(22) Thou shalt not make a clean riddance.--Better, thou shalt not wholly reap, as the Authorised version translates the same phrase in Leviticus 19:9. In the midst of rejoicing and thankfulness to God for a bountiful harvest, the Lawgiver again inculcates the duty of remembering the poor, and reminds the proprietors of the land that the needy have legally a share in the produce, as has been enacted in Leviticus 19:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - When ye reap the harvest of your land. The legislator pauses in his enunciation of the festivals to add the rule of charity, already laid down in the nineteenth chapter, as to leaving the gleanings unto the poor, and to the stranger.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:15-22 The feast of Weeks was held in remembrance of the giving of the law, fifty days after the departure from Egypt; and looked forward to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. On that day the apostles presented the first-fruits of the Christian church to God. To the institution of the feast of Pentecost, is added a repetition of that law, by which they were required to leave the gleanings of their fields. Those who are truly sensible of the mercy they received from God, will show mercy to the poor without grudging.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when ye reap the harvest of your land,.... This law is repeated from Leviticus 19:9; and as Aben Ezra observes, the feast of weeks being the feast of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, it is repeated, that they might not forget what God had commanded them to do at that time, namely, to leave somewhat for the poor; and the Jewish writers (a) observe, that this law, being put among the solemn feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, and the beginning of the year, and the day of atonement, teaches, that he that observes it, and leaves the corner of the field and the gleanings to the poor, it is as if he built the sanctuary, and offered his sacrifices in the midst of it; but a much better reason may be given for it, which was, to teach them that when they expressed their thankfulness to God, they should exercise charity and liberality to the poor:

thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: See Gill on Leviticus 19:9,

thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God; See Gill on Leviticus 19:10.

(a) In Torat Cohenim, apud Yalkut in loc. & Jarchi.

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