Then translates a particle which may mean either “at that time” or “next in sequence.” Matthew employs it rather frequently (90 times).

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few is probably a proverbial saying. The plentiful harvest can be “rich” or “huge.” In some languages one cannot speak of the harvest being big, but rather one must say “the crops that are ready to be harvested are abundant.”

Laborers can be “workers” or “people who work in the fields.” Good News Translation uses an infinitive phrase to specify the work of the laborers: “workers to gather it in.” The basis for the inclusion of this information is found in the Greek text of verse 38 (“laborers into his harvest”). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch provides the same information, though in a different way: “Here is a rich harvest to gather in, but there are not enough workers.” Instead of saying they are few, it is possible to say “but there are only a few people to gather it in” or “but there are not enough people to bring it in.”

The harvest is a figure for people who are ready to be persuaded to trust in God, and there are translators who have said “These people are like crops in the field that are abundant and ready to be harvested. But there are only a few workers who can lead them to trust in God.”

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 .