5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard 1 will produce just a few gallons, 2
and enough seed to yield several bushels 3 will produce less than a bushel.” 4
30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 5
At that time 6 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
32:20 you will be blessed,
you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, 7
you who let your ox and donkey graze. 8
1 tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.
2 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
3 tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”
4 tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.
5 tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”
6 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
7 tn Heb “by all the waters.”
8 tn Heb “who set free the foot of the ox and donkey”; NIV “letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”
sn This verse seems to anticipate a time when fertile land is available to cultivate and crops are so abundant that the farm animals can be allowed to graze freely.