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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 5:6 - 5:6
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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 יוּלָּד as part., and refers to Geiger's Lehrb. zur Sprache der Mischna, S. 41f., according to which מְקֻטָּל signifies killed, and קֻטָּל (= Rabb. מִתְקַטֵּל) 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 יֹולֵד: 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 אֱוִיל, 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 רֶשֶׁף signifies also a flame or blaze (Son 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 וּבְנֵי, 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. דָּרַשׁ with אֶל is constr. praegnans, like Deu 12:5, sedulo adire. דִּבְרָה is not speech, like אִמְרָה but cause, causa, in a judicial sense. אֵל is God as the Mighty One; אֱלֹהִים is God in the totality of His variously manifested nature. The fecundity of the earth by rain, and of the fields (חוּצֹות = 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). לָשׂוּם is here only as a variation for הַשָּׂם, 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. שָׂגַב 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.