לָקַשׁ

𐤋𐤒𐤔

lâqash

H3953 verb

SILEX Entry

Root לקש to gather, collect, glean late

Definition

To glean or collect late produce, specifically to gather ears of grain left standing after the main harvest, or to collect the late-ripening or second crop; by extension, to gather up what remains after a primary collection. Used especially of agricultural activity at the end of the harvesting season.

Semantic Range

to gather the late crop, to glean after the harvest, to collect what remains after reaping, to gather ears of grain missed in the main harvest, to collect late-ripening produce

Root / Etymology

Root: לְקַשׁ (לקש). Derived from the root meaning 'to collect, gather.' The form לָקַשׁ follows the typical qal pattern for verbal roots, preserving the notion of gathering together, particularly in the context of late harvests. The root is distinct from other Hebrew roots for harvesting, indicating an emphasis on what is collected at the conclusion of the main harvest.

Historical & Contextual Notes

In the Hebrew Bible, לָקַשׁ refers to the action of collecting what remains or is left behind after the main harvest—either as secondary gleanings or late crops that ripen after the primary season. Its use is limited primarily to agricultural contexts and does not carry the general sense of 'to harvest,' which belongs to other Hebrew terms (e.g., קָצַר for 'to reap,' לָקַט for 'to glean' in the social sense tied to laws concerning the poor and resident aliens). Unlike קָצַר, which denotes the standard act of reaping the main crop, לָקַשׁ focuses on the act of going through fields at the end of the season to gather what was missed or what ripened late. This concept is distinct from later Rabbinic or legal notions of gleaning (לקט), and the term appears rarely, reflecting a specific agrarian practice of the ancient Israelite economy. Standard translations, such as 'gather' or 'glean,' may miss the nuance that לָקַשׁ attends specifically to the late or final stage of collecting crops, not the primary act of harvesting, and does not refer to a prescribed social institution. The word appears notably in the context of reporting either scant or sporadic agricultural yields, often with an undertone of hardship or marginal abundance.

Original Strong's Gloss (1890)

a primitive root; to gather the after crop; gather.

Bantu Hebrew

No Bantu Hebrew comparisons have been submitted for this word yet.

+ Add Bantu Hebrew Word

Root Family

לקש (l-q-sh) — gather, collect, glean late

Strong's Lemma SIBI-P1
H4456 מַלְקוֹשׁ like the late-season rain

Word Forms

1 distinct form

SIDANCE Surface Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1 Occurrences
H3953-01 יְלַקֵּֽשׁוּ yelaqeshu HVpi3mp they glean they will glean the late crop 1

Occurrences in Scripture

1 total occurrence

SIDANCE Reference Word Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1
H3953-01 Job 24:6 יְלַקֵּֽשׁוּ yelaqeshu HVpi3mp they glean they will glean the late crop