Jeremiah 6:9 - Exposition

They shall thoroughly glean , etc. "Israel" has already been reduced to a "remnant;" the ten tribes have lost their independence, and Judah alone remains ( Jeremiah 5:15 ). Even Judah shall undergo a severe sifting process, which is likened to a gleaning (comp. Isaiah 24:13 ; Obadiah 1:5 ; Jeremiah 49:9 ). The prospect is dark, but believers in God's promises would remember that a few grapes were always left after the gathering (comp. Isaiah 17:6 ). Turn back thine hand . If the text is correct, the speaker here addresses the leader of the gleaners. Keil thinks this change of construction is to emphasize the certainty of the predicted destruction. But it is much more natural (and in perfect harmony with many other similar phenomena of the received text) to suppose, with Hitzig, that the letter represented in the Authorized Version By "thine" has arisen by a mistaken repetition of the first letter of the following word, and (the verbal form being the same for the infinitive and the imperative) to render turning again the hand . In this case the clause will be dependent on the preceding statement as to the "gleaning" of Judah. Into the baskets ; rather, unto the shoots . The gleaners will do their work with a stern thoroughness, laying the hand of destruction again and again upon the vine-shoots.