They reap every one his grain in the field: and they gather the vineyard of the wicked.
All Commentaries on Job 24:6 Go To Job 24
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
62. By the name of a ‘field’ may be denoted the wide compass of Holy Scripture, and Heretics ‘reap’ it not being their own, in that they carry away from it sentences which are infinitely removed from their own notions; which same is furthermore described by the title of a ‘vineyard,’ in that through the sentences of truth it puts forth the clusters of the virtues; the owner of which vineyard, i.e. the originator of Holy Scripture, they as it were ‘oppress with violence,’ because they endeavour violently to twist and turn a sense of His upon [L. only reads ‘in the words’] the words of Holy Writ; as He saith, But thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast given Me labour in thine iniquity. [Is. 43, 24] And they ‘reap the vintage of that vineyard,’ in that they heap together therefrom clusters of sentences after the bent of their own understanding. It may be that by the title of a ‘field’ or of a ‘vineyard’ the Church Universal is set forth, which corrupt preachers ‘reap,’ and by oppressing in His members the Author of it, ‘gather the vintage,’ in that in bearing down upon the grace of our Creator, whilst they seize off therefrom persons who seemed to be righteous, what else is this but that they carry off ‘ears’ or ‘clusters’ of souls?
