Hebrew word · H5955

עֹלֵלוֹת

olelot

gleaning

The few bunches of grapes left on the vine after the main picking: small, late or missed clusters. It comes from the verb 'alal, which in the vineyard means "to go over again, glean thoroughly" (Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:21).

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

gleaning

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 24:13

Range of meaning

The few bunches of grapes left on the vine after the main picking: small, late or missed clusters. It comes from the verb 'alal, which in the vineyard means "to go over again, glean thoroughly" (Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:21). In other contexts it means "to deal harshly with someone" (Lamentations 1:12, 22).

Against the English

English "gleanings" is a fair rendering, but today it often means scraps of information, or calls up Ruth gathering grain. The Hebrew word means the leftover fruit itself: scanty, and by law left for the poor.

How it drifted

Modern English uses "glean" mostly in a figurative sense ("glean insights"), and most readers have never seen a vineyard harvested by hand.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judges 8:2 ("Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?"); Jeremiah 49:9 and Obadiah 5 ("If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?"); Micah 7:1 ("like the gleanings of the vintage: no cluster to eat"); Isaiah 17:6. In each case gleanings mean "very little left".

From the study of Obadiah 1:5

Range of meaning

Gleanings, especially of the grape harvest: the small, late or missed clusters left on the vine after the main picking. From a root meaning 'to deal with thoroughly / go over again'; the verb is used for going back over a vine (Lev 19:10; Deut 24:21 'do not glean it afterward').

Against the English

KJV '[some] grapes' (italics show the translators supplied 'some'); BSB/ESV 'gleanings'; WEB 'gleaning grapes.' 'Gleanings' is accurate, but modern readers may not hear in it the legal custom of leaving fruit on purpose.

How it drifted

In modern English 'gleanings' mostly means bits of information picked up here and there, not the farm leftovers that law set aside for the poor.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lev 19:10; Deut 24:21; Judg 8:2 ('the gleanings of Ephraim'); Isa 17:6 and 24:13 (gleaning after the olive or grape harvest as a picture of a tiny remnant); Jer 49:9 (same image for Edom); Mic 7:1.

From the study of Micah 7:1

Range of meaning

Gleanings: the scattered fruit, especially grapes, left on the vine or tree after the main picking. The related verb (ʿālal, in an intensive form) means 'to glean thoroughly' or 'to go over again.'

Against the English

'Gleanings' (BSB, KJV, WEB, YLT) is accurate. Some modern versions paraphrase it as 'after the harvest' and lose the legal and social overtones of gleaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 19:10 and Deuteronomy 24:21 forbid going back over the vineyard and leave its ʿōlēlōt for the poor, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow. Isaiah 24:13 and Jeremiah 49:9 use gleaning as an image of a remnant left after disaster. Judges 8:2 uses it proverbially ('the gleanings of Ephraim').

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 8:2 עֹלְל֥וֹת [are] [the] gleanings of

    But Gideon answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 17:6 עֽוֹלֵלֹת֙ gleanings

    Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

  2. Isaiah 24:13 כְּעוֹלֵלֹ֖ת like gleanings

    So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

    Here: "Like gleanings": the few small or late bunches left on the vines after the pickers have finished. The point is how little is left.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 49:9 עֽוֹלֵל֑וֹת gleanings

    If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, would they not steal only what they wanted?

Obadiah · 1

  1. Obadiah 1:5 עֹלֵלֽוֹת׃ gleanings

    “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, how you will be ruined—would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings?

    Here: The scattered and small clusters left on the vine after the main harvest. In Israel's law these were deliberately left for the poor, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow. Even harvesting leaves something behind.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 7:1 כְּעֹלְלֹ֖ת like gleanings of

    Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.

    Here: 'Like the gleanings of.' Gleanings are the stray grapes left on the vine after picking. Israel's law reserved them for the poor. The word also sounds like the opening cry ʾallay.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.