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Selected Verse: Job 5:6 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Job 5:6 |
King James |
Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Although--rather, "for truly" [UMBREIT].
affliction cometh not forth of the dust--like a weed, of its own accord. Eliphaz hints that the cause of it lay with Job himself. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust - Margin, "or iniquity." The marginal reading here has been inserted from the different meanings attached to the Hebrew word. That word (און 'âven) properly means nothingness, or vanity; then nothingness as to worth, unworthiness, wickedness, iniquity; and then the consequences of iniquity - adversity, calamity, affliction; Psa 55:4; Pro 22:8; Psa 90:10; Job 15:35. The Septuagint renders it κόπος kopos, "labor," or "trouble." The Vulgate, Nihil in terra, sine causa - "there is nothing on the earth without a cause." The general sense is plain. It is, that afflictions are not to be ascribed to chance, or that they are not without intelligent design. They do not come up like thistles, brambles, and thorns, from the unconscious earth. They have a cause. They are under the direction of God. The object of Eliphaz in the statement is, to show to Job that it was improper to complain, and that he should commit his cause to a God of infinite power and wisdom; Job 5:8 ff. Afflictions, Eliphaz says, could not be avoided. Man was born unto them. He ought to expect them, and when they come, they should be submitted to as ordered by an intelligent, wise, and good Being. This is one true ground of consolation in afflictions. They do not come from the unconscious earth: they do not spring up of themselves. Though it is true that man is born to them, and must expect them, yet it is also true that they are ordered in infinite wisdom, and that they always have a design.
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground - The Septuagint renders this, "Nor will affliction spring up from the mountains." |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
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,
(Note: 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. Bttch. would read יולד: man is the parent of misery, though he may rise high in anger.)
so that his wisdom consequently consists in accommodating himself to his lot: if he does not do that, he is an אויל, and thereby perishes. Misfortune does not grow out of the ground like weeds; it is rather established in the divine order of the world, as it is established in the order of nature that sparks of fire should ascend. The old critics understood by רשׁף בני birds of prey, as being swift as lightning (with which the appellation of beasts of prey may be compared, Job 28:8; Job 41:26); but רשׁף signifies also a flame or blaze (Sol 8:6). Children of the flame is an appropriate name for sparks, and flying upwards is naturally peculiar to sparks as to birds of prey; wherefore among modern expositors, Hirz., Ew., Hahn, von Gerl., Ebr., rightly decide in favour of sparks. Schlottmann understands "angels" by children of flame; but the wings, which are given to angels in Scripture, are only a symbol of their freedom of motion. This remarkable interpretation is altogether opposed to the sententious character of Job 5:7, which symbolizes a moral truth by an ordinary thing. The waw in וּבני, which we have translated "as," is the so-called waw adaequationis proper to the Proverbs, and also to emblems, e.g., Pro 25:25.
Eliphaz now says what he would do in Job's place. Ew. and Ebr. translate incorrectly, or at least unnecessarily: Nevertheless I will. We translate, according to Ges. 127, 5: Nevertheless I would; and indeed with an emphatic I: Nevertheless I for my part. דּרשׁ with אל is constr. praegnans, like Deu 12:5, sedulo adire. דּברה is not speech, like אמרה but cause, causa, in a judicial sense. אל is God as the Mighty One; אלהים is God in the totality of His variously manifested nature. The fecundity of the earth by rain, and of the fields (חוּצות = rura) by water-springs (cf. Psa 104:10), as the works of God, are intentionally made prominent. He who makes the barren places fruitful, can also change suffering into joy. To His power in nature corresponds His power among men (Job 5:11). לשׂוּם is here only as a variation for השּׂם, as Heiligst. rightly observes: it is equivalent to collacaturus, or qui in eo est ut collocet, according to the mode of expression discussed in Ges. 132, rem. 1, and more fully on Hab 1:17. The construction of Hab 1:11 is still bolder. שׂגב signifies to be high and steep, inaccessible. It is here construed with the acc. of motion: those who go in dirty, black clothes because they mourn, shall be high in prosperity, i.e., come to stand on an unapproachable height of prosperity. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| The dust - It springs not up by merely natural causes, as herbs grow out of the earth: but from God. Eliphaz here begins to change his voice, as if he would atone for the hard words he had spoken. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Affliction cometh not forth of the dust - If there were not an adequate cause, thou couldst not be so grievously afflicted.
Spring out of the ground - It is not from mere natural causes that affliction and trouble come; God's justice inflicts them upon offending man. |
8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
4 My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
25 As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
8 The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.