(8) This harvest scene is exactly like that painted in Ruth 2:4, and the last line should be printed as a return greeting from the reapers.

Verse 8. - Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord. Harvesters were thus greeted (Ruth 2:4), and still are to this day. "These expressions," says Dr. Thomson, "are most refreshingly Arabic. Nothing is more natural than for Arabs, when passing by a fruit-tree or cornfield loaded with a rich crop, to exclaim, Barak Allah! 'God bless you!'" ('The Land and the Book,' p. 682).

129:5-8 While God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-tops, which in eastern countries are flat, and what grows there never ripens; so it is with the designs of God's enemies. No wise man will pray the Lord to bless these mowers or reapers. And when we remember how Jesus arose and reigns; how his people have been supported, like the burning but unconsumed bush, we shall not fear.Neither do they which go by say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you,.... As was usual with passengers, when they went by where mowers, and reapers, and binders, were at work in the field in harvest time; who used to wish the presence and blessing of God with them, and upon their labours; and who returned the salutation, as may be seen in Boaz and his reapers, Ruth 2:4;

we bless you in the name of the Lord; which is either a continuation of the blessing of the passengers, or the answer of the reapers to them; so the Targum,

"nor do they answer them, "we bless you",'' &c.

The sense is, that those wicked men would have no blessing on them, from God nor men; that no God speed would be wished them; but that they were like the earth, that is covered with briers and thorns; which is nigh unto cursing, and its end to be burned.