Garner

A garner was a granary or storehouse for grain, used to preserve the harvest between seasons. The Hebrew terms māzāw and ʾôtsār and the Greek apothēkē all denote storage facilities for agricultural produce. Garners and storehouses appear in descriptions of prosperity and royal provision: the Psalmist uses the image of garners full, affording all manner of store, as a picture of national blessing (Psalm 144:13). Joel's description of the devastation caused by the locust plague includes the image of garners laid desolate (Joel 1:17).

In the New Testament, Jesus's parable of the wheat and tares describes the final harvest when the angels will gather the righteous into the garner — the barn or storehouse — while the tares are burned (Matthew 13:30). John the Baptist similarly describes the coming one as the one whose winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into the garner and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12). The garner thus functions as an image of final eschatological security for those who belong to the Lord — the safe storage of the righteous at the consummation of all things.