13 Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
As God defers his judgments when miserable men groan under their burdens, the Prophet uses a form of speech, which represents God as not delaying, but, on the contrary, as hastening to judgment, though this be not perceived by carnal minds; for these two things well agree together -- God waiting his opportunity as to the ungodly and suspending the punishment they deserve -- and yet quickly accelerating their destruction; for he is said to defer with respect to men, because one day with us is like a hundred years; and he is said to hasten, because he knows the exact points of time. So he says in this place, Put forth the sickle, for the harvest has ripened. He uses metaphorical words, but he afterwards expresses without a figure what he means and says, that their wickedness had multiplied But there are here two metaphors, the one taken from the harvest, and the other from the vintage. The Prophet calls those reapers who have been destined to execute his judgment; for God makes use as it were of the hired work of men, and employs their hands here and there as he wills. He afterwards adds another metaphor, taken from the vintage, Full, he says, are the presses and the vats overflow; and at last he expresses what they mean, -- that their wickedness had multiplied, that is, that it was overflowing. God said to Abraham, that the wickedness of the Canaanites was not then completed; and long was the space which he mentioned for he said that after four hundred years he would take vengeance on the enemies of his people: that was a long time; and Abraham might have objected and said "Why should God rest for so long a time?" The answer was this, -- that their wickedness was not as yet completed. But the Prophet says here, that their wickedness had multiplied; he therefore gives to God's servants the hope of near vengeance, as when the harvest approaches and the vintage is nigh at hand; for then all have their minds refreshed with joy. Such is the Prophet's design; to encourage the faithful in their hope and expectation of a near deliverance, he declares that the iniquities of their enemies had now reached their full measure, so that God was now ready to execute on them his vengeance. This is the purport of the whole. It follows --
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe - So Jesus saith, "let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them;" and this He explains, "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the Angels" Matthew 13:30, Matthew 13:39. He then who saith, "put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe," is the Son of Man, who, before He became the Son of Man, was, as He is now, the Son of God, and spake this and the other things by the Prohets; they to whom He speaketh are His reapers, the Angels; and the ripeness of the harvest is the maturity of all things here, good and evil, to be brought to their last end.
In itself, the harvest, as well as the vintage, might describe the end of this world, as to both the good and the bad, in that the wheat is severed from the chaff and the tares, and the treading of the winepress separates the wine which is stored up from the husks which are cast away. Yet nothing is said, here of storing up aught, either the wheat or the wine, but only of the ripeness of the harvest, and that "the fats overflow, because their wickedness is great." The harvest is sometimes, although more rarely, used of destruction Isaiah 17:5; Jeremiah 51:33; the treading of the winepress is always used as an image of God's anger Lamentations 1:15; Isaiah 63:3; Revelation 19:15; the vintage of destruction Isaiah 17:6; Judges 8:2; Micah 7:1; the plucking off the grapes, of the rending away of single lives or souls Psalm 80:12. It seems probable then, that the ripeness of the harvests and the fullness of the vats are alike used of the ripeness for destruction, that "they were ripe in their sins, fit for a harvest, and as full of wickedness as ripe grapes, which fill and overflow the vats, through the abundance of the juice with which they swell." Their ripeness in iniquity calls, as it were, for the sickle of the reaper, the trampling of the presser.
For great is their wickedness - The whole world is flooded and overflowed by it, so that it can no longer contain it, but, as it were, cries to God to end it. The long suffering of God no longer availed, but would rather increase their wickedness and their damnation. So also, in that first Judgment of the whole world by water, when "all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, God said, the end of all flesh is before Me" Genesis 6:12-13; and when the hundred and twenty years of the preaching of Noah were ended without fruit, "the flood came." So Sodom was "then" destroyed, when not ten righteous could be found in it; and the seven nations of Canaan were spared above four hundred years, because the "iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full" Genesis 15:16; and our Lord says, "fill ye up the measure of your fathers - that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth" Matthew 23:32, Matthew 23:35. So , "God condemneth each of the damned, when he hath filled up the measure of his iniquity."
Put ye in the sickle - The destruction of his enemies is represented here under the metaphor of reaping down the harvest; and of gathering the grapes, and treading them in the wine-presses.
Put ye in the (h) sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great.
(h) In this way he will encourage the enemies when their wickedness is completely ripe to destroy one another, which he calls the valley of God's judgment.
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,.... This is said to the mighty ones sent, the Christian princes, the executioners of God's vengeance on antichrist; the angels that will pour out the vials of his wrath on the antichristian states, compared to reapers, with a sharp sickle in their hands, to cut them down, as grain is cut when reaped; as the same states are compared to a harvest ripe, the measure of their sins being filled up, and the time of their destruction appointed for them come; see Revelation 14:15;
come, get ye down; to the valley: or "go tread ye" (o); for another simile is made use of: the reference here is to the treading of clusters of grapes in the winepress, as appears by what follows: and so the Targum renders it,
"descend, tread their mighty men;''
in like manner Jarchi interprets it; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it: and Dr. Pocock observes, that the word in the Arabic language signifies to tread, as men tread grapes in a press: the reasons follow,
for the press is full; of clusters of the vine; or the valley is full of wicked men, compared unto them, destined to destruction:
the fats overflow; with the juice of grapes squeezed out, denoting the great effusion of blood that will be made; see Revelation 14:18;
for their wickedness is great; is come to its height, reaches even to heaven, and calls aloud for vengeance; an end is come to it, and to the authors of it, Revelation 18:5. The Targum of the whole is,
"draw out the sword against them, for the time of their end is come; descend, tread their mighty men slain, as anything is trodden in a winepress; pour out their blood, for their wickedness is multiplied.''
(o) "calcate", Sept. so Syr. Ar.
Direction to the ministers of vengeance to execute God's wrath, as the enemy's wickedness is come to its full maturity. God does not cut off the wicked at once, but waits till their guilt is at its full (so as to the Amorites iniquity, Genesis 15:16), to show forth His own long-suffering, and the justice of their doom who have so long abused it (Matthew 13:27-30, Matthew 13:38, Matthew 13:40; Revelation 14:15-19). For the image of a harvest to be threshed, compare Jeremiah 51:33; and a wine-press, Isaiah 63:3 and Lamentations 1:15.
Put ye - Ye executioners of divine vengeance: begin to reap, cut down sinners ripe for judgment; let Tiglath Pilneser and his soldiers cut down Syria and its king, for their violence against my people. Let Cyaxares and his armies cut down Assyria. Let Nebuchadnezzar cut down Moab, Ammon, mount Seir, Egypt, Tyre, Zidon and the Philistines; after this let Cyrus reap down the ripened Babylonians, and Alexander the Medes and Persians. And let the divided Grecian captains cut down one another, 'till the Romans cut them down. And when this is done God will have mighty ones still to cut down his enemies, 'till the final judgment wherein they all shall for ever be destroyed. Get you down - In another metaphor the prophet declares the cutting off the church's enemies. The press - As the grapes in the press are trod, so the enemies of God's people, are to be trodden in the wine - press of God's displeasure. Overflow - The blood of slaughtered men runs as wine prest out, in greater abundance than the vats can hold. Is great - The violence and all manner of sins of these kingdoms is grown exceeding great.
*More commentary available at chapter level.