Harvest in several places of Scripture, denotes some destroying judgment, by which people fall as corn by the scythe. It is thus used in Isa 17:5; Jer 51:33; Joe 3:13.
Homer f1 compares men falling thick in battle, to corn falling in ranks in the harvest.
The Indian Oneirocritic says, " If a king dream that he sees harvest reaped in his own country, he will soon hear of a slaughter of his people."
This metaphor of reaping or mowing, is also used in most authors to signify an excision or utter destruction of the subject. So Horacef2 and Virgilf3 have used it. And in Homer,f4 mowing is a symbol of war; the straw signifies the slain, and the crop or corn, those that escape.
Harvest, upon the account of the corn gathered and laid up, is sometimes used in a good sense. Thus in Mat 9:37, Luk 10:2, the raising of the Christian church is by our Saviour compared to a harvest. And the labourers or reapers are the preachers of the Word, and their scythe their preaching of it. See also Joh 4:35. And so in Jer 8:20, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved," i.e. the time in which we expected to be saved is past.
Lastly, harvest, upon the account of the separation of the corn from the earth or stubble, is used in Mat 13:30, as the symbol of the end of the world;when the good are to be separated from the bad, in order for the one to be preserved as corn, and the other to be destroyed as chaff.
According to Bishop Horsley, in Scripture the harvest is always the in-gathering of the objects of God’s final mercy, Rev 14:15-16; Mat 13:30; Mar 4:29; Hos 6:11. "The vintage," he observes, "is always an image of the season of judgment; but the harvest of the in-gathering of the objects of God’s final mercy. I am not aware that a single unexceptionable instance is to be found in which the harvest is a type of judgment. In Rev 14:15-16, The sickle is thrust into the ripe harvest, and the earth is reaped;’ i.e. the elect are gathered from the four winds of heaven. The wheat of God is gathered into his barn, Mat 13:20. After this reaping of the earth, the sickle is applied to the clusters of the vine, and they are cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, Rev 14:18-20. This is judgment. In Joe 3:13, the ripe harvest is the harvest of the vine; i.e. the grapes fit for gathering, as appears from the context. In Jer 51:33, the act of thrashing the corn upon the floor, not the harvest, is the image of judgment. It is true, the burning of the tares in our Saviour’s parable, Matt 13:is a work of judgment, and of the time of harvest, previous to the binding of the sheaves. But it is an accidental adjunct of the business, not the harvest itself. I believe the harvest is never primarily, and in itself, an image of vengeance."f5
Three months intervened between the seed time and the first reaping, and a month between this and the full harvest. Barley is in full ear all over the Holy Land, in the beginning of April; and about the middle of the same month, it begins to turn yellow, particularly in the southern districts; being as forward near Jericho in the latter end of March, as it is in the plains of Acre a fortnight afterward. The reaping continues till the middle of Sivan, or till about the end of May or beginning of June, which, as the time of wheat harvest, finishes this part of the husbandman’s labours.
2. The reapers in Palestine and Syria make use of the sickle in cutting down their crops, and, according to the present custom in this country, “fill their hand” with the corn, and those who bind up the sheaves, their “bosom,”
Psa 129:7; Rth 2:5. When the crop is thin and short, which is generally the case in light soils, and with their imperfect cultivation, it is not reaped with the sickle, but plucked up by the root with the hand. By this mode of reaping, they leave the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them; and as no hay is made in the east, this is done, that they may not lose any of the straw, which is necessary for the sustenance of their cattle. The practice of plucking up with the hand is perhaps referred to in these words of the Psalmist, to which reference has already been made: “Let them be as the grass upon the house tops, which withereth afore it groweth up; wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.” The tops of the houses in Judea are flat, and, being covered with plaster of terrace, are frequently grown over with grass. As it is but small and weak, and from its elevation exposed to the scorching sun, it is soon withered. A more beautiful and striking figure, to display the weak and evanescent condition of wicked men, cannot easily be conceived.
3. The reapers go to the field very early in the morning, and return home betimes in the afternoon. They carry provisions along with them, and leathern bottles, or dried bottle gourds, filled with water. They are followed by their own children, or by others, who glean with much success, for a great quantity of corn is scattered in the reaping, and in their manner of carrying it. The greater part of these circumstances are discernible in the manners of the ancient Israelites. Ruth had not proposed to Naomi, her mother-in-law, to go to the field, and glean after the reapers; nor had the servant of Boaz, to whom she applied for leave, so readily granted her request, if gleaning had not been a common practice in that country. When Boaz inquired who she was, his overseer, after informing him, observes, that she came out to the field in the morning; and that the reapers left the field early in the afternoon, as Dr. Russel states, is evident from this circumstance, that Ruth had time to beat out her gleanings before evening. They carried water and provisions with them; for Boaz invited her to come and drink of the water which the young men had drawn; and at meal-time, to eat of the bread, and dip her morsel in the vinegar. And so great was the simplicity of manners in that part of the world, and in those times, that Boaz himself, although a prince of high rank in Judah, sat down to dinner in the field with his reapers, and helped Ruth with his own hand. Nor ought we to pass over in silence the mutual salutation of Boaz and his reapers, when he came to the field, as it strongly marks the state of religious feeling in Israel at the time, and furnishes another proof of the artless, the happy, and unsuspecting simplicity, which characterized the manners of that highly favoured people. “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee,” Rth 2:4.
4. It appears from the beautiful history of Ruth, that, in Palestine, the women lent their assistance in cutting down and gathering in the harvest; for Boaz commands her to keep fast by his maidens. The women in Syria shared also in the labours of the harvest; for Dr. Russel informs us, they sang the ziraleet, or song of thanks, when the passing stranger accepted their present of a handful of corn, and made a suitable return. It was another custom among the Jews to set a confidential servant over the reapers, to see that they executed their work properly, that they had suitable provisions, and to pay them their wages: the Chaldees call him rab, the master, ruler, or governor of the reapers. Such was the person who directed the labours of the reapers in the field of Boaz. The right of the poor in Israel to glean after the reapers was secured by a positive law, couched in these words: “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy land; neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard: thou shalt leave them to the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God,” Lev 19:9. It is the opinion of some writers, that, although the poor were allowed the liberty of gleaning, the Israelitish proprietors were not obliged to admit them immediately into the field, as soon as the reapers had cut down the corn, and bound it up in sheaves, but when it was carried off: they might choose, also, among the poor, whom they thought most deserving, or most necessitous. These opinions receive some countenance from the request which Ruth presented to the servant of Boaz, to permit her to glean “among the sheaves;” and from the charge of Boaz to his young men, “Let her glean even among the sheaves;” a mode of speaking which seems to insinuate that though they could not legally hinder Ruth from gleaning in the field, they had a right, if they chose to exercise it, to prohibit her from gleaning among the sheaves, or immediately after the reapers.
Harvest. See Agriculture.
Harvest in Palestine was in March and April, and the term is frequently employed to designate this season of the year. Jos 3:16; Pro 6:8. The harvests of the different grains happened in regular succession, and are known as the "wheat-harvest," 1Sa 12:17, and the "barley-harvest," Rth 1:22. The grain was reaped with sickles, Jer 50:16, gathered in handfuls, Rth 2:16, and done up Into sheaves, Psa 129:7. It was then conveyed to the barns or threshing-floors, sometimes in carts, Amo 2:13, where it was threshed or winnowed. One mode of threshing was by the treading of oxen, which it was forbidden to muzzle. Deu 25:4. Harvest was a season of great joy and merriment. Isa 9:3. Our Lord refers to the end of the world under the term of harvest, Mat 13:39, whose reapers will be the angels. The angel is represented figuratively as at that time thrusting in his sickle, "for the harvest of the earth is ripe." Rev 14:16.
With Israel the harvest was associated with the Feasts, which should have kept ever before them the goodness of God. Barley harvest was at the feast of first fruits; the wheat harvest at the feast of weeks; and the vintage at the feast of tabernacles. Lev 23:10; Lev 16:34. Harvest was a joyful time, Isa 9:3, and the poor were not to be forgotten. Deu 24:19-22.
The harvest is used symbolically in the N.T. for the gathering of souls to God. Mat 9:37-38; Joh 4:35. Also of the judgement of the kingdom at the end of the age, when the angels as reapers will first gather the tares and bind them in bundles for burning, and then the wheat will be gathered into God’s barn. Mat 13:39-41. There will also be a harvest of judgement for the earth: the earth will be reaped; and the vine of the earth, that should have produced fruit to God, will be cast into the winepress of the wrath of God. Rev 14:15-20. In the harvest there is discrimination in judgement.
The Day Of The Lord’s Harvest
Joe_3:9-16; Mat_3:10-12; Mat_13:24-43; Mat_13:47-50; Luk_3:15-17; Rev_14:15-20.
The Laborers Of The Harvest
Mat_9:35-38; Luk_10:1-12.
Those That Sleep In Harvest
Pro_10:5.
When The Earth Will Yield Her Increase
Psa_67:5-7.
Who Shall Beg In Harvest
Pro_20:4.
HARVEST.—See Agriculture.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Wilhelm Nowack
The Palestinian harvest began in April with the cutting (hence "ḳaẓir") of the barley. The lentil and pea ripened at the same time, and the reaping of the wheat and spelt followed two weeks later, although, of course, the time varied with the climatic conditions in the different districts. While in the lowlands around Jericho the barley harvest began early in April, along the coast it began eight days later, and in the mountains it was often from two to four weeks later. The harvesting of grain usually lasted seven weeks. It is doubtful whether the Feast of Maẓẓot was at the beginning of the harvest; at any rate the chief harvest festival ("ḥag haḳaẓir") was the Feast of Weeks (see Shebu'ot). The grain was cut with a sickle ("ḥermesh," "maggal"), as is still the custom in Palestine (Deut. xvi. 9). The reaper ("ḳoẓer") grasped a number of ears with one hand (Isa. xvii. 5; Ps. cxxix. 7), and cut them off quite high up; perhaps in early times the single ears were plucked out by hand. The cut grain lay in rows ("'amir") behind the reaper, and was bound into sheaves ("alummah"; Gen. xxxvii. 7) by the sheaf-binder ("meassef"; Jer. ix. 21: "me'ammer"; Ps. cxxix. 7) and placed in heaps ("gadish").
Lev. xix. 9 and xxiii. 22 ordain that the reapers shall leave something for the poor, and shall not clean the field too thoroughly. During the reaping the workmen refreshed themselves with parched grain ("ḳali"), and with bread dipped in a sour drink ("ḥomeẓ"; Ruth ii. 14). Since the grain was usually thrashed in the open field, the husbandmen usedto sleep there as long as the thrashing lasted, as they still do in Palestine. The yield from the seed varied greatly: from sixty to one hundredfold was an unusually rich return (Gen. xxvi. 12); probably thirtyfold was the ordinary return (Matt. xiii. 8), although to-day the average return is considerably less than this.
The harvest celebrations reached their climax in the harvest festival ("ḥag ha-asif"), which was preeminently a vintage festival. On that occasion the land was filled with rejoicing, and the people gave themselves over to mirth and dancing (comp. Judges ix. 27; Isa. xvi. 10; Jer. xxv. 30, xlviii. 33). Today grapes to be consumed as food are gathered from the beginning of the month of August on, whereas those destined for the wine-press are not garnered until the months of September and October; it was the same in ancient times, since the real vintage festival is the Feast of Tabernacles, which comes in Tishri. Harvest rejoicings are frequently mentioned in the Bible (comp. Isa. ix. 3; Ps. iv. 8 [A.V. 7], cxxvi. 5 et seq.). At a time of such rejoicing the poor must not be forgotten, hence the injunction, that the corners and edges of the field, as well as the gleanings and any sheaves that may have been over-looked, be left for the poor and the stranger (Lev. xix. 9, xxiii. 22; Deut. xxiv. 19; Ruth ii. 2, 15 et seq.).
Bibliography:
Stade, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, i. 7;
Nowack, Lchrbuch der Hebräischen Archäologie, s.v. Ernte;
Benzinger, Hebräische Arch., 1894, p. 209;
Thomson, The Land and the Book (popular ed., 1880), s.v. Harvest;
Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästinavereins, ix. 149;
H. Vogelstein, Die Landwirtschaft in Palästina zur Zeit der Mischnah, p. 47, Berlin, 1894;
Adler and Casanovicz, Biblical Antiquities, p. 1005.
HARVEST.—See Agriculture.
Many definite laws were instituted regarding the harvest. Gleaning was forbidden (Lev 19:9; Lev 23:22; Deu 24:19) (see GLEANING). The first-fruits were required to be presented to Yahweh (Lev 23:10). In Syria the Christians still celebrate
Figurative: A destroyed harvest typified devastation or affliction (Job 5:5; Isa 16:9; Isa 17:11; Jer 5:17; Jer 50:16). The “time of harvest,” in the Old Testament frequently meant the day of destruction (Jer 51:33; Hos 6:11; Joe 3:13). “Joy in harvest” typified great joy (Isa 9:3); “harvest of the Nile,” an abundant harvest (Isa 23:3). “The harvest is past” meant that the appointed time was gone (Jer 8:20). Yahweh chose the most promising time to cut off the wicked, namely, “when there is a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest” (Isa 18:4, Isa 18:5). This occurrence of hot misty days just before the ripening of the grapes is still common. They are welcome because they are supposed to hasten the harvest. The Syrian farmers in some districts call it
In the Gospels, Jesus frequently refers to the harvest of souls (Mat 9:37, Mat 9:38 bis; Mat 13:30 bis,39; Mar 4:29; Joh 4:35 bis). In explaining the parable of the Tares he said, “The harvest is the end of the world” (Mat 13:39; compare Rev 14:15). See also AGRICULTURE.
(èåñéóìüò, èåñßæù)
1. Use of the word in the NT.-The Gr. verb (èåñßæåéí) for ‘to harvest’ or ‘to reap’ properly means ‘to do summer work’ (from èÝñïò, ‘summer’). In addition to the numerous allusions to sowing and reaping contained in the Gospels, there are several other references to harvest-time in the pages of the NT. Thus St. Paul, when finding it necessary to upbraid the Corinthian converts for their meanness in regard to this world’s goods, sarcastically asks: ‘If we to you did sow (i.e. when we planted the church in Corinth) spiritual things, is it a great matter if we of you should reap material things?’ (1Co_9:11). The sower is entitled to expect a harvest of the particular crop which he sows-in this case a spiritual harvest; how much more is he entitled to a mere worldly harvest as the compensation for his toil, inadequate though the compensation be. In 2Co_9:6 St. Paul reverts to the same metaphor and in the same connexion. Niggardliness would appear to have been a besetting sin of the Corinthians, as seemingly also of the Galatians (cf. Lightfoot, Galatians 5, p. 219). The proposition here set forth is similar to that enunciated in Gal_6:7 though the application is somewhat different. ‘He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.’ In Gal_6:7 this is compressed into the single sentence: ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ The Apostle then proceeds to apply the truth embodied in the proverb to the subject to which ho is devoting his particular attention: ‘For he that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.’ The proverb itself is a common one, and is found not only in the Bible but also in the classical writers (cf. Lightfoot, op. cit. p. 219), and the aptness of the simile is too obvious to require any comment. Without abandoning his metaphor, the Apostle next addresses those who, though faithful up to a point, are apt to be faint-hearted: ‘in well-doing, let us not lose heart, for at its proper time (i.e. at harvest-time) we shall reap if we faint not.’
In Gal_6:7-8 the harvest is made to depend on the nature of the ground into which the seed is cast, but in 1Co_9:11 the reference is rather to the particular kind and quality of the seed sown (cf. Job_4:8), while in 2Co_9:6 the amount sown is the point emphasized.
In Jam_5:4 we have another allusion to the agricultural operations incidental to harvest-time: ‘Behold, the hire of the labourers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud (i.e. comes too late from you), crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.’ The same love of money evidently prevailed among those here addressed as in the Galatian and Corinthian churches. The particular manifestation of it which the writer singles out as the object of his special denunciation is the omission to pay the labourers their wages promptly. In the eyes of the law this was a heinous offence; thus in Lev_19:13 it is enacted that ‘the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning’ (cf. also Pro_3:27-28, Jer_22:13, Mal_3:5).
In Rev_14:15-16 the Parousia is represented as ushering in the great harvest of the world’s fruit (cf. Mat_13:39 ‘the harvest is the end of the world’). In Mat_13:39 ff. the harvest consists in gathering up the tares as well as the wheat with a view to their subsequent separation; here, however, only the wheat is reaped, and the evil, which in the Parable appears as tares, is treated under another metaphor in Rev_14:17 ff. In the Parable again the angels are the reapers, but here the Son of Man Himself gathers the fruit. Of that hour, ‘the hour to reap’ (Rev_14:15), ‘knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father’ (Mar_13:32), who sends an angel to announce to the Divinely-commissioned reaper that ‘the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is over-ripe’ (better perhaps ‘fully ripe,’ though the word used [ἐîçñÜíèç] properly refers to the ‘drying up’ of the juices of the wheat).
After the gathering in of all the wheat, another angel comes forth from the Temple, ‘he also having a sharp sickle,’ and a second reaping follows the first. This second reaping follows the first just as the vintage, with which it is here associated, succeeded the wheat harvest (cf. Joe_3:13). It will be observed that the Son of Man reaps the wheat, but the work of destruction is fittingly consigned to an angel. The ‘children of the kingdom’ are in this chapter identified with the wheat as elsewhere in the NT, but the wicked are identified with the clusters of the vine destined to be trodden in the winepress ‘of the wrath of God’ (cf. ‘the vine of wrath’ in Rev_14:8; Rev_14:10).
2. The harvest in Palestine.-Of the various harvests in Palestine, that of barley takes place first. Generally speaking, it begins about the middle of April, but in the Jordan valley in March, while in the coast districts, on the other hand, it commences about ten days later, and in the elevated regions sometimes as much as a month later. Hence the labourers from the hills are free to assist in reaping the harvest of the coast-dwellers, while the latter in turn can lend a hand in gathering in the harvest in the hill-country. The wheat harvest commences about a fortnight after the barley harvest; the gathering of fruit and vegetables takes place in summer, the gathering of olives in autumn, and the vintage from August onwards. The harvest of course depends on the rainfall, which, to render the best results, must neither be very large nor very small.
Barley is the universal food of asses and horses and is also the staple food of the poor, who, however, generally mix it with wheaten meal when they can afford to do so. Wheat thrives well in Palestine, thirty-fold being quite an average crop. It is reaped with a sickle, and gathered into bundles which are generally carried off at once on the backs of camels to the threshing-floor, where the heads are struck off the straw by the sickle. The threshing-floor is generally common to the whole village, and consists of a large open space on the side of a hill, the surface of the rock being levelled for the purpose, or, failing this, an artificial mortar floor is prepared. The grain is usually separated from the chaff by oxen treading it as they are driven round and round a circular heap of corn in the centre of the floor. The oxen as a rule are not muzzled (cf. Deu_25:4, 1Co_9:9, 1Ti_5:18). Sometimes, however, the wheat is threshed by means of a heavy wooden wheel or roller, or else by a kind of drag consisting of two or three boards fastened together, the under-surface of which is studded with pieces of iron, flint, or stone. It is drawn by a horse or an ass. This machine is seen more frequently in the northern parts of the country. After threshing comes the process of winnowing. As soon as the straw has been removed, the corn is thrown up into the air by shovels, when the wind blows away the chaff and the grain falls back. When there is no wind, a large fan is employed (cf. Mat_3:12). The chopped straw, called tibn, is used as fodder for the cattle.
But, even after the winnowing, the grain is still mixed with small stones, pieces of clay, unbruised ears and tares, all of which must be removed before the corn is ready for use. Hence the necessity of the further process of sifting. This work is done by women. The sieve generally consists of a wooden hoop with a mesh made of camel-hair. The sifter is seated on the floor and shakes the sieve containing the grain until the chaff comes to the surface; she then blows it away, removes the stones and other bits of refuse, after which the grain is ready for the granary. In modern times it is always stored in underground chambers, generally about 8 feet deep; they are cemented on the inside to keep the damp out, the only opening being a circular mouth, about 15 inches in diameter, which is boarded over and, if concealment is desirable, covered with earth or grass. The grain thus stored will keep for years. See also Sickle, Vine, Vintage.
Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, 1894, p. 123f.; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1903, pp. 53, 244, 252; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1864, p. 543f.; G. Robinson Lees, Village Life in Palestine, 1897, ch. iv.; T. S. Evans, in Speaker’s Commentary, iii. [1881] 302; J. B. Lightfoot, Galatians5, 1876, p. 219f.; J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James3, 1910, p. 157f.; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John2, 1907, p. 188ff.; Encyclopaedia Biblica i. 80f.; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) i. 49ff.; Dict. of Christ and the Gospels i. 40; Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible 16.
P. S. P. Handcock.
Jer 8:20 (b) This is a description of the end time when the Lord will judge the earth and gather into Heaven believers who are profitable to Him (the grain), but will shut out of Heaven the weeds and the tares which have no value to Him. We see this on the farm constantly. That which is useful to the farmer he gathers into his barns. The vines and the stubble remain in the field to rot.
Jer 51:33 (a) This is a picture of the judgment of this great city when GOD would cut her down and destroy her because of her iniquity.
Mat 9:37 (a) This is a type of the great number of people who are interested in their souls’ welfare, are hungry for deliverance, and are waiting for someone to lead them to CHRIST JESUS, the Saviour.
Mat 13:39 (a) By this figure the Lord is telling us of the judgment at the end of this age when the Lord will separate His people from the ungodly, will reward the Christian, but will punish the sinner.
Rev 14:15 (a) This is a picture of the Great Tribulation when the end comes and GOD comes forth in mighty judgment and terrible wrath to punish the wicked and the rebellious people of earth.