The Judean soil bakes hard circa 950 b.c. Men break unworked ground with heavy bronze tools. Heat radiates off the terraced hills. Calloused hands grip splintered wooden plows. A solitary farmer guards his small plot from thieves. The threat of starvation haunts his sleep. He strips rocks from the dirt all day. A full harvest eventually brings quiet rest.
Solomon compiles these economic realities in Jerusalem. Ordinary men navigate a harsh agrarian system. They desire stable homes. Wealthy landowners manipulate legal borders. Ancient debt laws forced a man into temporary servitude to pay off a single ruined harvest. Workers gather grain handful by handful to avoid crushing loans. A wise man walks with honest companions. A fool trusts liars. He loses his winter cloak.
The fallow field holds food for the hungry. It requires brutal friction to open. A lazy worker starves because he refuses to swing the iron. Unjust men easily sweep away the profits of the weak. Human greed seeks unearned silver. Wealth gained by sudden deceit vanishes. The slow friction of daily labor builds a lasting estate.
A man who gathers grain steadily builds a storehouse against the coming frost.
The oppressive landowners turned to ash. The broken dirt still yields food for the working man.