In Gal 6^- ^ the harvest is made to depend on the nature of the gi'ound into which the seed is cast, but in 1 Co 9^' the reference is rather to the par- ticular kind and quality of the seed sown (cf. Job 4^), while in 2 Co 9^ the amount sown is the point emphasized.
In Ja 5* we have another allusion to the agri- cultural operations incidental to harvest-time : 'Behold, the hire of the labourers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud (i.e. comes too late from you), crieth out : and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' The same love of money evidently prevailed among those here addressed as in the Galatian and Corinthian churches. The particular manifestation of it which the writer singles out as the object of his special denunciation is the omission to pay the labourers their wages promptly. In the eyes of the law this was a heinous offence ; thus in Lv 19'^ it is enacted that 'the wages of a hired servant* shall not abide with thee all night until the morning ' (cf. also Pr 3^^- ^s, Jer 22i», Mai 3*).
In Rev 14^*- ^® the Parousia is represented as ushering in the great harvest of the world's fruit (cf. Mt 1339 'the harvest is the end of the world'). In INIt 13^®** the harvest consists in gathering up
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HARVEST
HATRED
the tares as well as the wheat with a view to their subsequent separation ; here, however, only the wheat is reaped, and the eNal, which in the Parable appears as tares, is treated under another metaphor in Kev 14''^-. In the Parable again the angels are the reapers, bat here the Son of Man Himself gathers the fruit. Of that hour, 'the hour to reap' (v.'®), ' knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father' (Mk 13^^), who sends an angel to announce to the Divinely-commissioned reaper that 'the hour to reap is come ; for the harvest of the earth is over-ripe ' (better perhaps ' fully ripe,' though the word used [e^Tjpdvdr]] properly refers to the ' drying up ' of the juices of the wlieat).
After the gathering in of all the wheat, another angel comes forth from the Temple, ' he also having a sharp sickle,' and a second reaping follows the first. This second reaping follows the first just as the vintage, with which it is here associated, succeeded the wheat harvest (of. Jl 3'^). It will be observed that the Son of Man reaps the wheat, but the work of destruction is fittingly consigned to an angel. The ' children of the king- dom' are in this chapter identified with thewheat as elsewhere in the NT, but the wicked are identi- fied with the clusters of the vine destined to be trodden in the winepress ' of the wrath of God ' (cf. ' the vine of wrath ' in Kev 14** ^°).
2. The harYBSt in Palestine.— Of the various harvests in Palestine, that of barley takes place first. Generally speaking, it begins about the middle of April, but in the Jordan valley in March, while in the coast districts, on the other hand, it commences about ten days later, and in the elevated regions sometimes as much as a month later. Hence the labourers from the hills are free to assist in reaping the harvest of the coast- dwellers, while the latter in turn can lend a hand in gathering in the harvest in the hill-country. The wheat harvest commences about a fortnight after the barley harvest ; the gathering of fruit and vegetables takes place in summer, the gathering of olives in autumn, and the vintage fi-om August onwards. The harvest of course depends on the rainfall, which, to render the best results, must neither be very large nor very small.
Barley is the universal food of asses and horses and is also the staple food of the poor, who, how- ever, generally mix it with wheaten meal when they can atlbrd to do so. Wheat thrives well in Palestine, thirty-fold being quite an average crop. It is reaped with a sickle, and gathered into bundles which are generally carried off at once on the backs of camels to the threshing-floor, where the heads are struck off the straw by the sickle. The threshing-floor is generally common to the whole village, and consists of a large open space on the side of a hill, the surface of tlie rock being levelled for the purpose, or, failing this, an artificial mortar floor is prepared. The grain is usually separated from the chafi" by oxen treading it as they are driven round and round a circular heap of corn in the centre of tlie floor. The oxen as a rule are not muzzled (cf. Dt 25^, 1 Co 9®, 1 Ti 5'^). Sometimes, however, the wheat is threshed by meana of a heavy wooden wheel or roller, or else by a kind of drag consisting of two or three boards fastened together, the under-surface of which is studded with pieces of iron, flint, or stone. It is drawn by a horse or an ass. This machine is seen more frequently in the northern parts of the country. After threshing comes the process of winnowing. As soon as the straw has been re- moved, the corn is thrown up into the air by shovels, when the wind blows away the chaff and the gr<ain falls back. When there is no wind, a large fan is