Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
Parallel translations
- KJV Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
- BSB Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.
- NKJV Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.”
- NASB Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
- NLT Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full. The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commands the harvest and winepress imagery of judgment, for the nations' wickedness is full. The time for decisive judgment has come.
Overview
Joel pictures judgment as a ripe harvest cut down and a winepress trodden, the vats overflowing because of great wickedness. This vivid imagery of God's wrath against accumulated sin reappears in Revelation's depiction of final judgment (Revelation 14:18-20). It warns that God's patience has a limit and that the fullness of sin will meet the fullness of His righteous judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Rev 14:15–20Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Send your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!”
- Mark 4:29But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- Hos 6:11“Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, when I restore the fortunes of my people.
- Isa 63:3“I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples, no one was with me: Yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.
- Jer 51:33For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.”
- Matt 13:39The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
- Lam 1:15“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter of Judah.
- Deut 16:9You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
- Gen 18:20Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
- Gen 15:16In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
- Gen 13:13Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
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Original language
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