Reaping

(קָצִר kts, ts, to cult if; θερίζω). Reaping in Palestine was usually done by the sickle, to which reference is occasionally made in Scripture. SEE SICKLE. But there can be little doubt that the modern practice of pulling up by the roots, instead of cutting the corn, also prevailed to a considerable extent in ancient times. The corn seldom yields so much straw as in this country, and pulling is resorted to in order to obtain a larger supply of fodder. Maundrell thus describes the practice as he noticed it in 1697: "All that occurred to us new in these days' travel was a particular way used by the country people in gathering their corn, it being now harvest-time. They plucked it up by handfuls from the roots, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them. This was their practice in all the places of the East that I have seen; and the reason is that they may lose none of their straw, which is generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of their cattle, no hay being here made. I mention this," he adds, "because it seems to give light to that expression of the Ps 129:6 'which withereth before it be plucked up,' where there seems to be a manifest allusion to the custom." This undoubtedly is the correct mealning of the expression; and the real allusion is lost sight of by the rendering in the A.V., 'before it groweth up." It grows, but withers before the plucking- time comes — an emblem of the premature decay and fruitlessness of the wicked. SEE AGRICULTURE.