For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as [corn] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
Ver. 9. For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel] It is not without God's command and good leave that evil spirits and men can sift the saints, as Satan desired to have done Peter. He desired it, as a challenger desireth one of the other side to combat with; so he begged leave to sift Job, and so he tempted David to number the people, but it was by God's permission. Up therefore and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, Luke 22:31; Luke 22:46, or, that ye may come clear out of it, and more than conquerors, even triumphers. The enemy is stinted; yea, Christ will tread him under your feet shortly, Romans 16:20 .
And I will sift the house of Israel among all nations] The ten tribes among the Assyrians (who were emperors of the whole East), and whither since are they scattered, whether into China, Tartary, West Indies, or other countries, is not known. The whole twelve tribes (those also that once "instantly served God day and night," Act 26:7), are now woefully dejected and dissipated; being cast out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations, and generally slighted and hated. The Romans permitted other nations to call themselves Romans after they had conquered them; but so they would not suffer the Jews upon any terms to do; lest there should be some blot stick to the glory of the Romans by that odious and sordid people. The Pope useth them as spunges, the Turk as slaves.
Like as corn is sifted in a sieve] Or, by a fan, to the same sense as that, Zechariah 13:9, for as here a sieve, so there fire serveth to denote affliction with the use of it; sc. to purge God's people, specially of those two troublesome choke weeds, high-mindedness and earthly mindedness: cribratione Dei non perditur sed purgatur frumentum, saith Zanchy, God's good grain is not lost, but made clean by the sifting they suffer.
Yet shall not the least grain (Heb. stone) fall upon the earth] As the chaff and dust shall; for "what is the chaff to the wheat?" saith the Lord, Jeremiah 23:28. Improbi nobiscum esse possunt in horreo, sed non in area The wicked are able to be with us in the storehouse but not on the theshingfloor. (Augustine). Christ hath his fan in his hand, and will surely discriminate, Matthew 3:12; he will take out the precious from the vile, he will drive the chaff one way and the wheat another; and take care that not the least grain of weighty wheat, that had good tack in it (as a stone hath, though but a little stone), shall be lost. He will turn his hand upon the little ones, and secure them, Zechariah 13:7 .