SEASONS (קַ֫יִץ, H7811; θέρος, G2550; summer; סְתָו, H6255, חֹ֫רֶף, H3074; χειμών, G5930, winter). Several Heb. and Gr. words are so tr. in the KJV, all having the sense of a set or fixed time. Like all other societies at a comparable cultural level, the Israelites had a strong awareness of the seasons and their importance in their lives. Basically, there are only two seasons in the Palestinian year, the dry season, which is hot, and the wet season, which is cool or cold. The incidence of these seasons would dominate the planning of any agricultural community, but Israel had a special consciousness of the seasons as a direct evidence of God’s oversight, based on God’s promise in Genesis 8:22 and the explicit warning of Leviticus 26:3, 4 (cf. Deut 11:13, 14). The unreliability of rainfall in Pal. (see Rain) gave them an awareness of dependence on God for the gift of a harvest.

At the Exodus, it was provided that Israel should measure time from the Passover month, which became the first month of the year (Exod 12:2), and the other fixed occasions were measured from this starting point, e.g., the three times in the year when all the men of Israel were commanded to come together for the great religious festivals. However, once the people settled in the Promised Land and became cultivators rather than pastoralists, the rhythm of the farmer’s year asserted itself, and the religious festivals came to acquire a new significance as marking the seasons.

Agriculturally, the year began with the “early” rains in October, when the sun-baked earth became sufficiently workable for plowing and sowing to take place. The crops grew through the wet season and in April the harvest began, the first ripe crop being barley. In June the main harvest occurred, followed by the gathering of grapes and olives, and it was not until late September or early October that the cycle of the farm year was completed.

The festivals of Israel marked the progression of these seasons. The Passover occurred at the time of gathering the first fruits in April; the Feast of Weeks coincided with the main wheat harvest, and involved loaves of bread to underline the connection; the Feast of Tabernacles marked the “harvest home” and the start of the new crop year. Baly sees in the water poured out at the Feast of Tabernacles a form of symbol of “the desperate need for rain,” as the farmers began the labors of a new season. See Calendar.

Bibliography A. Edersheim, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services (1874); D. Baly, The Geography of The Bible (1957), ch. VIII.