"... It can be plausibly inferred that a significant contingent of the intended community are farmers. 4Q418 81 15 states that the mevin has םידי תמכח (“wisdom of the hands”), a reference to manual skill, which is praised in line 16 as a means by which he can provide nourishment for himself (compare 4Q418 137 2–4; Sirach 9:17). The audience of 4QInstruction includes farmers and low-level artisans or craftsmen of some sort. The overall impression is that much, if not all, of the group is at a socio-economic level which is rather low. The social context of the mevin raises questions about the pedagogical Sitz im Leben of 4QInstruction. The students are not being trained to become scribes or some other profession in the upper echelons of society. There is no sense that the teacher-figure of the composition was wealthy. He is not a tutor hired by rich families for the instruction of their children, a common educational practice in the ancient world. The teacher of 4QInstruction, whether he be understood as a single historical individual or multiple persons who held this office, may have had some sort of menial trade, just like his student-addressees. If so, 4QInstruction provides an early example of a phenomenon attested later among the rabbis and also Paul (who was a tent-maker, according to Acts 18:3), of teachers supporting themselves financially not by their teaching but rather with simple, physical occupations, such as being blacksmiths or tanners (Pirkei Avot 2:2) ..."