like a הל verb (Ges. §75, rem. 21). Job 5:19 is formed after the manner of the so-called number-proverbs (Pro 6:16; Pro 30:15, Pro 30:18), as also the roll of the judgment of the nations in Amos 1-2: in six troubles, yea in still more than six. רע is the extremity that is perhaps to be feared. In Job 5:20, the praet. is a kind of prophetic praet. The scourge of the tongue recalls the similar promise, Psa 31:21, where, instead of scourge, it is: the disputes of the tongue. שׁוד, from שׁדד violence, disaster, is allied in sound with שׁוט. Isaiah has this passage of the book of Job in his memory when he writes Job 28:15. The promises of Eliphaz now continue to rise higher, and sound more delightful and more glorious.
Verses 22-27
Job 5:22-27 22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh,
And from the beasts of the earth thou hast nothing to fear. 23 For thou art in league with the stones of the field,
And the beasts of the field are at peace with thee. 24 And thou knowest that peace is thy pavilion;
And thou searchest thy household, and findest nothing wanting. 25 Thou knowest also that thy seed shall be numerous,
And thy offspring as the herb of the ground. 26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a ripe age,
As shocks of corn are brought in in their season. 27 Lo! this we have searched out, so it is:
Hear it, and give thou heed to it.
The verb שׂחק is construed (Job 5:22) with ל of that which is despised, as Job 39:7, Job 39:18; Job 41:21 [Hebr.]. על־תּירא is the form of subjective negation [vid. Ges. §152, 1: Tr.]: only fear thou not = thou hast no occasion. In Job 5:23, בּריתך is the shortest substantive form for לך בּרית. The whole of nature will be at peace with thee: the stones of the field, that they
