds of work, and the farmer also becomes used to handling the tools. In some places there are animal training stations where the farmer can learn how to train his oxen.
Remember that oxen should not do very tiring work before they are 4 years old see page The animals must do some work such as transport even outside the main farming season; they must not lose the habit of work.
How many hours a day can oxen work? When a man works, he gets tired. When an ox works, it gets tired. We know too that oxen need plenty of time to find their food and digest it.
For tiring work like ploughing, oxen should not be worked for more than 5 hours a day. For less tiring work, like light transport, oxen can be worked a little longer. It is best to make the oxen work when the sun is not too hot, early in the morning. When you say "I'm not looking for an allegorical answer" do you mean you don't want modern allegory read back into the passage or are you trying to exclude any argument that the 12 oxen would have been understood allegorically at the time?
Updated to clarify my intentions. I was trying to discourage the sort of vague answers that go on about the significance of the number 12 and drawing conclusions thereupon based on the connections that seem to only be well-defined in their own mind Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Let's go to an authority.
Page 19 He found Elisha son of Shaphat; he was plowing. Improve this answer. You clearly have a sense of humor that I appreciate. I also like how you briefly brought in the sons of the prophets. Since controlling 12 teams at a time is a lot of ambulatory hamburger to handle, part of me wonders if Elisha was managing a group of plowmen and that fact was simply expressed that way.
Is there any way to determine one way or the other? I think that Cogan agrees with you, as he picks 'teams' as opposed to 'couples' of oxen as the translation.
A team seems to me to imply a person directing. My original image was 12 yokes each of two oxen, but now I'm thinking a herd of oxen and a platoon of plowmen. Does Anchor have a citation to support the idea it is a sign of wealth? How do we know we aren't dealing with a group of workers for hire that own oxen? Add a comment. Numbers Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Mike Bull Mike Bull 1, 1 1 gold badge 9 9 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. The OP asked for a non-allegorical answer.
The only reason the number of oxen is mentioned is the liturgical significance, as I stated. In other words, there is no non-allegorical answer. Note: Question is edited to allow for the original meaning to be allagorical — Jay. Perry Perry Perry - Thank you for the approach you have taken. Can you provides us more information or detail that would not just rest on what you would tell me if we were drinking coffee at Starbucks?
Can you provide us something with more analysis? Otherwise with just the anecdotal thought we are no closer to understanding the passage than if we speculated and pondered together what the passage means Needs more backing and less personal speculation. Thanks for wishing to contribute! Nathan Stassen. Bishop Ted Bishop Ted 1.
This answer is an edifying interpretation of the story. However, it is not the type of answer that is considered a good answer on this site and it is not the type of answer that the OP requested. The type of answer that is appropriate for this site would be an answer that explains the reason why Elisha would be plowing with such a large number of oxen in terms of the historical situation of the time.
What does this action say about Elisha or the times? I appreciate you point of view, Ted; perhaps in analysing the tree, we miss the forest? But I also think that, in seeing the forest, also analysing the tree can give us a deeper understanding of the forest. As the original asker of the question, I'd like to think I'm in the latter category. Katcoo Katcoo 1. But, what is an ox? Is it a special breed or species?
An ox is just a cow — one that has been trained to work as a draft animal. Oxen are usually male cattle. They go through extensive training starting when they are very young to teach them how to pull heavy loads and listen to their human handlers — called drovers or teamsters. Training starts when they are only a few weeks old, as they learn to be comfortable around people. They are taught to wear a halter and how to walk calmly on a lead rope. They learn that humans bring yummy food and soothing brushes and petting.
Soon they look forward to seeing their teamsters because of the good things those people bring and do for them. When they are a few months old, the calves are taught to wear their first yoke. The yoke is the piece of wood that goes across their necks and is traditionally held on with bent pieces of wood called bows.
The first yoke is very small, and a team may go through a dozen or more incrementally larger yokes until they are full grown. Download RTF editable. Send via email. Share on Facebook. Share on Twitter.
Principles which test the soul as to reality before the eye of God are set forth in the story we find in the last few verses of 1 Kings 19 and in Luke ,62 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
It is interesting to observe that in some portions of the Word of God the Spirit of God condenses much truth, while in others He gives more general histories. In the passages before us, we are brought into the very heart of God's ways in preparing the soul for the new and final order of the kingdom of God.
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" Luke ,62 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee.
And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him" 1 Kings 19 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.
Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. There is a special connection between these two portions of Scripture, the subject of both being "fitness" for the kingdom of God.
It has been said that one who undertakes to go forth and preach the gospel, but turns back, is not fit for the kingdom of God. This may be a cursory deduction, but it does not rise to the full meaning of the passage. Service is not the issue here, though it surely is involved. Acts The terms to man are simple, but how dear was the debt our Savior paid in order that we might have life.
Life has the property of manifesting itself after its kind. This will be seen in the verses we are considering. There is something very special and rare in contacting an empty vessel, a man or woman who has been in the presence of God as to his sins, one who has been plowing, digging deep, securing a good foundation upon which to build for eternity. This, beloved, is what is meant by fitness for the kingdom of God. Is not the kingdom of God in its full, final condition a vast order of which the Holy Son of God, who is the Son of man, is the Head?
This eternal kingdom has a moral character described as "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" Rom. Romans Only those who are born from above can enter it John 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John Christ is Son over this, God's own house the universe of God, where He is the Light and the Sun, the central Object who fills the entire scene with blessing. The souls who have been fitted participate in this kingdom Col.
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