9:38a
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore: The Berean Standard Bible places the word therefore in the middle of the sentence. This is good English style. However, in some language, it may be necessary to place this word at the beginning of 9:38a. For example:
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest (English Standard Version)
Ask the Lord of the harvest: This is the last part of this extended metaphor. In this part, God is compared to the lord/owner of the harvest. Just as the lord/owner of the harvest is in charge of bringing in the harvest, God is in charge of bringing people into the kingdom.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the metaphor:
• Keep the metaphor. For example:
pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Pray to the owner of the harvest (Good News Translation)
• Change the metaphor to a simile and make the parts explicit. For example:
⌊pray to God to send out workers to cause people to believe in me. This is like⌋ asking the owner of the harvest
-or-
⌊pray to God to commission more workers to bring people into his kingdom. This is like⌋ asking the master of the harvest
Ask: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Ask also means “beg, plead, or ask seriously.”
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
pray earnestly (English Standard Version)
-or-
Pray (New Living Translation (2004))
the Lord of the harvest: In this context, the word Lord means “owner” or “master.” In this context, it is the one who is in charge of the harvest. This phrase refers figuratively to God, so the Berean Standard Bible capitalizes the word Lord.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
the owner of the harvest (Good News Translation)
-or-
the Lord in charge of the harvest (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the Lord, who owns the harvest, (New Century Version)
In some languages people may not naturally use a word that means “owner” or “master” to refer to God. If this is true in your language, you can also use your word for God. For example:
God the Lord
-or-
God, the master/owner
See Lord in the Glossary.
therefore: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as therefore indicates that 9:38 is a type of conclusion. This conclusion is an appeal to pray for God to send out workers.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
For this reason
-or-
Because of that
-or-
So (New Living Translation (2004))
Some English versions do not translate this word.
9:38b
to send out workers: The word workers refers to the people who do the work of harvesting. Figuratively this refers to people who bring others to God to be part of his kingdom.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
that he will send more workers (New Century Version)
-or-
to send men (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
that he will send others to join them
into His harvest: In some languages, it will be natural to add another verb here. In other languages, it will be natural to make the word harvest a verb. For example:
to gather in his harvest (Good News Translation)
-or-
to bring it in (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
to bring in the ripe crops
General Comment on 9:37–38
In some languages, it is helpful to explain the meaning of the metaphor in a footnote. Here is a sample footnote:
This metaphor/parable shows us that many people are ready to believe in Jesus, but there are not many people to go and bring them into the kingdom. Jesus told his followers to pray for God to send more people to go help them trust in him.
© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.