Note 1 — ISAIAH. (continued 6)

They had scarcely any foreign trade—none till Solomon’s time. Every family lived upon its own inheritance and upon the produce of its own land. Consequently if harvest failed, all failed. They expressed their great joy by solemn offerings to the Lord. Not a field was reaped before the wave-sheaf was placed upon the altar; and when it had been waved there, amidst the loud thanksgiving of the people, before the Lord of the whole land, the messengers from the Temple carried the proclamation to the husbandman, in the field, “Put ye in the sickle and reap!”—Thodey.