suppose that יקוט, succiditur, first gave rise to the figure which follows: as easily as a spider's web is cut through, without offering any resistance, by the lightest touch, or a breath of wind, so that on which he depends and trusts is cut asunder. The name for spider's web, עכּבישׁ בּית,[1] leads to the description of the prosperity of the ungodly by בּית (Job 8:15): His house, the spider's house, is not firm to him. Another figure follows: the wicked in his prosperity is like a climbing plant, which grows luxuriantly for a time, but suddenly perishes.
Verses 16-19
Job 8:16-19 16 He dwells with sap in the sunshine,
And his branch spreads itself over his garden. 17 His roots intertwine over heaps of stone,
He looks upon a house of stones. 18 If He casts him away from his place,
It shall deny him: I have not seen thee. 19 Behold, thus endeth his blissful course,
And others spring forth from the dust.
The subject throughout is not the creeping-plant directly, but the ungodly, who is likened to it. Accordingly the expression
- ↑ The spider is called עכבישׁ, for ענכבישׁ, Arabic ‛ancabuth, for which they say ‛accabuth in Saida, on ancient Phoenician ground, as atta (thou) for anta (communicated by Wetzstein).
