To harvest
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Θερίζω means to reap or gather a crop at harvest. Jesus uses the ordinary work of reaping when pointing to birds that depend on the Father's provision, and He turns harvest language toward people being gathered for eternal life.
Reader summary
Full entry for θερίζω (G2325) · Open the biblical lexicon
Θερίζω means to reap or gather a crop at harvest. Jesus uses the ordinary work of reaping when pointing to birds that depend on the Father's provision, and He turns harvest language toward people being gathered for eternal life.
The BSB source-word alignment has 21 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include reap (6), reaper (2), reaping (2), to reap (2), will reap (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:26. Its strongest book concentrations include Galatians (4), John (4), Luke (3), Matthew (3).
Θερίζω means to reap or gather a crop at harvest. Jesus uses the ordinary work of reaping when pointing to birds that depend on the Father's provision, and He turns harvest language toward people being gathered for eternal life. Paul uses sowing and reaping to explain the material support of gospel workers, generous giving, moral consequence, and perseverance in doing good.
The image includes both gift and accountability: God gives seed, growth, opportunity, and increase, while the kind of sowing still matters for the harvest received. The verb does not promise that every investment produces immediate prosperity. Each passage defines the seed, field, reaper, season, and fruit.
Θερίζω moves from literal crop gathering to images of mission, support, generosity, and moral consequence. Harvest depends on God's provision while still revealing what has been sown.
Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Birds neither sow nor reap, yet the Father feeds them; Jesus uses the contrast to free disciples from anxious distrust, not from responsible work.
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!
The raven saying repeats God's care and directs anxious hearers toward their greater value before Him.
Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
Jesus describes an already ripening missionary harvest in which sower and reaper share joy over fruit gathered for eternal life.
If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you?
Paul reasons from spiritual sowing to legitimate material support, without reducing ministry to a commercial exchange.
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Generous sowing and reaping concern willing provision for the saints within God's abundant supply, not a formula for personal enrichment.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Metaphorically denotes receiving consequences of one's actions or moral sowing, especially in judgment contexts.
Metaphorically denotes receiving consequences of one's actions or moral sowing, especially in judgment contexts.
(θέρος), [in LXX chiefly for קָצַר ;] to reap: Mat.6:26, Luk.12:24, Jas.5:4; figuratively, Mat.25:24, 26, Luk.19:21-22, Jhn.4:36-38, 2Co.9:6, Gal.6:7, 9, Rev.14:15; with accusative, τ. σαρκικά, 1Co.9:11; φθοράν, ζωὴν αἰώνιον, Gal.6:8; τ. γῆν, Rev.14:16.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 21 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseI reap, gather
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 21 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 21 lexical occurrence verses.
θερίζω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Harvest language gives moral action a future without placing providence under human control. In Matthew and Luke, birds expose anxiety because the Father sustains creatures that do not manage fields; the point is trust in His care, not contempt for labor. John 4 portrays mission as shared work in which earlier sowers and present reapers rejoice together over people gathered for eternal life.
Paul applies the pattern to ministerial support and generous relief, then elsewhere to flesh, Spirit, and perseverance. The harvest corresponds to the sowing, but God supplies seed and increase and appoints the season. Churches should sow truth, mercy, generosity, and endurance without demanding instant results, trusting God to bring righteous fruit in His time.
Matt.6.26
Θερίζω derives from the noun for harvest and can take a literal crop or a figurative result as its object. Sowing language often supplies the paired action, but the surrounding argument defines the correspondence.
Israel's harvest belongs to the Lord's covenant provision and includes care for the poor. Prophets and psalms use harvest for judgment and restoration; Jesus and Paul extend the image into mission and discipleship.