My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously ¹  will also reap generously.

¹ The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

So neither the one who plants counts for anything, ¹  nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth.

The one who reaps receives pay ¹  and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.

The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, ¹  but each will receive his reward according to his work.

“Be sure of this, ¹  the time is ²  coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ³  and the one who stomps the grapes ⁴  will overtake ⁵  the planter. ⁶  Juice will run down the slopes, ⁷  it will flow down all the hillsides. ⁸ 

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken – and I will do it!’