Remnant

Leftovers or remainders, whether of daily food ( Ruth 2:14 Ruth 2:18 ), food at the Passover ( Leviticus 7:16 Leviticus 7:18 ), anointing oil ( Le 14:17 ), or even and especially people who survive a major disaster. A remnant of people is what is left of a community following a catastrophe (e.g., Noah's family after the flood, Gen 6:5-8:22 ; Lot's family after the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen. 19 those who remained in the land after the deportations of 597 b.c., Ezra 9:8 ; Jer 24:8 ; 52:15 ; those left behind under Gedaliah, Jeremiah 40:6 Jeremiah 40:11 Jeremiah 40:15 ; or the Jews who came out of exile Ezra 9:8 Ezra 9:13 ; Zechariah 8:6 Zechariah 8:11-12 ). Terms for remnant in the Old Testament derive from six roots and occur some 540 times (forms of Heb. sr, ytr, plt, srd; Gk., leimma, hypoleimma, loipos, kataloipos). Remnant, frequently in the sense of residue or refugee, takes on theological hues when it becomes the object of God's address and/or action.

Sociologically the remnant could be described variously as refugees, a community subgroup, or a sect. Canonically one may find language of remnant in the Pentateuch, in historical books (e.g., of groups subjugated or not yet subjugated), in the prophets, and in the New Testament. Historically, an illustration of remnant are the seven thousand in Israel who in times of apostasy of the Ahab/Jezebel era had not defected from the Lord ( 1 Kings 19:9-18 ). Theologically, remnant language clusters in several Old Testament books, the authors of which lived at some hinge point in history: Isaiah ( 37:31-32 ) and Micah ( 4:7 ; 7:18 ) near the time of Israel's collapse; Jeremiah ( 11:23 ; 50:20 ) and Zephaniah ( 2:7-9 ) near the time of Judah's fall; and Paul near the time of the emergence of the church ( Rom 11:5 ). Remnant language is associated with both judgment and salvation.

Remnant and the Oracle of Judgment. The language of remnant in announcements of judgment was used to emphasize the totality of the judgmentwhether of non-Israelites or Israelitesso that no trace, no remnant would in the end remain. Obadiah, whose book targets Edom, asserts, "There will be no survivors from the house of Esau" (v. 18). Damascus will become a ruinous heap, and the remnant of Syria will cease ( Isa 17:3 ). Most conclusive is the statement against Babylon, which combines the ideas of reputation (name) and remnant, perhaps as an idiom for total destruction: "I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors (sa'ar)" ( Isa 14:22 ; cf. 2 Sam 14:7 ). For Israel especially language of remnant was also invoked to disabuse any who might consider themselves exceptions to the predicted casualties. Should there be temporary survivors of a catastrophe, such as Nebuchadnezzar's siege, they would ultimately not be spared ( Jer 21:7 ). Such news of total destruction was evidence of God's determination to proceed in judgment, but the news was intended to persuade vacillating persons to spare their lives by defecting to the Babylonians ( Jer 21:8-9 ).

The name Shear-Jashub ("a remnant will return, " Isa 7:3 ), often thought to be seminal to the prophets' thought on remnant, is, even in context, ambiguous in meaning. Did the expression portend misfortune, or did it convey that all was not lost? The expression, "a remnant will return, " when applied later to Israel, became, even if marginally, a message of hope ( Isa 10:20-23 ; 37:31-32 ; = 2 Kings 19:30-31 ).