Category
107 Bible Verses about Harvest
I've been thinking a lot about the idea of harvest lately. You see it all over the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New. It's not just about gathering crops, but it has this deep spiritual meaning too.
Paul, in Galatians, talks about it. He says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6:7). It really hits home that everything we do has consequences, good or bad. Just like a farmer plants seeds hoping for a good harvest, we need to "plant" good deeds and attitudes to reap blessings in our lives.
Jesus also tells this parable about the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30. The good grain represents those who follow God and bear fruit, while the weeds are those working against God's kingdom. It reminds me that there's a final harvest, a judgment, where everyone will be separated based on their actions and attitudes. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?
And then there's the idea of harvesting souls. The fields are ripe, but the laborers are few. It makes me feel like we all have a part to play in sharing the Gospel, reaching those who need to hear it. Jesus has already prepared the ground; it's up to us to bring in the harvest, to see multitudes come to know Him. It's exciting to think about the potential for growth and the glory it brings to God.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow.
Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest!
My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
The one who gathers crops in the summer is a wise son, but the one who sleeps during the harvest is a son who brings shame to himself.
He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
Those who shed tears as they plant will shout for joy when they reap the harvest.The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain.
Be distressed, farmers; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the field has perished.
“‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you.I will lay your cities waste and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.“‘Then the land will make up for its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.“‘As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand for you before your enemies.You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.“‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ iniquities which are with them.I will give you your rains in their time so that the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.
The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even from behind the thorns, and the thirsty swallow up their fortune.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me – and I in him – bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.
So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.
The Lord swears an oath by his right hand, by his strong arm: “I will never again give your grain to your enemies as food, and foreigners will not drink your wine, which you worked hard to produce.But those who harvest the grain will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”
They do not say to themselves, “Let us revere the Lord our God. It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time. It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.”
and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap unfailing love. Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves, for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers deliverance on you.
but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest – a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or prune your vineyard.He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee,but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale.You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.“‘As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you.Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.“‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner’s family,after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him,or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives – his family – may redeem him, or if he prospers he may redeem himself.You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned vines; the land must have a year of complete rest.
“All the best of the olive oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits of these things that they give to the Lord, I have given to you.And whatever first ripe fruit in their land they bring to the Lord will be yours; everyone who is ceremonially clean in your household may eat of it.
“You are also to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in your harvest out of the field.
Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do.
“You must observe the Feast of Weeks – the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat – and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year.
You have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate when they divide up the plunder.
Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!
“While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the heart of his masters.
I have appointed a time to reap judgment for you also, O Judah! Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people,
Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Then another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and start to reap, because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!”
And the fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace.
“On six days you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; even at the time of plowing and of harvest you are to rest.“You must observe the Feast of Weeks – the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat – and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year.
“They cry, ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over, and still we have not been delivered.’
The wicked person earns deceitful wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a genuine reward.
The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear in the day of disease and incurable pain.
But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, for he will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; so you will indeed rejoice!
So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow.So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth.The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work.
But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”
But as for the seed that landed on good soil, these are the ones who, after hearing the word, cling to it with an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with steadfast endurance.
When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, because the Lord blessed him.
The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend.”
Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. Those who plant them will once again enjoy their fruit.
“Be sure of this, the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper and the one who stomps the grapes will overtake the planter. Juice will run down the slopes, it will flow down all the hillsides.
He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!
But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”
He presented them with another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field.But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.When the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.So the slaves of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them.He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.”
you will be blessed, you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, you who let your ox and donkey graze.
You will plant crops, but will not harvest them; you will squeeze oil from the olives, but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink.
Citizens of Zion, rejoice! Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! For he has given to you the early rains as vindication. He has sent to you the rains – both the early and the late rains as formerly.The threshing floors are full of grain; the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.
The one who works his field will have plenty of food, but whoever chases daydreams lacks wisdom.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
The sluggard will not plow during the planting season, so at harvest time he looks for the crop but has nothing.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.”
At that time the Lord will shake the tree, from the Euphrates River to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites.
I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain.
“For six years you are to sow your land and gather in its produce.But in the seventh year you must let it lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is clean, but an abundant harvest is produced by strong oxen.
It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous
For the scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The worker deserves his pay.”
Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?’But the worker answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it.Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
I will sing to my love – a song to my lover about his vineyard. My love had a vineyard on a fertile hill.Indeed, a large vineyard will produce just a few gallons, and enough seed to yield several bushels will produce less than a bushel.”Those who get up early to drink beer are as good as dead, those who keep drinking long after dark until they are intoxicated with wine.They have stringed instruments, tambourines, flutes, and wine at their parties. So they do not recognize what the Lord is doing, they do not perceive what he is bringing about.Therefore my people will be deported because of their lack of understanding. Their leaders will have nothing to eat, their masses will have nothing to drink.So Death will open up its throat, and open wide its mouth; Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it, including those who revel and celebrate within her.Men will be humiliated, they will be brought low; the proud will be brought low.The Lord who commands armies will be exalted when he punishes, the sovereign God’s authority will be recognized when he judges.Lambs will graze as if in their pastures, amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze.Those who pull evil along using cords of emptiness are as good as dead, who pull sin as with cart ropes.They say, “Let him hurry, let him act quickly, so we can see; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take shape and come to pass, then we will know it!”He built a hedge around it, removed its stones, and planted a vine. He built a tower in the middle of it, and constructed a winepress. He waited for it to produce edible grapes, but it produced sour ones instead.
“I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger.
Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the worker deserves his pay. Do not move around from house to house.
I am depressed! Indeed, it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered, and the grapes have been harvested. There is no grape cluster to eat, no fresh figs that I crave so much.
“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons.
Even a young man is known by his actions, whether his activity is pure and whether it is right.
You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain.
Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’But his master answered, ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter?
Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw.
The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted;
This is what the Lord who rules over all said to me: “Those who remain in Israel will be like the grapes thoroughly gleaned from a vine. So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester passing your hand over the branches one last time.”
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am about to give to you and you gather in its harvest, then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest to the priest,
For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’
Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
So,” the Lord God says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”
“This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own. But the year after that you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce.
The one who is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him for his good deed.
For I tell you the truth, whoever gives you a cup of water because you bear Christ’s name will never lose his reward.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
May there be an abundance of grain in the earth; on the tops of the mountains may it sway! May its fruit trees flourish like the forests of Lebanon! May its crops be as abundant as the grass of the earth!
He said to them, “But now, the one who has a money bag must take it, and likewise a traveler’s bag too. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one.
The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you.
Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working until the evening; for you do not know which activity will succeed – whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage.When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner,saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage?Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you.Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?Once he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant, sow the seed of the cumin plant, and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places?
“Three times in the year you must make a pilgrim feast to me.You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before me empty-handed.“You are also to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in your harvest out of the field.
“‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. Three years it will be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten.In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings to the Lord.Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. I am the Lord your God.
They cultivated fields, and planted vineyards, which yielded a harvest of fruit.He blessed them so that they became very numerous. He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number.