Obadiah 1:5
“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?”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Even thieves and grape-gatherers leave something behind, but Edom's ruin will be total, with nothing remaining.
What Does Obadiah 1:5 Mean?
The prophet reasons by comparison. Robbers take only what they want and stop; those gleaning a vineyard always leave a few grapes behind. The parenthetical cry, how art thou cut off!, breaks in to announce that Edom's coming loss will be unlike these ordinary, partial losses.
The point is the completeness of the judgment. Where human plunder leaves remnants, this stripping will leave nothing. The verse presses the reader to feel the weight of a reckoning that is thorough, and to consider that what we hoard in pride can be swept entirely away. Only what is built on God endures the searching.