" You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out [the grain.]

For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen God is concerned about?

Or does He say [it] altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, [this] is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.

"For these two years the famine [has been] in the land, and [there are] still five years in which [there will be] neither plowing nor harvesting.

" Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

"The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

"He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, [will set some] to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and [some] to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.