ישעיהו, פרק י״ז, פסוק ה׳

The impending destruction and exile are pictured through a tragic agricultural metaphor of a field harvested down to the very last stalk. The invading enemy acts as a skilled reaper, systematically destroying the crop in distinct stages. The initial invasion of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, begins like the harvesting of a field bursting with standing grain ready to be cut [מלבי״ם]. The primary approach among commentators is that the enemy sweeps through the land much like a farmer who gathers a thick bundle of grain in one arm while swiftly cutting it down with a sickle in the other [רש״י, מצודת דוד, שד״ל]. This imagery highlights the terrifying ease of the conquest. Just as a farmer effortlessly clears a full field, the enemy uprooted and exiled the masses of people without facing any real resistance [מלבי״ם].

As the disaster progresses into a more advanced stage, the enemy's tactics change. Following the massive initial harvest, the conqueror is compared to a poor person gleaning the single, leftover stalks that have fallen to the earth, picking them up one by one until absolutely nothing remains [שד״ל]. The commentators agree that this represents the refugees who attempted to flee. The enemy relentlessly hunts them down, gathering them individually to ensure no one escapes [רש״י, מצודת דוד, רד״ק]. From another perspective, this gleaning process symbolizes the later waves of the exile. By that time, the land was already largely emptied, forcing the Assyrian king to painstakingly pick through the scattered remnants of the population [מלבי״ם, אבן עזרא].

The final setting of this invasion takes place in the Valley of Rephaim, an area situated near Jerusalem [רש״י, מצודת דוד, רד״ק, שד״ל]. The arrival at this specific location emphasizes that the Assyrian king successfully captured everything surrounding the city [רד״ק]. Beyond its simple geography, the valley holds a deeper agricultural symbolism. It was widely known as a lean, barren stretch of land where grain grew thin and sparse. In such a desolate area, a farmer cannot use a sickle for a mass harvest; instead, the few stalks must be gleaned individually. This perfectly captures the enemy's final, meticulous operation of collecting the last lonely survivors until the land was entirely bare [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אבן עזרא].