What Does Luke 10:2 Mean?
And he said to them, The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Therefore beg the Lord of the harvest that he would throw workers out into his harvest.
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
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.THE KEY
The Lord is asked to cast workers into the field, because the harvest is already abundant.
THE MEANING
The field can be abundant even when the hands entering it are few. Its need is held before the Lord of the harvest, and the movement sought is outward into what is already his.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A lack of workers does not mean there is little ready to be gathered.
THE ROOT
ἐκβάλῃ
ekbalē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw or cast; with ek-, to cast or send out
Under “send forth” sits the concrete image of casting outward: ekballō is built from ek, “out,” and ballō, “throw, cast.” The requested sending has a direction, it moves workers out into a harvest already described as abundant.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: to throw, cast
βάλλω
This basic verb supplies the physical image beneath the sending.
ekballō: to cast out, send out
ἐκβάλλω
This is the compound used in the request, directing workers out into the harvest.
θερισμός
therismos
GROWS FROM
θερίζω
therizō
to reap or gather a standing crop
The word names a crop at the stage of reaping. The harvest’s abundance makes the shortage of workers consequential now.
ALSO GROWS
therizō: to reap
θερίζω
The harvest is the work of reaping made visible as a field ready for gathering.
theristēs: reaper
θεριστής
This related word names the person whose work the verse says is in short supply.
δεήθητε
deēthēte
GROWS FROM
δέομαι
deomai
to need or lack; to make a plea or request
“beg” in this verse is deēthēte. The prayer is a plea tied to the shortage: the field is abundant, while the workers are few. The word lets the need be named before the desired sending happens.
ALSO GROWS
deomai: to ask, beseech
δέομαι
This verb gives the prayer its form as a request.
deēsis: petition, supplication
δέησις
This related noun likewise describes a plea arising from need.
THE PATTERN
A harvest in scripture draws people into movement toward what is ready to be gathered.
Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Look, I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for the harvest.Going, he goes and weeps, carrying the bag of seed; coming, he comes in a ringing cry, carrying his sheaves.And another messenger comes out from the temple, shouting with a loud voice to the one who sits upon the cloud, Send your sickle and reap, for the hour has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth has dried.THE THREAD
Beg therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would throw out workers into his harvest.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, ἐκβάλῃ (ekbalē, from ekballō), with the same harvest-and-laborer image. The parallel makes the sending vivid: the Lord’s answer to the great harvest is to cast workers outward into it.
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