Isaiah 17:5-11

17:5 It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest,

and his hand gleans the ear of grain.

It will be like one gathering the ears of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim.

17:6 There will be some left behind,

like when an olive tree is beaten –

two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,

four or five on its fruitful branches,”

says the Lord God of Israel.

17:7 At that time ¹  men will trust in their creator; ² 

they will depend on ³  the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

17:8 They will no longer trust in ⁵  the altars their hands made,

or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. ⁶ 

17:9 At that time ⁷  their fortified cities will be

like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ⁸ 

which they abandoned because of the Israelites;

there will be desolation.

17:10 For you ignore ⁹  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ¹⁰ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ¹¹ 

17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹² 

the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.

Yet the harvest will disappear ¹³  in the day of disease

and incurable pain.

Isaiah 18:5

18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,

and the ripening fruit appears, ¹⁴ 

he will cut off the unproductive shoots ¹⁵  with pruning knives;

he will prune the tendrils. ¹⁶ 

Hosea 6:11

6:11 I have appointed a time to reap judgment ¹⁷  for you also, O Judah!

If Israel Would Repent of Sin, God Would Relent of Judgment

Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people, ¹⁸ 

Joel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ¹⁹  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ²⁰  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ²¹ 

Matthew 13:30

13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At ²²  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ²³  gather ²⁴  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:39

13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Revelation 14:15-20

14:15 Then ²⁵  another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use ²⁶  your sickle and start to reap, ²⁷  because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!” 14:16 So ²⁸  the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14:17 Then ²⁹  another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 14:18 Another ³⁰  angel, who was in charge of ³¹  the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel ³²  who had the sharp sickle, “Use ³³  your sharp sickle and gather ³⁴  the clusters of grapes ³⁵  off the vine of the earth, ³⁶  because its grapes ³⁷  are now ripe.” ³⁸  14:19 So ³⁹  the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard ⁴⁰  of the earth and tossed them into the great ⁴¹  winepress of the wrath of God. 14:20 Then ⁴²  the winepress was stomped ⁴³  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ⁴⁴  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ⁴⁵ 

[17:7]  ¹ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB, NIV); KJV “At that day.”

[17:7]  ² tn Heb “man will gaze toward his maker.”

[17:7]  ³ tn Heb “his eyes will look toward.”

[17:7]  ⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[17:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “he will not gaze toward.”

[17:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and that which his fingers made he will not see, the Asherah poles and the incense altars.”

[17:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[17:9]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “like the abandonment of the wooded height and the top one.” The following relative clause appears to allude back to the Israelite conquest of the land, so it seems preferable to emend הַחֹרֶשׁ וְהָאָמִיר (hakhoresh vÿha’amir, “the wooded height and the top one”) to חֹרֵשֵׁי הָאֱמֹרִי (khoreshe ha’emori, “[like the abandonment] of the wooded heights of the Amorites”).

[17:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[17:11]  ¹² tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.

[17:11]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”

[18:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”

[18:5]  ¹⁵ tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.

[18:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”

[6:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a harvest is appointed for you also, O Judah” (similar ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[6:11]  ¹⁸ tc In the verse divisions of the MT (Leningrad Codex and Aleppo Codex), this is the last line of 6:11. However, the BHK and BHS editors suggest that it belongs with the beginning of 7:1. The ancient versions (Greek, Syriac, Latin) all reflect textual traditions that connect it with 6:11. The English versions are divided: some connect it with 6:11 (KJV, NASB, NLT), while others connect it with 7:1 (RSV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NJPS). The parallelism between this line and 7:1a favors connecting it with 7:1.

[3:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “go down” or “tread.” The Hebrew term רְדוּ (rÿdu) may be from יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) or from רָדָה (radah, “have dominion,” here in the sense of “to tread”). If it means “go down,” the reference would be to entering the vat to squash the grapes. If it means “tread,” the verb would refer specifically to the action of those who walk over the grapes to press out their juice. The phrase “the grapes” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ²¹ sn The immediacy of judgment upon wickedness is likened to the urgency required for a harvest that has reached its pinnacle of development. When the harvest is completely ripe, there can be no delay by the reapers in gathering the harvest. In a similar way, Joel envisions a time when human wickedness will reach such a heightened degree that there can be no further stay of divine judgment (cf. the “fullness of time” language in Gal 4:4).

[13:30]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[13:30]  ²³ tn Grk “but.”

[13:30]  ²⁴ tn Grk “burned, but gather.”

[14:15]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:15]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Send out.”

[14:15]  ²⁷ tn The aorist θέρισον (qerison) has been translated ingressively.

[14:16]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:17]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:18]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[14:18]  ³¹ tn Grk “who had authority over.” This appears to be the angel who tended the fire on the altar.

[14:18]  ³² tn Grk “to the one having the sharp sickle”; the referent (the angel in v. 17) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:18]  ³³ tn Grk “Send.”

[14:18]  ³⁴ tn On this term BDAG 1018 s.v. τρυγάω states: “‘gather in’ ripe fruit, esp. harvest (grapes) w. acc. of the fruit (POslo. 21, 13 [71 ad]; Jos., Ant. 4, 227) Lk 6:44; Rv 14:18 (in imagery, as in the foll. places)…W. acc. of that which bears the fruit gather the fruit of the vine…or the vineyard (s. ἄμπελος a) Rv 14:19.”

[14:18]  ³⁵ tn On this term BDAG 181 s.v. βότρυς states, “bunch of grapes Rv 14:18…The word is also found in the Phrygian Papias of Hierapolis, in a passage in which he speaks of the enormous size of the grapes in the new aeon (in the Lat. transl. in Irenaeus 5, 33, 2f.): dena millia botruum Papias (1:2). On this see Stephan. Byz. s.v. Εὐκαρπία: Metrophanes says that in the district of Εὐκαρπία in Phrygia Minor the grapes were said to be so large that one bunch of them caused a wagon to break down in the middle.”

[14:18]  ³⁶ tn The genitive τῆς γῆς (ths ghs), taken symbolically, could be considered a genitive of apposition.

[14:18]  ³⁷ tn Or perhaps, “its bunches of grapes” (a different Greek word from the previous clause). L&N 3.38 states, “the fruit of grapevines (see 3.27) – ‘grape, bunch of grapes.’ τρύγησον τοὺς βότρυας τῆς ἀμπέλου τῆς γῆς, ὅτι ἤκμασαν αἱ σταφυλαὶ αὐτῆς ‘cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth because its grapes are ripe’ Re 14:18. Some scholars have contended that βότρυς means primarily a bunch of grapes, while σταφυλή designates individual grapes. In Re 14:18 this difference might seem plausible, but there is scarcely any evidence for such a distinction, since both words may signify grapes as well as bunches of grapes.”

[14:18]  ³⁸ tn On the use of ἥκμασαν (hkmasan) BDAG 36 s.v. ἀκμάζω states, “to bloom…of grapes…Rv 14:18.”

[14:19]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “vine.” BDAG 54 s.v. ἄμπελος a states, “τρυγᾶν τοὺς βότρυας τῆς ἀ. τῆς γῆς to harvest the grapes fr. the vine of the earth (i.e. fr. the earth, symbol. repr. as a grapevine) Rv 14:18f; but ἀ may be taking on the meaning of ἀμπελών, as oft. in pap., possibly PHib. 70b, 2 [III bc].” The latter alternative has been followed in the translation (ἀμπελών = “vineyard”).

[14:19]  ⁴¹ tn Although the gender of μέγαν (megan, masc.) does not match the gender of ληνόν (lhnon, fem.) it has been taken to modify that word (as do most English translations).

[14:20]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:20]  ⁴³ sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

[14:20]  ⁴⁴ tn L&N 6.7 states, “In Re 14:20 the reference to a bit and bridle is merely an indication of measurement, that is to say, the height of the bit and bridle from the ground, and one may reinterpret this measurement as ‘about a meter and a half’ or ‘about five feet.’”

[14:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “1,600 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m). Thus the distance here would be 184 mi or 296 km.