fence does not hold them back. צנּים, as Pro 22:5 : the double praepos. אל־מן is also found elsewhere, but with another meaning. עמּים has only the appearance of being plur.: it is sing. after the form צדּיק, from the verb צמם, nectere, and signifies, Job 18:9, a snare; here, however, not judicii laqueus (Böttch.), but what, besides the form, comes still nearer - the snaremaker, intriguer. The Targ. translates לסטיסין, i.e., λησταί. Most modern critics (Rosenm. to Ebr.) translate: the thirsty (needy), as do all the old translations, except the Targ.; this, however, is not possible without changing the form. The meaning is, that intriguing persons catch up (שׁאף, as Amo 2:7) their wealth.
Eliphaz now tells why it thus befell this fool in his own person and his children.
Verses 6-11
Job 5:6-11 6 For evil cometh not forth from the dust,
And sorrow sprouteth not from the earth; 7 For man is born to sorrow,
As the sparks fly upward. 8 On the contrary, I would earnestly approach unto God,
And commit my cause to the Godhead; 9 To Him who doeth great things and unsearchable;
Marvellous things till there is no number: 10 Who giveth rain over the earth,
And causeth water to flow over the fields: 11 To set the low in high places;
And those that mourn are exalted to prosperity.
As the oracle above, so Eliphaz says here, that a sorrowful life is allotted to man,[1] so that his wisdom consequently consists
- ↑ Fries explains יוּלּד as part., and refers to Geiger's Lehrb. zur Sprache der Mischna, S. 41f., according to which מקטּל signifies killed, and קטּל (= Rabb. מתקטּל) being killed (which, however, rests purely on imagination): not the matter from which mankind originates brings evil with it, but it is man who inclines towards the evil. Böttch. would read יולד: man is the parent of misery, though he may rise high in anger.
