At its root this word names one plain action: cutting down ripe grain and gathering it in at harvest. The birds that "neither sow nor reap" (Matthew 6:26) and the field hands whose wages are withheld (James 5:4) are doing exactly this ordinary farm work.
Almost everywhere else in the New Testament, though, the word is stretched into a picture. Because a harvest is the moment when the results of months of planting finally come in, reaping becomes the natural image for getting back what an earlier action set in motion. That single idea unfolds in several directions:
a hard master "reaping where he did not sow," taking gain he never worked for (Matthew 25:24)
workers "reaping" people into eternal life, a harvest of souls (John 4:36)
the moral rule that a person harvests whatever he plants, ruin or reward alike (Galatians 6:7)
the final gathering-in of the whole world as God's harvest of judgment (Revelation 14:15)
Across all of these the core stays the same, which is why one English word, "reap," fits every case. The picture leans on its natural opposite, sowing, and on the following step of gathering the cut grain into the barn (συνάγω).
Nuances
1ato cut and gather ripe grain: the physical work of harvesting
Mat 6:26Luk 12:24Jas 5:4
1bto gather gain one did not work for, as a demanding master takes what others produced
Mat 25:24Mat 25:26Luk 19:21Luk 19:22
1cto gather people into eternal life, as a harvest of souls
Jhn 4:36 (2×)Jhn 4:37Jhn 4:38
1dto receive back the outcome of one's own conduct, whether ruin or reward
1Co 9:112Co 9:6 (2×)Gal 6:7Gal 6:8 (2×)Gal 6:9
1eto gather in the whole world at the end, God's harvest of final judgment
Rev 14:15 (2×)Rev 14:16
Related words
The English words used to translate therizō
“reap”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“harvest”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“mow”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How therizō differs from similar Greek words
ἀμάωthe mowing or cutting-down of a field by hired hands; it stresses the labor of the cut, while reaping covers the whole harvesting of the crop
Carries the moral principle that a person harvests exactly what they planted: sowing to the flesh brings ruin, sowing to the Spirit brings life, and God is not mocked.Gal 6:7Gal 6:82Co 9:6
Names the gathering of people into God's kingdom, where the one who brings in the harvest collects wages and rejoices together with the one who first planted.Jhn 4:36Jhn 4:38
Marks the final harvest of judgment at the close of the age, when the earth is fully ripe and the sickle is swung.Rev 14:15Rev 14:16
Describes taking in a yield one did not labor for: the hard master who reaps where he did not sow, and the birds that are fed though they never harvest.Mat 25:26Luk 19:21Mat 6:26
Both
Both name the concrete field labor of bringing in a crop, standing side by side in the one place they meet: the workers who cut down the fields and the workers who gather them in, whose withheld wages cry out to God.Jas 5:4
It is the verb for reaping grain: cutting down and gathering in the ripened crop of the field, the counterpart to sowing.Mat 6:26Mat 25:24
It carries the moral proverb that a person harvests what they plant, so the word stands for reaping the consequences of one's conduct.Gal 6:72Co 9:6
It pictures the ingathering of people won for God, the harvest of a spiritual crop.Jhn 4:36Jhn 4:38
Both
Both name the ingathering of ripened produce at harvest, and Revelation 14 sets them side by side as the twofold reaping of the earth at the end: one word cuts the grain, the other gathers the grapes.Rev 14:15Rev 14:16Rev 14:19
It is the verb for gathering the grape and fruit vintage: picking the ripe clusters off the vine, not cutting grain.Luk 6:44
In judgment it names the gathering of the vine's clusters for the winepress of God's wrath, the vintage side of the end-time harvest.Rev 14:18Rev 14:19
συνάγωgathering the cut crop into the barn, the storing step that follows the reaping
Names the reaping itself: cutting and taking in the ripe, standing crop.Rev 14:15Rev 14:16Jas 5:4
Carries the proverb of consequences: a person harvests exactly the kind of life they planted.Gal 6:7Gal 6:82Co 9:6
Describes reaping where one did not labor, enjoying a crop that another produced.Jhn 4:37Jhn 4:38Luk 19:21
Both
Both name stages of the same harvest labor and are set side by side in harvest imagery: one cuts the ripe crop, the other gathers it in.Mat 6:26Jhn 4:36
Both appear together in the reproach of taking a yield where no work was put in: reaping where one did not sow and gathering where one did not scatter.Mat 25:24Mat 25:26
This is the word that answers sowing. It almost always stands opposite planting, so it names the return that comes back from what was put into the ground, whether the point is that God feeds birds who never plant, or that a hard master takes a crop he never seeded.Mat 6:26Mat 25:24Luk 12:24Luk 19:21Jhn 4:37
Because of that link with planting, it turns into a way of talking about consequences: a person gets back the same kind of thing they put in, and the return is worth waiting for.2Co 9:6Gal 6:7Gal 6:8Gal 6:91Co 9:11
It is skilled, paid labor done at a set moment with a blade. Hired workers earn wages for it, and it waits until the crop has dried and is ready to be cut.Jhn 4:36Jhn 4:38Jas 5:4Rev 14:15
Both
Both are plain farming words for taking in what the ground has produced, and English Bibles can render either one "gather", which hides how differently they work.Mat 6:26Mat 7:16
Both are used for the close of the age, when what has been growing is finally dealt with: one for the moment the crop of the earth is cut, the other for the clearing out of what does not belong.Rev 14:16Mat 13:40
It covers picking things off a plant by hand, item by item, the way someone would pull figs or grapes off a bush. Nothing is cut down and no field is cleared.Mat 7:16Luk 6:44
Its usual job is separating one kind of thing out of a mixture: weeds out of the standing wheat, the good fish out of a full net, the people who cause harm out of a kingdom. The care of the sorting is the whole point, since pulling too eagerly would tear up the crop along with the weeds.Mat 13:28Mat 13:29Mat 13:41Mat 13:48
What gets picked up this way is often carried off to be destroyed rather than kept. In the parable of the weeds a different word is used for putting the wheat safely in the barn, while this one is reserved for the bundles headed to the fire.Mat 13:30Mat 13:40
therizō in the other biblical languages
קָצַרHebrew“to reap”the main Hebrew verb for reaping grain, and the source of the sowing-and-reaping proverb the New Testament echoes
Often turns the act of reaping into a moral image: what a person harvests is the return on how they have lived, for good or ill.Gal 6:72Co 9:6
Used for gathering in people and spiritual results, not only grain: the harvest of those who come to faith, and even the final judgment of the world.Jhn 4:38Rev 14:15
Appears in the proverb of reaping where one did not sow, picturing someone who takes a profit they never worked for.Mat 25:24Luk 19:21
Both
Both name the act of cutting and gathering a ripe crop; the Greek word is the New Testament's regular term for the harvest that the Hebrew word names in the Old Testament.Lev 23:10Jas 5:4
Both turn harvest into a picture of consequences: you gather the kind of crop you planted, whether trouble or blessing.Hos 10:13Gal 6:8
Both can mark a future ingathering as a sign of restoration or final reckoning, the harvest standing for what God will bring about.Amo 9:13Rev 14:16
Also means to be cut short or run out, said of patience, life, strength, or the Lord's reach, a sense the Greek reaping word never carries.Num 11:23Isa 50:2
Names the literal grain harvest as a fixed part of Israel's farming and law, including the command to leave the field corners for the poor.Lev 19:9Deu 24:19
Anchors the harvest scenes of Ruth, where the reapers in Boaz's field set the stage for the whole story.Rut 2:4Rut 2:9
What scholars say about therizō
The lexica are unanimous on the basic sense "to reap, harvest" (BDAG, LSJ). BDAG organizes the New Testament data into a literal use (Mt 6:26;Lk 12:24; Js 5:4) and a set of figurative uses: the proverbial "reaping where one has not sown" (Mt 25:24, 26; Lk 19:21f), the mission harvest (Jn 4:36-38), the recompense metaphor of sowing and reaping (1 Cor 9:11;2 Cor 9:6;Gal 6:7-9), and the apocalyptic harvest of judgment (Rv 14:15f). Hauck's TDNT article traces the sowing-reaping imagery to its Old Testament and wider ancient roots (e.g. Hos 8:7;Job 4:8;Prov 22:8) and notes how the New Testament turns the agricultural cycle into a figure for eschatological reward and judgment. There is no dispute about the underlying meaning.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. θερίζωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. θερίζωlexicon
F. Hauck, "θερίζω, θερισμός," TDNT 3:132-133theological-dictionary