A common misinterpretation of this verse treats it as a literal proverb about human behavior in harvesting or theft, suggesting that moderation is natural and thus applicable to everyday ethics or economics, ignoring its prophetic context as part of an oracle of doom against Edom; others might spiritualize it to imply God always leaves something for repentance, contradicting the passage's point of exhaustive destruction, or apply it anachronistically to modern nations without recognizing its specific historical judgment on Edom's unrepentant sin.
Jeremiah 49:9
King James Version (1769)
9 If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
In Jeremiah 49:9, God uses a rhetorical comparison to underscore the totality of His judgment on Edom: even grape harvesters leave gleanings for the poor, and thieves at night take only what they need, but the divine invaders will leave nothing behind, emphasizing that God's retribution against Edom for its pride and hostility toward Israel will be complete and unrelenting, stripping the nation bare without mercy or remnant.