Jeremiah 15:7

Jer 15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave [them] of children, I will destroy my people, [since] they return not from their ways.

Ver. 7. And I will fan them with a fan.] Not of purgation {a} {as Jer 6:29-30} but of perdition. Such as that, Jer 51:2.

In the gates of the land.] As men use to winnow grain at a windy door, where the chaff is blown quite away.

{a} Deo gratias quod lingua Petiliani non sit ventilabrum Christi. - Jerome.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Meaning, the cities.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

fan--tribulation--from tribulum, a threshing instrument, which separates the chaff from the wheat (Mat 3:12).

gates of the land--that is, the extreme bounds of the land through which the entrance to and exit from it lie. MAURER translates, "I will fan," that is, cast them forth "to the gates of the land" (Nah 3:13). "In the gates"; English Version draws the image from a man cleaning corn with a fan; he stands at the gate of the threshing-floor in the open air, to remove the wheat from the chaff by means of the wind; so God threatens to remove Israel out of the bounds of the land [HOUBIGANT].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. I will fan them with a fan] There is no pure grain; all is chaff.

In the gates of the land] The places of public justice: and there it shall be seen that the judgments that have fallen upon them have been highly merited. And from these places of fanning they shall go out into their captivity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He confirms here the same truth. The verb which I have rendered in the future may be rendered in the past tense, but I still think it to be a prediction of what was to come. But as to what follows, I have bereaved, I have destroyed, it must, I have no doubt, be referred to time past.

He then says, I will fan or scatter them, for the verb. זרה zare, means to scatter, but as with a fan follows, (the word is derived from the same root) I wish to retain the repetition. Then it is, I will fan them with a fan through all the gates of the earth Many give the meaning, “through the cities,” which I do not approve, as it seems a frigid explanation. On the contrary the Prophet means by “the gates of the earth,” all countries, for the Jews thought that they should be always safe and quiet in their own cities. By taking a part for the whole, gates do indeed, as it appears elsewhere, signify cities; but as the Jews trusted in their own defences, and thought that they could never be drawn out from these quiet nests, the word gates is in a striking manner transferred to signify any kind of exit; I will fan you, says God, but where? through all gates of the earth, or through all countries and through all deserts; wherever there is a region open for you there you must pass through. Ye are wont to pass in and out through your gates, and ye have there your quiet homes, but there shall be hereafter to you other cities, other gates, even all countries and all deserts, all ways, and, in short, every sort of passage.

Then follows, I have bereaved, I have destroyed my people; they have not returned from their own ways Here no doubt he condemns the Jews for their sottishhess, because they had not repented after having been warned by grievous judgments, which God had executed partly on them and partly on their brethren. For the kingdom of Israel had been cut off: when they saw the ten tribes driven into exile ought they not to have been terrified by such an example? Hence also another Prophet says,

“There is no one who mourns for the bruising of Joseph.” (Amos 6:6)

God had set before their eyes a sad and dreadful spectacle; they ought then to have acknowledged in the destruction of Israel what they themselves deserved, and to have turned to God. It is then this extreme hardness that God upbraids them with, for though he had bereaved his people, the ten tribes, and destroyed them, and though also the kingdom of Judah had been in a great measure depressed, yet they returned not from their own ways. It hence appeared more fully evident that they deserved the severest judgments, as they were become wholly irreclaimable. He then adds —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(7) I will fan them with a fan.—The image is, of course, the familiar one of the threshing-floor and the winnowing-fan or shovel (Psa_1:4; Psa_35:5; Mat_3:12). The tenses should be past in both clauses—I have winnowed . . . I have bereaved . . . I have destroyed.

In the gates of the land . . .—Possibly the “gates” stand for the fortified cities of Judah, the chief part being taken for the whole, more probably for the “approaches” of the land. So the Greeks spoke of the passes of the Taurus as the Cilician gates, and so we speak of the Khyber and Bolam passes as “the gates of India.”

Since they return not.—The insertion of the conjunction, which has nothing corresponding to it in the original, weakens the vigour of the abruptness of the clause, and probably suggests a wrong sequence of thought. Jehovah had chastened them, but it was in vain. They returned not from their ways. Yet, as in the Vulgate, rather than “since,” is the implied conjunction.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. I have fanned them with a fan] “Fan, whether verb or noun, is now practically obsolete in the sense here intended.” Dr. p. 360. We should rather render, Have winnowed them with a winnowing-fork. The Arabic word midhra, corresponding to the Heb. mizreh here and in Isa_30:24, is “in use in modern Syria, and denotes a wooden fork almost six feet in length, with five or six prongs, bound together by fresh hide, which, on shrinking, forms a tight band.… The wooden shovel of Isa_30:24 was used with it. The mixture of corn, chaff, and broken straw, produced by threshing, was shaken about with these two implements, usually in some exposed spot, when a wind was blowing (generally in the afternoon or evening, Rth_3:2), and the wind carried away the chaff and the straw (Psa_1:4). If however the wind was too violent it would blow away the corn as well: hence the point of Jer_4:11.” Ibid.

the gates of the land] the borders (the parts by which men enter and leave the country). Cp. Nah_3:13.

they have not returned from their ways] LXX have, on account of their evils (wicked deeds), probably meant as a free paraphrase, unless we suppose the word for evils to have fallen out of MT.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land,.... Either of their own land, the land of Judea; and so the Septuagint version, "in the gates of my people"; alluding to the custom of winnowing corn in open places; and by fanning is meant the dispersion of the Jews, and their being carried captive out of their own land into other countries: or of the land of the enemy, into their cities, as the Targum paraphrases it; gates being put for them frequently; whither they should be scattered by the fan of the Lord; for what was done by the enemy, as an instrument, is ascribed to him:

I will bereave them of children; which shall die of famine, or pestilence, or by the sword, or in captivity: I will destroy my people; which must be when children are cut off, by which families, towns, cities, and kingdoms, are continued and kept up; and this he was resolved to do, though they were his people:

since they return not from their ways; their evil ways, which they had gone into, forsaking the ways of God, and his worship: or,

yet they return not from their ways (d); though fanned with the fan of affliction, bereaved of their children, and threatened with destruction: it expresses their obstinate continuance in their evil ways, and the reason of God's dealing with them as above.

(d) "et tamen a viis suis non sunt reversi", V. L. Diodatus, Genevenses.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will fan them ... - Or, “I have winnowed them with a winnowing shovel.” The “gates of the land” mean the places by which men enter or leave it. As God winnows them they are driven out of the land through all its outlets in every direction.

I will bereave - Rather, “I have bereaved, I have destroyed my people.” Omit “of children.”

Since they return not ... - Rather, “from their ways they have not returned.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Will, or "have scattered" the ten tribes, and many of Juda, before the last siege. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; not a purging fan by affliction, to separate their chaff and dross from them, but a scattering fan. Some translate it into the gates of the earth; so it is the same that God had before said, that he would remove them into all nations (gates being put for cities): but it is more probable that this is added in pursuit of the metaphor of fanning, men usually choosing barn-doors to fan at, that they may have the advantage of the wind.

I will bereave them of children; of children is not in the Hebrew, and is needlessly supplied; it may as well be, of any or all their comforts or good things.

I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways; their privilege claimed of being my people shall not protect them, so long as they go on in their lewd and sinful courses.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Will fan, etc. — The verb is a preterite used prophetically.

Gates of the land — Frequently used in the sense of cities, but here in the more ordinary sense of places of ingress and egress. The sense of the verse is: With my winnowing shovel I will drive the people out of the land.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The gates of the land. The phrase might mean either the cities in general (comp. Mic_5:5 Isa_3:26) or the fortresses commanding the entrance into the land. (comp. Nah_3:13) The context decides in favor of the latter view. Ewald"s explanation, "borders of the earth" (i.e. the most distant countries), seems less natural. I will bereave them, etc. The proper object of the verb is my people (personified as a mother). The population are to fall in war. (comp. the same figure in Eze_5:17) The tense is the perfect of prophetic certitude; literally, I have bereaved, etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A fan - Not a purging fan by affliction, to separate their chaff and dross from them, but a scattering fan. In the gates - This is added in pursuit of the metaphor of fanning, men usually chusing barn-doors to fan at, that they may have the advantage of the wind.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

with a sieve A sieve called (van in French), like one who winnows barley, so that they should not all be exiled to one place.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.