Bible Strands
Jeremiah 6:9
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh of Hosts delivers this command through Jeremiah to Jerusalem, positioned directly between a warning of total desolation in Jeremiah 6:8 and a report of the people's closed ears in Jeremiah 6:10. The speaker addresses the nation at the moment their rejection of divine warning becomes irreversible.
The words — The verb עוֹלֵל (o.Lel) means to glean thoroughly or strip completely, paired with שְׁאֵרִית (she.'e.Rit) for remnant, directing the gatherer to pass over the branches without leaving fruit. This agricultural terminology establishes a systematic removal rather than a partial harvest.
The thread — The vine-gathering imagery inverts the pattern in Jeremiah 49:9 and Obadiah 1:5, where gleaners and thieves normally leave leftovers, signaling that no remnant will be spared. It connects to the comprehensive judgment motif in Jeremiah 16:16, where divine agents are sent to catch and remove without exception.
Why it lands — The text commands a complete stripping of Israel's remnant, establishing that the warning phase has ended and execution has begun. It asks the reader to acknowledge that divine patience has concluded and that the stated judgment will proceed to its full measure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 16:16 But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
- Jeremiah 49:9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, would they not steal only what they wanted?
- Obadiah 1:5 “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, how you will be ruined—would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings?
- Jeremiah 52:28 These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;
- Revelation 14:18 Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.”