Text: Obadiah 5
OT Text Referred to: Jeremiah 49:9
Subject: Thieves and grape gatherers imagery
Source: John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1763)
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Obadiah 5 and Jeremiah 49:9 share nearly verbatim rhetorical questions contrasting ordinary plundering with Edom's total devastation. Both ask: if thieves (גַּנָּבִים, gannavim) came by night, would they not steal only enough? If grape gatherers (בֹּצְרִים, botsrim) came, would they not leave gleanings (עֹלֵלוֹת, olelot)? The implied answer—yes, even robbers show restraint—intensifies the horror of what God will do to Edom, which will be stripped bare beyond anything human plunderers would inflict. The close verbal correspondence makes this one of the clearest examples of shared prophetic tradition in the Minor Prophets, pointing to a common oracle against Edom that both Obadiah and Jeremiah employed.