Jeremiah 9:22

9:22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says,

“The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere

like manure scattered on a field.

They will lie scattered on the ground

like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.”’” ¹ 

Jeremiah 51:33

51:33 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says,

‘Fair Babylon ²  will be like a threshing floor

which has been trampled flat for harvest.

The time for her to be cut down and harvested

will come very soon.’ ³ 

Hosea 6:11

6:11 I have appointed a time to reap judgment ⁴  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, ⁵ 

Joel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ⁶  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ⁷  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ⁸ 

Matthew 13:30

13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At ⁹  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ¹⁰  gather ¹¹  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:39-42

13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 13:40 As ¹²  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. ¹³  13:42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, ¹⁴  where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Revelation 14:15-20

14:15 Then ¹⁵  another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use ¹⁶  your sickle and start to reap, ¹⁷  because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!” 14:16 So ¹⁸  the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14:17 Then ¹⁹  another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 14:18 Another ²⁰  angel, who was in charge of ²¹  the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel ²²  who had the sharp sickle, “Use ²³  your sharp sickle and gather ²⁴  the clusters of grapes ²⁵  off the vine of the earth, ²⁶  because its grapes ²⁷  are now ripe.” ²⁸  14:19 So ²⁹  the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard ³⁰  of the earth and tossed them into the great ³¹  winepress of the wrath of God. 14:20 Then ³²  the winepress was stomped ³³  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ³⁴  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ³⁵ 

[9:22]  ¹ tn Or “‘Death has climbed…city squares. And the dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…but has not been gathered.’ The Lord has told me to tell you this.” Or “For death will climb…It will enter…It will take away…who gather in the city squares. So tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord wants you to say, “The dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…has not been gathered.”’” The main causes of ambiguity are the particle כִּי (ki) introducing v. 21 and the verb form דַּבֵּר (dabber) at the beginning of v. 22. כִּי may be interpreted as introducing a causal sentence giving Jeremiah’s grounds for the commands of v. 19 in which case the verbs would best be understood as prophetic perfects (as in the second alternate translation). Or it may be interpreted as introducing the content of the lament the women are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the translation adopted and in the first alternate translation). The form דַּבֵּר may be interpreted as a Piel masculine singular imperative addressed to Jeremiah (as in the first alternate translation where it is placed at the end for the sake of clarity) or as a Piel infinitive absolute either explaining what the woman are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the second alternate translation; cf. GKC 341 §113.h, i for this use of the infinitive absolute) or as equivalent to an imperative addressed to the women telling them to tell their daughters and neighbors the reason for the lament, i.e., the Lord’s promise of widespread death (cf. GKC 346 §113.bb for this use of the infinitive absolute). The translation chosen has opted for v. 21 as the content of the lament and v. 22 as the further explanation that Jeremiah has the women pass on to their neighbors and daughters. This appears to this interpreter to create the least confusion and dislocation in the flow of the passage.

[51:33]  ² sn Heb “Daughter Babylon.” See the study note at 50:42 for explanation.

[51:33]  ³ tn Heb “Daughter Babylon will be [or is; there is no verb and the tense has to be supplied from the context] like a threshing floor at the time one tramples it. Yet a little while and the time of the harvest will come for her.” It is generally agreed that there are two figures here: one of leveling the threshing floor and stamping it into a smooth, hard surface and the other of the harvest where the grain is cut, taken to the threshing floor, and threshed by trampling the sheaves of grain to loosen the grain from the straw, and finally winnowed by throwing the mixture into the air (cf., e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 760). The translation has sought to convey those ideas as clearly as possible without digressing too far from the literal.

[6:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “a harvest is appointed for you also, O Judah” (similar ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[6:11]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[13:30]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “but.”

[13:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “burned, but gather.”

[13:40]  ¹² tn Grk “Therefore as.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

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

[13:42]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Dan 3:6.

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

[14:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “Send out.”

[14:15]  ¹⁷ tn The aorist θέρισον (qerison) has been translated ingressively.

[14:16]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:17]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:18]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[14:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “who had authority over.” This appears to be the angel who tended the fire on the altar.

[14:18]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Grk “Send.”

[14:18]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn The genitive τῆς γῆς (ths ghs), taken symbolically, could be considered a genitive of apposition.

[14:18]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn On the use of ἥκμασαν (hkmasan) BDAG 36 s.v. ἀκμάζω states, “to bloom…of grapes…Rv 14:18.”

[14:19]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:19]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:20]  ³³ sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

[14:20]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ 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.