📖 Biblical Definition
"Break up your fallow ground" is Hosea’s agricultural metaphor for repentance — breaking up the hardened, untilled ground of the heart so that the seed of God’s word can take root and bear fruit. Hosea 10:12 issues the call: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." Jeremiah uses the same image: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns" (Jeremiah 4:3). The verb is violent; the fallow heart is hard from neglect or sin; only the plow of repentance breaks it. Then the rain of righteousness can come. Christian men in spiritually dry seasons must take up the plow. Hardness must be broken before fruit can grow.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Repentance-as-agriculture: break up the hardened heart-ground.
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Agricultural metaphor for the deep work of repentance. Hebrew nir is fallow ground — uncultivated, hardened, weed-grown. The plow must break it up before seed can take. Hosea 10:12 issues the imperative; Jeremiah 4:3 repeats it. Spiritual revival in Scripture begins with this kind of plowing — the deep, uncomfortable, soul-tearing breaking-up of long-hardened ground.
📖 Key Scripture
Hosea 10:12 — "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."
Jeremiah 4:3 — "Thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns."
Psalm 51:17 — "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Comfortable Christianity skips the plowing; revival requires it.
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Easy Christianity wants harvest without plowing. The prophets insist: there is no harvest in fallow ground. The plow is uncomfortable, expensive, slow. But until the hardened ground breaks up, the seed cannot take root.
Recover the plowing: break up the heart's fallow ground. Long-neglected sins, long-hardened patterns, long-comfortable compromises — plow them up before the next planting.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew nir nir.
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['Hebrew', 'H5215', 'nir', 'fallow ground']
['Hebrew', 'H5214', 'niyr', 'to till']
Usage
"Break up your fallow ground."
"No harvest in fallow ground."
"Plow before planting; revive before reviving."