The patience and considerateness of the divine purpose

23 Listen, and hear you my voice;

attend and hear my speech.

24 Does the ploughman keep ploughing for ever,

keep opening and harrowing his ground?

25 Does he not, after levelling its surface,

scatter broadcast fennel and cummin,

and plant there wheat and barley,

and, for its border, spelt?

26 The Lord it is who has trained him aright,

and his God it is who has taught him.

27 men thresh not fennel with sledges,

nor are cart-wheels rolled over cummin;

but fennel is threshed with a staff,

and cummin with a flail.

28 Do we ever crush bread-corn to pieces?

No, we do not keep threshing for ever.