. xxxiv. 17.

Ver. 9. "_For behold I command and shake the house of Israel among all
the nations, as one shaketh in a sieve, and not shall anything firm
fall to the ground._"

The figure in this verse is, upon the whole, plain; but some of the
particulars require to be explained, and to be more accurately
determined. The signification "sieve," commonly assigned to [Hebrew:
kbrh], must be conceded to it. We must, however, here understand it of
such a sieve as serves similar purposes as a winnowing shovel, in which
the corn is violently shaken, and thus purified; and not of a sieve in
which, by mere sifting, the corn is freed from the dust which has
remained after the first [Pg 388] and proper cleansing. The latter is
assumed by _Paulsen_ (_vom Ackerbau der Morgenlaender_, S. 144), and,
along with him, by the greater number of interpreters. Such a sieve--a
kind of fan--is mentioned in Is. xxx. 24, in addition to the winnowing
shovel. It occurs likewise in Luke xxii. 31, where [Greek: suniazein]
is _vanno agitare_. The LXX. also have here adopted the explanation,
not of an ordinary sieve, but of an instrument which serves the same
purposes as the winnowing shovel: [Greek: dioti idou ego entellomai kai
likmio (A. likmeso) en pasi tois ethnesi ton oikon tou Israel, hon
tropon likmatai en to likmo.] _Hesych._ [Greek: likmo, ptuo]. To this
we are likewise led by the verb [Hebrew: hnievti], which is indicative
of a violent procedure, and by the occurrence of the same figure in so
many passages of Scripture; compare, _e.g._, Jer. li. 2; "I will send
against Babylon fanners that shall fan her, and shall empty her land;"
Jer. xv. 7, and Matt. iii. 12; while the use of the ordinary sieve for
such a purpose is never mentioned, nor is it ever employed for a
figure.--[Hebrew: bkl-hgviM] is not to be translated, "_by_ all
nations," but, as the corresponding [Hebrew: bkbrh] shows, "in," or
"among all nations." The many people are the spiritual sieve,--the
means of purging. The Lord, whose instruments they are, employs them
for the destruction of the ungodly. They are taken away by His secret
judgments, for the execution of which He employs the heathen; compare
ver. 10. Even the godly are violently shaken; but the hand of the Lord
secretly upholds them that they may not sink, but that the temptation
may serve for their spiritual growth; compare Luke xxii. 31, 32, where
the Lord distinctly alludes to the passage under consideration. The