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.’”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The LORD speaks to Moses to deliver a command regarding agricultural practice during the harvest season. This instruction is embedded within a list of appointed festivals and is addressed to the Israelite community as a permanent statute.

The words — תְכַלֶּ֞ה (te.kha.Leh) means "you will finish" or "you will completely reap," paired with פְּאַ֤ת (pe.'At), literally "the side" or "edge," prohibiting the complete harvesting of the field's border.

The thread — The same agricultural prohibition appears in Leviticus 19:9 and is echoed in Deuteronomy 24:19 with the added detail of forgotten sheaves. Proverbs 11:24 later reflects on the principle of voluntary generosity that underlies these statutes.

Why it lands — The text commands leaving unharvested portions of the field and the gleanings for the poor and foreign resident. It requires readers to practice intentional economic restraint and provide for vulnerable outsiders as a direct obedience to God's authority.

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 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.

Cross-references

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.
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.
Proverbs 11:24 One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.
Isaiah 58:10 and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.
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.
2 Corinthians 9:5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you beforehand and make arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. This way, your gift will be prepared generously and not begrudgingly.
Deuteronomy 16:11 and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
Ruth 2:3 So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
Isaiah 58:7 Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Luke 11:41 But give as alms the things that are within you, and behold, everything will be clean for you.