The main sugya is Makkot 21b–22a, though there is a reference also in Pesaḥim 47a–b. The general principle is that an offence against a Biblical, negative precept renders the offender liable to a flogging. Even if a single act is performed but the act offends against a number of negative precepts, there is a separate penalty of flogging for each offence.

In the Mishnah, to which the sugya is appended, it is stated that it is possible for a man to plough a single furrow (yesh ḥoresh telem eḥad) and yet be liable (to a flogging) for offending against eight separate, negative precepts. The man ploughs with an ox and an ass yoked together (Deuteronomy 22: 10) and they are sacred animals dedicated to the Temple (Deuteronomy 15: 19). At the time of ploughing he sows seeds in a vineyard (Deuteronomy 22: 9), i.e. as the Talmud explains, while ploughing he covers the seeds with the earth the plough throws up, which falls under the definition of ‘sowing’. It is, moreover, the Sabbatical year in which it is forbidden to sow (Leviticus 25:4) and it is a Festival on which work is forbidden (Leviticus 23). The plougher is in a field in whichcorpses are buried and he thus contaminates himself through contact with a grave and he is a priest (Leviticus 21: 1–3) and a Nazirite (Numbers 6) to whom such contact is forbidden.