23 Listen carefully to what I say.

≈ Pay attention to my words.

24 Does a farmer spend all day ploughing and not sow anything?

≈ Does he just continue to break up and harrow his land?

25 Doesn’t he level its surface and scatter fennel and sow cumin,

≈ and put the wheat in rows and the barley in plots, and spelt around the border?

26 Yes, his god instructs him,

≈ he teaches him to make good decisions.

27 Fennel isn’t threshed with a threshing board,

≈ nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,

but rather, fennel is beaten with a stick,

≈ and cumin with a rod.

28 Grain for bread must be ground because anyone threshing it doesn’t keep at it forever.

He can run his cart wheel over it and his horses don’t crush it.

29 That too comes from Commander-in-chief Yahweh

who gives good advice—he has great wisdom.