This clause stands connected with the preceding words; “the stumblingblocks” were the idols, and they were to be taken away “along with the wicked,” according to Henderson, and according to the version of Symmachus, συν ἀσεβέσι, though Newcome, with less accuracy, renders the words thus,— And the stumblingblocks of the wicked. The whole verse is poetical in its language; the collective singular, and not the plural, is used; and the first verb, [אםף], in its most common meaning, is very expressive, and denotes the manner of the ruin that awaited the Jews. They were “gathered” and led into captivity. The two verses may be thus literally rendered,— 2. Gatherings I will gather everything From off the face of the land, saith Jehovah; 3. I will gather man and best; I will gather the bird of heaven and the fish of the sea, And the stumblingblocks together with the wicked; And I will cut them off, together with man, From the face of the land, saith Jehovah. —Ed.