What Does Obadiah 1:5 Mean in the King James?
If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse measures Edom’s ruin against what even thieves and grape gatherers leave behind: what marks this loss is the absence of a remainder.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a measure for devastation: thieves take until they are satisfied, but even grape gatherers leave gleanings. Its cry, “How art thou cut off!” names a loss that exceeds those ordinary limits, leaving no remnant to show where taking stops.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that total ruin is simply ordinary loss carried further: thieves and harvesters have limits, and the verse marks this destruction as beyond them.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁאִירוּ
yash'iru
GROWS FROM
שאר
Remain or be left over; in this form, leave something remaining.
“leave” in this verse is yash'iru. The verb centers what stays behind. The verse’s shock comes from measuring Edom against this expected remainder: even those who take produce cannot take all.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant or remainder.
שְׁאֵרִית
It names what survives after a people or thing has been reduced, making the gleanings a sign of what remains.
nish'ar: Remained or was left.
נִשְׁאַר
This branch makes the verse’s question concrete: even after taking, something ordinarily remains.
בֹּצְרִים
botsrim
GROWS FROM
בצר
Cut off or make inaccessible; for grapes, gather by cutting clusters from the vine.
“grapegatherers” in this verse is botsrim. The word names the grape gatherers through the act of cutting fruit away. The same root gives the word for a fortress, placing the cutting of a harvest beside the idea of a place made inaccessible.
ALSO GROWS
batsir: Vintage or grape harvest.
בָּצִיר
It shows that the gatherers’ work is a cutting that normally still leaves gleanings.
mivtsar: Fortress or stronghold.
מִבְצָר
Its sense of being made inaccessible echoes the security of a fortified place, while this verse asks what even the most thorough taking leaves behind.
THE PATTERN
A remnant is the line between being stripped and being wholly cut off.
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.THE THREAD
If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.Jeremiah repeats the same image and the Hebrew verb יַשְׁאִירוּ (yash’iru, “leave something remaining”), from שאר (sha’ar, “remain”). That shared root makes the leftover itself the measuring line: even thieves and grape gatherers leave something, so the emptiness named here exceeds ordinary taking.
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