Farm

Farm, in the biblical context, refers to a cultivated field or agricultural holding. Every Hebrew family under the Mosaic system held an allotment of land as an ancestral possession (Numbers 26:33-56), so farming was both an economic necessity and a covenantal feature of Israelite life. The basic farming activities — plowing, sowing, harvesting — appear throughout Scripture as sources of metaphor, illustration, and instruction.

The one explicit New Testament occurrence in Matthew 22:5 is notable: in the parable of the great banquet, one invited guest excuses himself saying he must attend to his farm, and another to his merchandise. Jesus uses the farm — a legitimate and honorable pursuit — as an example of a good thing that becomes an idol when it crowds out the call of the kingdom. The parable of the sower (Matthew 13) similarly uses the imagery of seed, soil, and harvest to describe the reception of the word of God in different hearts.