4. This offense (? çaráṇi) of ours mayest thou, O Agni, bear with (mṛṣ), what distant road we have gone. Successful (çuná) for us be bargain and sale; let return-dealing make me fruitful; do ye two enjoy this oblation in concord; successful for us be our going about and rising.
The first two pādas are wanting in the Pāipp. version of the hymn (though they occur, in another connection, in Ppp. i.), and they are plainly an intrusion here, due to the mention of distant travel in b; they form the first half of RV. i. 31. 16 (but RV. reads for b imám ádhvānaṁ yám ágāma dūrā́t; LÇS., in its repetition of the RV. verse at iii. 2. 7, agrees with AV. in preferring dūram). The insertion dislocates the comm's division of the hymn; he reckons only the first 4 pādas as vs. 4, then the last two with the first two of our 5 as vs. 5, and the latter half of our 5 with the former half of our 6 as vs. 6, making a vs. 7 of only the two concluding pādas of our 6, and numbering the two remaining verses as 8 and 9. Some of our mss. (P.M.W.E.I.) divide and number in the same way to the middle of our vs. 6, then making vs. 7 consist of 6 pādas and end where our vs. 7 ends. Ppp. has for its verse a different version of our c-f: paṇo for çunam at the beginning (with ‘stu after no), godhani naṣ for phalinam mā, and, for our e, saṁrarāṇā havir idaṁ juṣantām. The Anukr. seems to scan the verse as 11 + 9: 12 + 11: 11 + 12 = 66, though c and f are properly to be made regularly triṣṭubh by elision to ‘stu. The comm. renders çaráṇi in a by "injury" (hiṅsā), and explains it as either that arising (to Agni) from the intermission of sacred rites in consequence of the householder's absence from home, or else that to the absentee from his long journey as expressed in b—mīmṛṣas being in the first case = kṣamasva, and in the second = marṣaya or titikṣaya 'cause us to endure': perhaps the second is, after all, the better. ⌊For d, rather, 'may barter make me abounding in fruit,' i.e. 'may barter bring me its reward.'⌋
5. With what riches I practise (car) bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—let that become more for me, not less; O Agni, put down (ni-sidh) with the oblation the gain-slaying gods.
Or, possibly, 'the gods of the gain-slayer' (sātaghnás as gen. sing.; the comm. takes it as accus. pl., and Zimmer and Ludwig so translate). The omission of devā́n would rectify the meter and better the sense, and Weber and Grill ⌊and Hillebrandt⌋ leave it out. The Anukr. gives a mechanically correct definition of the verse as it stands.
6. With what riches I practise bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—therein let Indra assign me pleasure (? rúci), let Prajāpati, Savitar, Soma, Agni.
Ppp. has a better version of a: yat paṇena pratipaṇaṁ carāmi; and it arranges c differently: indro me tasmin ṛcam ā; and reads bṛhaspatis for prajāp- in d. HGS. (i. 15. 1) has a kindred verse, with second pāda nearly identical with ours, and rucam in c. ⌊See also MP. ii. 22. 4.⌋ Rúci, lit. 'brightness,' is variously understood by the translators: Zimmer, "attractive power"; Ludwig, "pleasure"; Weber, "understanding"; Grill, "consideration"; the comm. explains it by sarvajanaprītiṁ dhanapradānenā ”dānecchām. ⌊Ppp. seems to omit dhanena in b.⌋
