Prohibited Mixtures: Mixed Plowing and Sowing

This article explores the prohibitions against mixed plowing and sowing (Lev 19:19; Deut 22:10). The proposed interpretation is that these laws are intended to maintain agricultural purity. They prohibit mishandling seeds and using an unclean animal, the donkey, thereby avoiding defilement of the food. This goes against the allegorical interpretations of maintaining the created order or separation from pagan nations. The argument that mixtures belong to God is also critiqued since the texts do not address field confiscation or animal breeding. The agricultural purity interpretation is developed through examination of the grammar of each passage and other agricultural purity passages in the Old Testament.