Bible Strands
Luke 19:21
For I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A servant addresses his master after concealing the entrusted mina in a cloth, offering an explanation before receiving any judgment.
The words — The servant uses αὐστηρὸς (austēros) to label the master "harsh" and αἴρεις (aireis) to claim the master "takes up" what was not deposited.
The thread — The complaint about a harsh master reaping what he did not sow appears in Matthew 25:24, while the underlying fear of divine proximity mirrors the Israelites' request in Exodus 20:19.
Why it lands — The text records the servant's fear-driven excuse without endorsing it, requiring the reader to see that projecting personal failure onto God's character justifies neither disobedience nor inaction.
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 Greek words
King James Version
For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
Cross-references
- Matthew 25:24 Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
- Exodus 20:19 “Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”
- 1 Samuel 6:19 But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
- 2 Samuel 6:9 That day David feared the LORD and asked, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”
- Job 21:14 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
- Ezekiel 18:25 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is it My way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
- 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
- James 2:10 Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
- Jude 1:15 to execute judgment on everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of every ungodly act of wickedness and every harsh word spoken against Him by ungodly sinners.”
- 1 Samuel 12:20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.