What Does Deuteronomy 24:21 Mean?
When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you do not pick it over afterward. It is for the sojourner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for harvesting grapes shares its root with “fortress”: the harvest’s boundary includes fruit that remains for those outside the owner’s claim.
THE MEANING
Your harvest has a boundary: after you gather the grapes, you leave what remains. That fruit is for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; the yield includes a share for those without a claim to the vineyard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that everything produced by your labor is yours to gather is undone here: the verse names a portion that is already for others.
THE ROOT
תִבְצֹר
tivtzor
GROWS FROM
ב־צ־ר
b-ṣ-r
To cut off; in a vineyard, to cut grape clusters from the vine and harvest them. This root also carries the sense of fortifying or enclosing.
The verb translated “gatherest” shares its root with a word for fortress. The verse places a boundary around what is gathered: the harvest does not become wholly enclosed in the owner’s possession.
ALSO GROWS
bāṣar: To harvest grapes by cutting them from the vine.
בָּצַר
This is the harvest action named in the verse: the clusters are cut from the vine and gathered.
mivtsar: Fortress, stronghold.
מִבְצָר
The shared root links harvesting with securing or enclosing; this verse leaves part of the gathered yield accessible to others.
bāṣir: Vintage, grape harvest.
בָּצִיר
This branch names the harvest itself, the yield from which the verse reserves a share.
תְּעוֹלֵל
teʿōlēl
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ל
ʿ-l-l
To glean grapes after the main vintage has been gathered.
“pick it over” in this verse is teʿōlēl. The verse names a second pass through the vineyard, then assigns what that pass would collect to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. What remains on the vine is not accidental loss; it is the yield’s reserved edge.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālal: To glean grapes after the vintage.
עָלַל
This verb names the gathering the verse prohibits after the main harvest.
ʿōlēlōt: Gleanings, clusters of grapes left after the vintage.
עוֹלֵלוֹת
This noun names the remaining grapes as a recognizable portion of the harvest, not merely waste.
THE PATTERN
A harvest leaves a real share available beyond the person who controls the field.
And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor gather up every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the bowed down and the sojourner. I am the LORD your God.And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and gather ears of grain after him in whose eyes I shall find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.Or does he say it altogether for our sake? For our sake, surely, it is written, that the one who plows should plow in hope, and the one who threshes in hope should share in his hope.THE THREAD
And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor gather up every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the bowed down and the sojourner. I am the LORD your God.Leviticus gives the same vineyard command and names the poor and stranger as its recipients. Together, the verses make the uncollected edge of a harvest visible as provision set aside for others.
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