“ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners of your field, and you must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor, and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners of your field, and you must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor, and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.’ ”
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And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
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And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest; thou shalt leave them for the poor, and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Leviticus 23:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 19:9-10 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 24:19-21 When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
- Proverbs 11:24-25 There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.
- Isaiah 58:10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
- Ruth 2:15-23 When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don’t reproach her. Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it. Let her glean, and don’t rebuke her.” So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She took it up, and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she had enough. Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.” Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ” Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.” So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.
- 2 Corinthians 9:5-12 I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness. Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. As it is written, “He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.” Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, you being enriched in everything to all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God,
- Deuteronomy 16:11-14 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.
- Ruth 2:3-7 She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “May Yahweh be with you.” They answered him, “May Yahweh bless you.” Then Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, “Whose young lady is this?” The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she rested a little in the house.”
- Isaiah 58:7-8 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and Yahweh’s glory will be your rear guard.
- Luke 11:41 But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
- Job 31:16-21 “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,
- Psalms 41:1-3 Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness.
- Psalms 112:9 He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of…
Lev 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I [am] the LORD your God.
Ver. 22. And when ye reap.] See Lev 19:9. In these we entertain Christum convivam, Christ a guest, saith Jerome.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain From the plural ye he comes to the singular…
From the plural ye he comes to the singular thou, because he would press this duty upon every person who hath a harvest to reap, that none might plead exemption from it. And it is observable, that though the present business is only concerning the worship of God, yet he makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to show that our piety and devotion to God is little esteemed by him, if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And when ye reap the harvest of your land,....…
And when ye reap the harvest of your land,.... This law is repeated from Lev 19:9; and as Aben Ezra observes, the feast of weeks being the feast of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, it is repeated, that they might not forget what God had commanded them to do at that time, namely, to leave somewhat for the poor; and the Jewish writers (a) observe, that this law, being put among the solemn feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, and the beginning of the year, and the day of atonement, teaches, that he that observes it, and leaves the corner of the field and the gleanings to the poor, it is as if he built the sanctuary, and offered his sacrifices in the midst of it; but a much better reason may be given for it, which was, to teach them that when they expressed their thankfulness to God, they should exercise charity and liberality to the poor:
thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: See Gill on Lev 19:9,
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thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God; See Gill on Lev 19:10.
(a) In Torat Cohenim, apud Yalkut in loc. & Jarchi.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain When ye reap, thou - From the plural, ye,…
When ye reap, thou - From the plural, ye, he comes to the singular, thou, because he would press this duty upon every person who hath an harvest to reap, that none might plead exemption from it. And it is observable, that though the present business is only concerning the worship of God, yet he makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to shew that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 22. Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning] See…
Verse 22. Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning] See Clarke on Le 19:9.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lev 23:22. When ye reap, thou — From the…
Lev 23:22. When ye reap, thou — From the plural, ye, he comes to the singular, thou, because he would press this duty upon every person who had a harvest to reap, that none might plead exemption from it. And it is observable, that, though the present business is only concerning the worship of God, yet he makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to show that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners…
thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, &c.--(See on Lev 19:9). The repetition of this law here probably arose from the priests reminding the people, at the presentation of the first-fruits, to unite piety to God with charity to the poor.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE LAW OF CHARITY, Lev_23:22.
THE LAW OF CHARITY, Lev_23:22.
22. The corners of thy field — This provision for the poor was more ample than the Authorized Version shows. The borders of the field were to be left. How wide a border, was to be determined by the owner, thus affording scope for the exercise of his benevolent affections, or for the manifestation of avarice. In Deu_24:19, the overlooked sheaf is mercifully set apart for the needy gleaners. Thus the spirit of unselfish love, the very essence of Judaism and Christianity, was carefully enjoined upon the Israelites.
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The stranger — This term signifies about the same as our expression “naturalized foreigner,” inasmuch as it implies a certain political status in the country in which he resides. The civil rights of the stranger were not very accurately defined. That he was eligible to all civil offices except that of king we infer from Deu_17:15, on the principle that the prohibition of the greater is not a prohibition of the less. In Lev_25:23, Jehovah says to his people, “The land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” This plainly implies that the stranger could not be a landowner. This fact will account for his poverty. The landless, as a class, must ever be on the borders of starvation. The origin of these “aliens to the covenant” is evident. They were the remnant of the Canaanites, “the mixed multitude” which accompanied Israel from Egypt, captives taken in war, political refugees, fugitive slaves, hired servants, and merchants. The census of them in Solomon’s time gave a return of one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred males, about a tenth of the whole population. 2Ch_2:17. They were required not to infringe any fundamental law of the State, such as relates to the sabbath, the hal-lowed Name, food during passover, marriage laws, worship of Moloch, and eating blood. They could offer sin offerings, and enjoy the blessings of the day of atonement. The enactments of the Mosaic law respecting resident aliens were conceived in a spirit of liberality which is not surpassed by any of the most enlightened Christian nations of modern times.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 22. And when … harvest] Probably inserted here from…
22. And when … harvest] Probably inserted here from Lev_19:9 (also H), with which it is verbally identical.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (22) Thou shalt not make a clean riddance.—Better, thou…
(22) Thou shalt not make a clean riddance.—Better, thou shalt not wholly reap, as the Authorised version translates the same phrase in Lev_19:9. In the midst of rejoicing and thankfulness to God for a bountiful harvest, the Lawgiver again inculcates the duty of remembering the poor, and reminds the proprietors of the land that the needy have legally a share in the produce, as has been enacted in Lev_19:9.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Not make clean riddance.
Lev_23:22
Not make clean riddance.
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Gleaning
The benevolent provision made in our text for the poor and stranger proclaims its author: even God, whose tender mercies are over all His works, who is the Friend of the friendless, and has enjoined that even fragments are to be gathered, that nothing may be lost.
I. Let such as have fields to glean pay attention to the letter and the spirit of this injunction, together with the motive on which obedience is enforced.
1. The letter of this benevolent precept establishes the propriety of permitting persons to glean in your lands; but it does not prohibit clearing your fields of all the sheaves, and carrying them not only to a place of safety, but out of the way of temptation to the gleaners. Is not this evidently implied in the following explanatory directions of the law (Deu_24:19), where not taking away the entire crop is imputed to inadvertence, rather than intention. Neither does it forbid the judicious exercise of this permission as to the persons who may glean, as is clear from the history of Ruth. It rested with the proprietor or occupier of the land to grant or deny the privilege to certain individuals. Yet the command strictly enjoins the duty of leaving what is not thus carried for the poor and strangers, and frowns on the inhuman and selfish practice of turning cattle of any description into the fields until some reasonable time for the gleaning has been allowed to elapse. In some foreign countries the law specifies twenty-four hours after the crop has been carted, but circumstances and conscience must decide for each farmer.
2. We have, however, less to do with the letter than the spirit of this precept. Does it not breathe kindness to the poor, pity to the needy, and cherish the disposition to let fall purposely a few ears of corn rather than collect all with extreme exactitude? Right too rigid, hardens into wrong. The sentiment of this direction should transfuse itself into every part of our conduct, and pervade all our transactions with the poor.
3. The motive subjoined for your obedience: I am the Lord your God--God, who raiseth up one and putteth down another, who maketh the rich and the poor, who has borne with your ingratitude and rebellion, and who has, notwithstanding, given you another and an abundant crop--yes, He is your God whom you profess to obey, and whose authority you wish to regard.
4. Recollect that to obedience is the reward annexed (Deu_24:19).
II. Advice to such as are gleaners. Remember that God, who has ordained this permission, and guarded it by His command, must be honoured by you in the enjoyment.
1. Unless you are poor, you neither might nor would glean: let me then guard you against those snares which always attend poverty. It is a temptation, when afar from human notice, to defraud: lest I be poor and steal. Forget not the old proverb, He that will steal a pin, will steal a greater thing. When opportunity and importunity press, the hand that loosed the band of a sheaf will not forbear to break through the barn and steal.
2. You go into the fields to glean: then do not idle away your time, or what was intended for your good will be an injury to you.
3. Persons generally glean in numbers; then pray avoid bad company and they will soon avoid you. Like always associates with its like--lions with lions, sheep with sheep--a man may be known by the company he keeps. Choose society in your work who will do you good rather than harm; better conversation will cheer you under the heat of the sun and the toil of out-door work, to which you may perhaps not be accustomed.
4. Let me caution you also against what is too common on these occasions--immodest behaviour. Indecent language and coarse manners are disgraceful and dangerous. Use your authority to prevent your children seeing or hearing what is so wrong and easily learnt and but seldom forgotten.
5. It is mentioned to the praise of a most excellent daughter and industrious but poor female that she came home early from gleaning. Be not the last to leave the fields; late hours in every station of life are injurious; works of darkness are always suspicious, often criminal. Many love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
6. I wish you to notice that the Scriptures say that the stranger may glean. In some places the poor will not permit this. Are they right? Does not the same verse which permits you allow them? Moreover, perhaps your children, or remoter descendants, may be cast where they are not known, and have no settlement; and often God retributes in this life; as we have done to others He allows or disposes others to deal with us.
Lessons:
1. From the whole of this subject, primarily, let us learn our obligation to God for His invaluable Word--a standard of unerring rectitude, and wherein is contained every thing necessary for life and godliness.
2. We may infer that if God has condescended to regulate smaller concerns, He will not overlook greater matters. Has He thus cared for your bodies and temporal interests, and will He be less provident about your immortal spirits?
3. Let us remember that the evening of our life draweth on; when, as she who gleaned in the fields of Boaz returned to her inquiring parent and reported her success, we shall return to the dust from whence we sprang; and must say to corruption, Thou art my mother. It shall then be asked of us, Were have ye gleaned to-day? where wroughtest thou? What reply shall we make? (W. Clayton.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues telling Moses what the people must do.
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When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not completely reap the corners of your fields
"When you gather your crops, do not gather them all the way to the edges of your fields"
translationWords
reap
harvest
glean
alien
Yahweh
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.