What Does Leviticus 23:22 Mean in the King James?
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s word for reaping also means “be short”: the harvest is a cut that must stop while its edges can still feed someone.
THE MEANING
Your harvest does not become yours by taking it down to its last stalk. Its edges and fallen grain remain available to the poor and the stranger, so provision is built into the harvest itself. The LORD names himself as the one whose claim includes both the yield and what is left.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what falls within your reach is yours to take to the last stalk.
THE ROOT
בְּקָצְרְכֶם
beqāṣrekhem
GROWS FROM
קצר
קצר (qāṣar) means to cut or reap; the same root also means to be short or become short.
“reap” in this verse is beqāṣrekhem. The verse uses a root that holds both harvesting and shortness together: reaping cuts the crop down. The command sets a limit on that cutting, leaving the field’s edges and gleanings available to others.
ALSO GROWS
qāṣîr: Harvest; reaped crop.
קָצִיר
The harvest itself shares the root of reaping, tying the gathered yield to the act of cutting it down.
qāṣēr: Short; be short.
קָצֵר
This branch makes the root’s other sense audible: a harvest is cut, but its owner is not to shorten another person’s access to food by taking everything.
תְכַלֶּה
tekhalleh
GROWS FROM
כלה
כלה (kālāh) means to finish, complete, or consume.
“make clean riddance” in this verse is tekhalleh. The verb forbids finishing off the field’s corners. Its root connects the command to completion and consumption, showing that the harvest is not to be taken all the way to its endpoint.
ALSO GROWS
kālāh: Come to an end; be complete.
כָּלָה
This form names the ending the command does not permit the owner to impose on the field’s edges.
mekhalleh: One who finishes or consumes.
מְכַלֶּה
This derived form retains the root’s three consonants and makes its consuming sense visible beside the prohibition on clearing the corners.
THE PATTERN
Provision for another person is built into limits on what one gathers.
When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.THE THREAD
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.The Hebrew root כָּלָה (kālāh, “finish”) marks God ending the created work and the field owner’s forbidden act of finishing the field to its last edge. Here, what remains is part of the way the field is held: completion meets a boundary where another person can be fed.
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