When thou comest into thy neighbour's vineyard, thou mayest eat grapes thy fill, according to thy desire, but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel.
This verse lets a traveller eat his fill of grapes in someone else's vineyard, but not carry any home in a basket. The container marks the line between a shared meal and quiet theft.
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The permission is strange until you ask whose land Israel was farming. One writer reads these two verses as God acting as host on His own property:
Verses 24 and 25 prove that Jehovah is the owner of the land, and He invited the hungry one to satisfy his hunger — to be His guest, so to speak. But the right of the tenant of the land was also respected.
The limit is not stinginess. It marks where present need ends and taking for later begins:
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Last in this section we see the grace of God and the government of God in beautiful balance
after (vs. 24-25). If they passed through another person's vineyard, Israelites could eat all the grapes they wanted.
after So God showed compassion in regard to man's present hunger. But His righteous government firmly forbade carrying any away in a container. The same was true in a field of grain. They could pick heads of grain to eat. But they could not cut the grain down, since that would show they meant to take it away.
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This rule sits at the end of a run of laws about how Israel handled outsiders, servants and money. Summarising the whole chapter, one commentator puts our verse in a single phrase:
Again, Deuteronomy 23 guards who may belong to the congregation of Jehovah, making a difference between people, and it keeps even the camp decent. It shields the runaway slave from oppression. It rejects prostitution and the money it brings, and interest charged to a fellow Israelite too. It makes vows binding. It commands kindness about vineyard or field, but forbids selfishness.
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Israel's whole system of laws pressed in the same direction. One writer lists what an Israelite gave away each year. He sets this permission beside the grain left standing in the field and the fruit left on the trees:
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Owners were not to reap their fields fully, and they were not to go back over them. They were not to pick all the fruit from the trees. They had to leave this for the poor and the stranger (Lev. 19:9-10). Everyone was also free to pick grain and fruit in the fields or vineyards (Deut. 23:24-25).
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The next verse (v. 25) gives the same permission for grain. That is the law behind the scene in the grainfields. The disciples picked heads of grain on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees accused them. Yet the accusation had no footing in the law God gave:
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It is clear that there was no law of God against the case. The blame they laid was a law of their own making. It was a human idea that takes an outward fact and turns it into a system — man's constant danger.
after It is quite true that God had ordained rest for man and beast on the Sabbath day. But nothing in the law of God forbade a hungry man to pick heads of grain as he passed through a field to satisfy his need. In fact it fitted the goodness of God to provide from His people's plenty for such urgent need.
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God gave this permission for people in real need. That anyone in Jesus' company had to use it says something about how people treated Him:
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On that Sabbath, then, the disciples passed through the grainfields. They "plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands." This was always allowed, and still is, in Eastern countries around the Holy Land. It is no doubt a remaining trace of the old habit of the Jews. People allow it as an act of kindness to the hungry.
after What a condition for the followers of the Lord Jesus to be in! What a proof of His shame and of their need!
- Owner. The land was God's, and He set the terms; the farmer was a tenant whose rights God still guarded.
- Invitation. God welcomed the hungry traveller to eat his fill, as a guest at His own table.
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- Limit. A hand could feed a man; a basket could not stock his house. God meets today's need, but carrying it off is theft.
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- Pattern. The same balance runs through the chapter and Israel's other laws. God commands kindness and forbids selfishness.
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- Test. Jesus' disciples had to live off this law. The Pharisees attacked them with a rule of their own making, and showed whose word they were really keeping.
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When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, thou mayest pluck ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not wave the sickle against thy neighbour's standing corn.
This short rule sits among Israel's laws about vows, camps and neighbours. It lets a hungry traveller eat from a neighbour's field by hand, but never with a blade — so who owns the harvest, and where does kindness end and theft begin?
Behind the rule lies a question about ownership. One writer answers it from this verse and the one before it.
Verses 24 and 25 prove that Jehovah is the owner of the land. He invited the hungry one to satisfy his hunger, to be His guest, so to speak. But the right of the tenant of the land was also respected.
The verse draws its line at the tool. A hand feeds a person now; a sickle harvests for later. One commentator sees compassion and government balanced in that single detail.
An Israelite passing through another person's vineyard could eat all the grapes he wanted. So God showed compassion for a man's present hunger. But His righteous government firmly forbade carrying any away in a container. The same was true in a field of grain. They could pick heads of grain to eat. But they could not cut the grain down, which would of course show they meant to take it away.
Plucking grain in another man's field was not a loophole or a trespass the owner chose to overlook. One writer notes how travellers came to be there at all.
We learn from the parable of the sower that a public path often ran through the grainfields. The disciples, as they passed along, began to pluck some of the ears of grain and eat them. Nobody treated this act as a violation of the law of private property. On the contrary, the law of Moses gave clear permission for it (Deut. 23:25).
This verse is one line in a chapter full of rules about how Israel treats people. One writer runs through the list.
Deuteronomy 23 guards how people relate to the assembly of Jehovah, making a difference between them, and keeps even the camp decent. It shields the runaway slave from oppression. It treats prostitution and its earnings with contempt, and charging interest to a brother too. It makes vows binding. It commands kindness about a vineyard or a field, but forbids selfishness.
Centuries later, hungry men walked through a grainfield on the Sabbath and did what this verse allows. Their critics could produce no command of God against it.
Now, it is clear that there was no law of God against the case. The censure was a law of their own, and a notion of men that looks at an outward fact and makes a system of it — man's constant danger. It is quite true that God had ordained rest for man and beast on the Sabbath Day. But nothing in the law of God forbade a hungry man to pluck ears of grain to satisfy his need as he passed through a field. It fit the goodness of God to provide for such urgent need out of His people's plenty. There was remarkable care in Israel for the stranger, the bereaved, and the suffering. They were not to forget the poor in the land in the joy of harvest, and a clear command of God forbade them to clear out the corners of the field.
The permission was always a mercy for the hungry. That Jesus' own followers had to use it tells us how people treated Him.
On that Sabbath the disciples passed through the grainfields. They plucked the ears of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. This was always allowed, and still is, in Eastern countries around the Holy Land. No doubt it is a surviving trace of the old habit of the Jews. It is allowed as an act of charity to the hungry. What a condition for the followers of the Lord Jesus to be in! What a proof of His shame and of their need!
- Owner — The land is God's before it is the farmer's. The true landlord feeds the hungry traveller, and the farmer keeps his rights.
- Gift — Eat your fill, on the spot, from someone else's crop. No asking, no paying.
- Limit — The gift stops at the sickle and the container. Fill your stomach and you are a guest; fill your basket and you are a thief.
- Character — One sentence commands kindness and forbids selfishness. That is how the chapter trains a people to live together.
- Fulfilment — Jesus' disciples used this very right in a grainfield. No law of God accused them; only man-made rules did. Their hunger showed His shame and their need.