Bible Strands
Leviticus 19:9
When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses the Israelites during the Sinai wilderness covenant instructions, establishing agricultural regulations for the land they are about to possess.
The words — תְכַלֶּ֛ה (te.kha.Leh) means "you will finish," and פְּאַ֥ת (pe.'At) translates literally to "[the] side of." Together with the verb for harvest, they form the prohibition against clearing a field completely.
The thread — Leviticus 23:22 repeats this exact harvest command for festival regulations. Deuteronomy 24:19 extends the principle to forgotten sheaves, and Ruth 2:2 demonstrates its practical enforcement in the field.
Why it lands — The text commands leaving the edges of fields and uncollected gleanings unharvested. This establishes a mandatory provision system for the poor and foreigner, requiring landowners to forgo maximum yield for communal sustenance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 23:22 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the LORD your God.’”
- Deuteronomy 24:19 If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
- Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.” “Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.
- Ruth 2:15 When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her.
- Leviticus 23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.
- Leviticus 23:29 If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people.