Earing

Earing is an archaic English word derived from the Latin aro (to plow), meaning ploughing or tillage. It appears in the King James Version at Genesis 45:6 and Exodus 34:21: "in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest." The term captures the agricultural rhythm of ancient Israelite life, in which both the plowing season (autumn–winter) and the harvest season (spring–summer) were punctuated by Sabbath rest regardless of the urgency of the agricultural calendar.

Modern translations typically render the word as "plowing" or "plowing season," as the archaic English sense has been entirely lost. The law that Sabbath rest applied even during the busiest farming periods underscored that covenant obedience was not suspended for economic necessity — an emphatic statement in an agrarian society where missed planting or harvest windows could mean famine.