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Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,
    when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
    in the Valley of Rephaim.[a]
[b]Only gleanings shall be left in it,
    as when an olive tree has been beaten—
Two or three olives at the very top,
    four or five on its most fruitful branches—
    oracle of the Lord, the God of Israel.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 17:5 Valley of Rephaim: a fertile plain just to the southwest of Jerusalem (cf. Jos 15:8; 2 Sm 5:18). Since it was near a large population center, the fields there would be thoroughly gleaned by the poor after the harvest, leaving very few ears of grain.
  2. 17:6 Olives not easily picked by hand were knocked from the tree by means of a long stick; cf. 24:13.