If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.

If grapegatherers had come to thee, would they not have left a bunch? if thieves in the night, they would have taken what was enough for them.

If grape-gatherers had come to thee, would they not have left a gleaning? If thieves by night, they would destroy only till they had enough.

If gatherers have come in to thee, They do not leave gleanings, If thieves in the night, They have destroyed their sufficiency!

If men came to get your grapes, would they not let some be uncut on the vines? if thieves came by night, would they not make waste till they had enough?

If those who gather grapes had passed by you, would they not have left behind a cluster? If there were thieves in the night, they would seize what was enough for themselves.

Si vindemiatores venissent contra to, non reliquissent uvas? si fures in nocte, nonne perdidissent quod sufficeret ipsis?

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. [1] 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 (sddy, 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 --

Footnotes

1 - 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.

Translate it: "If vintagers come to thee, they will not leave any gleaning: if thieves by night, they will destroy their fill."

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.

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, (Obadiah 1:5).

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 Obadiah 1:5.

(Obadiah 1:5). Grape gatherers, yea even thieves, leave something behind them; but the Chaldeans will sweep Idumea clean of everything.

If - Edom shall be totally destroyed; their destruction should not be like the gleaning of grapes, where the gatherers content themselves with taking the principal clusters: nor yet like the robbings of thieves, who take for their hunger, and when they have got enough leave the rest.