Revelation 14:16

thrust in Lit. cast: but the word is used in much milder senses, e.g. of the Lord "putting" His fingers in the deaf man's ears, St Mark 7:33. The A. V. can therefore be defended: but it is perhaps likelier, that He Who sat on the cloud threw downthe sickle, for others (unnamed angels) to reap with.

the earth was reaped Comparing the parables in SS. Matthew and Mark, there is little doubt that the gathering of the harvest indicates the gathering of the Elect. In Jeremiah 51:33, it is true, the image of harvest is used of the time of God's vengeance, and so Joel 3:13, where, as here, it is combined with that of the vintage. But it would be pointless to have the two images successively worked out, if they meant exactly the same: while the vengeanceof the other image is clearly defined in Revelation 14:19, and there is nothing (like the threshingof Jer., l.c.) to indicate it here.