Isaiah 57:1-2

57:1 The godly ¹  perish,

but no one cares. ² 

Honest people disappear, ³ 

when no one ⁴  minds ⁵ 

that the godly ⁶  disappear ⁷  because of ⁸  evil. ⁹ 

57:2 Those who live uprightly enter a place of peace;

they rest on their beds. ¹⁰ 

Joel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ¹¹  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ¹²  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ¹³ 

Matthew 13:30

13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At ¹⁴  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ¹⁵  gather ¹⁶  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:40-43

13:40 As ¹⁷  the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. ¹⁸  13:42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, ¹⁹  where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. ²⁰  The one who has ears had better listen! ²¹ 

Revelation 14:13-17

14:13 Then ²²  I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this:

‘Blessed are the dead,

those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, ²³  because their deeds will follow them.” ²⁴ 

14:14 Then ²⁵  I looked, and a white cloud appeared, ²⁶  and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! ²⁷  He had ²⁸  a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 14:15 Then ²⁹  another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use ³⁰  your sickle and start to reap, ³¹  because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!” 14:16 So ³²  the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14:17 Then ³³  another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

[57:1]  ¹ tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man”; TEV “Good people.”

[57:1]  ² tn Or perhaps, “understands.” Heb “and there is no man who sets [it] upon [his] heart.”

[57:1]  ³ tn Heb “Men of loyalty are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term בְּאֵין (bÿ’en) often has the nuance “when there is no.” See Prov 8:24; 11;14; 14:4; 15:22; 26:20; 29:18.

[57:1]  ⁵ tn Or “realizes”; Heb “understands” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[57:1]  ⁶ tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man.”

[57:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ⁸ tn The term מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne, “from the face of”) often has a causal nuance. It also appears with the Niphal of אָסַף (’asaph, “gather”) in 2 Chr 12:5: אֲשֶׁר־נֶאֶסְפוּ אֶל־יְרוּשָׁלַם מִפְּנֵי שִׁישָׁק (’asher-ne’esphu ’el-yÿrushalam mippÿney shishaq, “who had gathered at Jerusalem because of [i.e., due to fear of] Shishak”).

[57:1]  ⁹ tn The translation assumes that this verse, in proverbial fashion, laments society’s apathy over the persecution of the godly. The second half of the verse observes that such apathy results in more widespread oppression. Since the next verse pictures the godly being taken to a place of rest, some interpret the second half of v. 1 in a more positive vein. According to proponents of this view, God removes the godly so that they might be spared suffering and calamity, a fact which the general populace fails to realize.

[57:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he enters peace, they rest on their beds, the one who walks straight ahead of himself.” The tomb is here viewed in a fairly positive way as a place where the dead are at peace and sleep undisturbed.

[3:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[13:30]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “but.”

[13:30]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “burned, but gather.”

[13:40]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Therefore as.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[13:41]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the ones who practice lawlessness.”

[13:42]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Dan 3:6.

[13:43]  ²⁰ sn An allusion to Dan 12:3.

[13:43]  ²¹ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

[14:13]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:13]  ²³ tn Or “from their trouble” (L&N 22.7).

[14:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “their deeds will follow with them.”

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

[14:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and behold, a white cloud.”

[14:14]  ²⁷ tn This phrase constitutes an allusion to Dan 7:13. Concerning υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (Juio" tou anqrwpou), BDAG 1026 s.v. υἱός 2.d.γ says: “ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου lit. ‘the son of the man’…‘the human being, the human one, the man’…On Israelite thought contemporary w. Jesus and alleged knowledge of a heavenly being looked upon as a ‘Son of Man’ or ‘Man’, who exercises Messianic functions such as judging the world (metaph., pictorial passages in En 46-48; 4 Esdr 13:3, 51f)…Outside the gospels: Ac 7:56…Rv 1:13; 14:14 (both after Da 7:13…).” The term “son” here in this expression is anarthrous and as such lacks specificity. Some commentators and translations take the expression as an allusion to Daniel 7:13 and not to “the son of man” found in gospel traditions (e.g., Mark 8:31; 9:12; cf. D. E. Aune, Revelation [WBC], 2:800-801; cf. also NIV). Other commentators and versions, however, take the phrase “son of man” as definite, involving allusions to Dan 7:13 and “the son of man” gospel traditions (see G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 771-72; NRSV).

[14:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “like a son of man, having.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence.

[14:15]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Send out.”

[14:15]  ³¹ tn The aorist θέρισον (qerison) has been translated ingressively.

[14:16]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:17]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.