At harvest time, farmers typically hired additional harvesters (see James 5:4). The gathering of the weeds does not mean pulling them up before reaping. Rather, reapers cutting the wheat with their sickles left the darnel to fall aside, instead of being bound into the sheaves. The bundling was done because in wood-poor Palestine, this weed, once dried, served as fuel (see Matthew 6:30). The master therefore rejects any earlier separation, telling the servants to wait until the harvest before anyone separates the darnel from the wheat.
During harvest time farmers typically hired additional harvesters for the season (see James 5:4). The gathering of the weeds does not refer to pulling them up before reaping. Rather, when the reaper cuts the wheat with the sickle, the darnel is left to fall aside instead of being bound into the sheaves. The bundling was done because in wood-poor Palestine, this weed, once dried, was used as fuel (see Matthew 6:30). The master therefore rejects any premature separation and tells the servants that they must wait until the proper time—the harvest. Then the reapers will separate the darnel from the wheat.1
27 And the servantsof the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’