Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
His servant that was set over the reapers - This was a kind of steward or hind who had the under management of the estate. Some think that an officer of this kind is intended in the description given by Homer of the labors of a harvest field, as represented by Vulcan on one compartment of the shield which he made for Achilles: -
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Iliad xviii., v. 550.
There too he form' d the likeness of a field
Crowded with corn, in which the reapers toil' d,
Each with a sharp-tooth' d sickle in his hand.
Along the furrow here, the harvest fell
In frequent handfuls; there, they bound the sheaves.
Three binders of the sheaves their sultry task
All plied industrious, and behind them boys
Attended, filling with the corn their arms,
And offering still their bundles to be bound.
Amid them, staff in hand, the master stood,
Enjoying, mute the order of the field:
While, shaded by an oak, apart his train
Prepared the banquet - a well thriven ox
New slain, and the attendant maidens mix' d
Large supper for the hinds, of whitest flour.
Cowper.
This scene is well described; and the person who acts as overseer is here called , king, and his staff is called , a scepter; and he stands in mute dignity, merely to see that the work is well done, and that each person performs his task; and there appear to me to be gleaners in the description, viz., the boys who gather the handfuls after the three binders. See the Greek.
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