For comments on pray, see 5.44. It can be “you should pray” or left as an imperative pray. See Good News Translation, for example. Of course in many languages one has to say “pray to the Lord of the harvest to ask him.”

Therefore or “so” should appear in the sentence wherever it will be most natural. Some languages do not need such a transition at all in this context.

Lord of the harvest (Good News Translation “owner of the harvest”; see New English Bible) is translated “harvest master” by New American Bible. The person referred to is God. The Good News Bible and New English Bible renderings have been the most useful models for translators.

The noun phrase into his harvest is translated as a verb phrase in Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition and Good News Translation: “to gather in his harvest.” Elsewhere Matthew uses the harvest as a symbol of the final judgment (13.30, 39), but here the symbolism is slightly different. The harvest represents the masses of people who stand ready to respond to the message of salvation, and Jesus calls upon his followers to pray to God to send messengers who will proclaim the good news.

For those translators who choose to make the whole image into a simile (see verse 37), the Lord may be “God, who is like the owner of the harvest.” To send out laborers into his harvest will then be “to send out his servants (or, his people) to lead them to trust in God” or “… to proclaim the good news.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .