What Does Galatians 6:9 Mean?
While making good, let us not give out, for in its own season we reap, if we do not go slack.
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
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.THE KEY
The verse locates the break not in the seed or the season, but in the loosening of the one who is doing good.
THE MEANING
Your good work can feel unanswered while its season is still unfolding, but its harvest belongs to a time of its own. The word translated “faint” pictures giving out; the verse names that weariness as the point where the expectation of reaping can loosen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A delayed harvest means the good you did has been wasted.
THE ROOT
ἐκλυόμενοι
eklyomenoi
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
loosen, unbind; in ἐκλύω, grow weak or give out
“go slack” in this verse is eklyomenoi. Here the verb means to grow weak or give out; its base means to loosen or unbind. That word-family image adds something English “faint” can hide: the danger is endurance loosening before the crop is gathered, not an announcement that the sowing has failed.
ALSO GROWS
apolýō: release, dismiss, send away
ἀπολύω
This compound shares the loosening root and gives “release” a literal verbal shape.
katalýō: loosen down, dismantle
καταλύω
This compound uses the same root for loosening something until it comes apart.
ἰδίῳ καιρῷ
idiō kairō
GROWS FROM
καιρός
kairós
fitting time, season, or opportune moment
The phrase means “in its own season”: the harvest has a fitting time of its own. The word points to the right season, not simply to time passing, so delay does not by itself mean the harvest has failed.
ALSO GROWS
eúkairos: timely, opportune
εὔκαιρος
This word combines the season-root with a sense of what is fitting for the moment.
ákairos: untimely, out of season
ἄκαιρος
This word shows the same root by naming what falls outside its fitting season.
θερίζω
therízō
GROWS FROM
θεριζ-
theriz-
reap, gather a crop
“reap” in this verse is therízō. The same Greek word-family names the act of reaping, the harvest, and the reaper. It keeps the promised harvest connected to what has grown from the sowing.
ALSO GROWS
therismós: harvest, reaping
θερισμός
This noun names the harvest that is gathered through the action of reaping.
theristḗs: reaper, harvester
θεριστής
This noun names the one who gathers the crop, completing the same word-family.
THE PATTERN
What is sown comes to harvest in its proper season, even when the grower must wait between sowing and seeing.
Those who sow in tears reap in a ringing cry.Be slow to heat therefore, brethren, until the arrival of the LORD. Look, the one who works the soil waits for the costly fruit of the earth, and is slow to heat over it until he takes in the early and late rain.But this I say, the one who sows in holding back reaps in holding back, and the one who sows in blessings reaps in blessings.THE THREAD
For consider him who has remained under such speaking against himself, from those who miss the mark, so that you do not tire, going slack in your living souls.Galatians uses ἐκλύω (eklyō, grow weak or give out) for “faint”; Hebrews uses the same verb in “faint in your minds.” The shared word shows weariness reaching inward, while Galatians keeps the harvest tied to its own season.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us