Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 49:9
If grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave [some] gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
9. would they not leave some gleaning grapes?] The v. is based on Oba 1:5, but while the general sense is the same, Obadiah contrasts the extremities to which the foe proceeds with the comparative moderation shewn by grape-gatherers or thieves. Here, on the contrary, the enemy’s conduct is directly illustrated by the figures employed, and accordingly we should render as mg.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. If grape-gatherers] Both in vintage and harvest every grape and every stalk are not gathered; hence the gleaners get something for their pains: but your enemies shall not leave one of you behind; all shall be carried into captivity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We have much the same Ob 5. The scope of the prophet in this place is only to show that Edom should be totally destroyed; their destruction should not be like the gleaning of grapes, where the gatherers content themselves with taking the principal clusters, but for single grapes, or small clusters, they leave them; nor yet like the robbings of thieves, who take for their hunger, and when they have got enough leave the rest.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. (Ob5). Grape gatherers, yea even thieves, leavesomething behind them; but the Chaldeans will sweep Idumea clean ofeverything.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave [some] gleaning grapes?…. If gatherers of grapes, at the time of the vintage, should come into thy fields to gather the grapes, being ripe, would not they leave some for the poor to glean? certainly they would, and not take every cluster. The Targum renders it,
“if thy spoilers, as grape gatherers, should come to thee,” c.
if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough who break into houses by night, these will eat and drink as much as is sufficient, and carry off what serves their turn; but they seldom take away everything they find in a house; they leave some things behind them; but it is suggested that the Chaldeans should take away all from the Edomites, and leave them nothing; see Ob 1:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Interpreters have not only obscured, but also perverted this verse, and only said what is to no purpose, and have gone far from the meaning of the Prophet. (37) How so? because it did not occur to them to compare this with a passage in Obadiah. Obadiah is the true interpreter; nay, our Prophet has borrowed what we read here from him. For there a question is asked, “If thieves were to come to thee, if robbers ( שדדי, shaddi, is added there, but is omitted by Jeremiah) — if robbers by night, how wouldest thou have been reduced to nothing?” But in the first place the rendering ought to be, “Had thieves come to thee, how wouldest thou have been reduced to nothing?” then he adds, “Would they not have stolen what would suffice them?” He afterwards adds the second clause, “If the grape-gatherers had come to thee, would they not have left grapes.” There is now then no ambiguity in the Prophet’s words, if we read them interrogatively. But there is an implied contrast between the calamity threatened to the people and the other devastations. Were a thief of the night to plunder another’s house, he would depart, loaded with his prey, and leave something behind; for in all plunder some things remain: so also as to grape-gatherers, some grapes remain, which escape the gatherers.
Then the Prophet here shews, that so great would be the destruction of that nation, that it would exceed all kinds of plundering; for when one strips his vines, he leaves some grapes; and when a thief enters a house, he does not carry all things away with him, being satisfied with his booty. But nothing, he says, shall be left remaining with the Idumeans. We hence see why the Prophet brings forward the two comparisons, that of the grape-gatherers and of the thieves.
We must at the same time observe, that when God denounces his vengeance on the Israelites, he often adduces these comparisons, in order to show that nothing would be left them, “When the olives are shaken, yet some fruit remains on the top of the trees; but thou shalt be wholly emptied.” As God had said these things, the Israelites might have raised an objection and said, “What is our condition, and how miserable! for we are extremely afflicted; though God afflicts the Idumeans, yet he deals mildly with them, for God’s wrath is less inflamed against them than against us.” Lest then the faithful should be thus thrown into despair, our Prophet declares that the Idumeans would be wholly destroyed, so that not a grape would be left them, nor any of their furniture, for their enemies would lay desolate the whole land. Now follows a confirmation of this verse —
(37) The interpreters probably referred to are the Sept. and the Vulg., where the interrogative form is not used; not so the Syr. and the Targ. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) If grapegatherers come to thee . . .The words are reproduced in Oba. 1:5. Vine-gatherers leave some bunches for the gleaner; robbers are at last satiated with plunder; but the destroyers of Edom would be insatiable (comp. Isa. 17:6). Esau (the name stands for Edom) should be laid bare, and perish utterly. It is significant that there is no promise to Edom that her captivity should be brought back.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9, 10. If grapegatherers come leave some gleaning “Grape gatherers” and even thieves leave something behind them, but the Chaldeans will strip them utterly bare.
His seed His family.
His brethren The related peoples who were intermingled with them the Simeonites, Horites, etc., etc.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 49:9-10. If grape-gatherers come, &c. When the grape-gatherers shall come to thee, they will have no grapes; when nightly thieves, they will plunder as much as seems good to them; Jer 49:10. So will I exhaust Esau; I will open his treasures; nothing shall be hid: His seed shall be spoiled, and his brethren, together with his neighbours; and he shall not be. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 49:9 If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave [some] gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
Ver. 9. If grape gatherers, &c. ] See on Oba 1:5 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
grapegatherers. Compare Oba 1:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
grapegatherers: Isa 17:6, Oba 1:5, Oba 1:6
till they have enough: Heb. their sufficiency
Reciprocal: Lev 19:10 – glean Jdg 6:4 – left no Jer 6:9 – They shall Nah 2:2 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 49:9. The thought in this verse is that what waa coming on the people of the land would he more desolating than the work of a grape harvester. He would at least leave enough fruit to justify going over the vineyard to glean. Or a thief would stop when he had secured enough for his appetite, then leave the rest to the owner.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 49:9-10. If grape-gatherers come to thee, &c. The vintage is not usually gathered so clean but there will be a gleaning left, Isa 17:6; and house-breakers, or thieves, commonly leave something behind. But I have made Esau bare But the destruction coming upon thee will be so entire that scarcely a remnant shall be preserved. I have uncovered his secret places I have taken from him every thing that might be a refuge or defence to him, and laid open all the recesses wherein he might conceal himself, or his riches. His seed is spoiled, &c. The calamity shall also extend to his family, and to all that he has any connection with. And he is not He is utterly ruined and undone.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
49:9 If {l} grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave [some] gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
(l) Meaning that God would utterly destroy them and not spare one, though the grape gatherers leave some grapes, and thieves seek but till they have enough, Oba 1:5 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Grape pickers and thieves normally left some things behind, but Yahweh would leave no Edomites untouched by the judgment He would bring on this nation. He would remove every covering that protected all these people (cf. Oba 1:5-6).