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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.”
- 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.
- 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 14:15–20Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest; for the crop of the earth is ripe.”
- Mark 4:29And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- Hos 6:11Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore My people from captivity.
- Isa 63:3“I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained.
- Jer 51:33For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
- Matt 13:39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
- Lam 1:15The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.
- Deut 16:9You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
- Gen 18:20Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,
- Gen 15:16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
- Gen 13:13But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
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The promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the call to 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD' are fulfilled at Pentecost in the name of Jesus.
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Original language
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