Job 5:1-7

3. The fate of the wicked (the foolish) is certain destruction. (Job 5:1-7)

TEXT 5:1-7

5 Call now; is there any that will answer thee?
And to which of the holy ones wilt thou torn?

2 For vexation killeth the foolish man,

And jealousy slayeth the silly one.

3 I have seen the foolish taking root:

But suddenly I cursed his habitation.

4 His children are far from safety,

And they are crushed in the gate,
Neither is there any to deliver them:

5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,

And taketh it even out of the thorns;

And the snare gapeth for their substance.

6 For affliction cometh not forth from the dust,

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

7 But man is born unto trouble,

As the sparks fly upward.

COMMENT 5:1-7

Job 5:1-2None of the holy ones (qedosim) can save man (Hosea 11:12; Daniel 4:10; Daniel 4:14; Zechariah 14:5; Psalms 89:7). Eliphaz warns Job against any form of lament. A sinner who refuses to repent cannot be forgiven, thus healed. This verse may be an apologetic against the Mesapotamian idea of a finite but personal god whom a man could rely on to make intercession to the greater gods (Job 9:33; Job 16:19; Job 16:21; Job 33:23-24). Perhaps Job 5:2 is a proverbial saying (Proverbs 14:30) which suggests that one should not get excited about that over which he has no control. Only the fool will die of indignation (A. V., jealousy).

Job 5:3-5On center stage Eliphaz says that he himself has seen the fool take root. The unrighteous often strike deep into the earth their strange roots. Prosperity is thus effectively presented by an analogy with a vigorously growing tree. The effect of this experience of Eliphaz was that he immediately cursed (same verb as Job 3:8) the dwelling of the prosperous fool. In so doing, Eliphaz was merely expressing the prejudices of his cultural ethics. When misfortune visits the head of the family, the entire family suffers. They cannot receive justice at the city gate, which was the administrative center where justice was dispersed and other legal issues were considered (Genesis 23:10; Deuteronomy 21:19-21; Ruth 4:1-11; Amos 5:15). A helpless unfortunate person was not likely to receive much consideration in the gate (Job 31:21). The two lines in Job 5:5 are grammatically impossible,[70] as they stand in the text, but their general sense is clear. Unfortunates, perhaps Bedouins, who function at the edge of cities and lands and seize what they can, are represented in the imagery.

[70] See Dhorme, Job, pp. 59-60; and Rowley, Job, p. 58.

Job 5:6This verse refers to Job 4:8. Eliphaz commits a logical fallacy by asserting that because a fool meets disaster, all who meet disaster must be fools. He declares that Job is responsible for all of his misery. Sympathy will not be a major preoccupation of anyone who believes that prosperity is proof of God's blessings.

Job 5:7A contradiction appears once more in Eliphaz's speech. If trouble comes naturally and inevitably to man, then this claim is in conflict with Job 5:6, which says just the opposite. Perhaps Dahood correctly renders the textit is man who engenders mischief itself.[71] The phrase as the sparks fly upward has generated endless and fruitless discussion. Perhaps the phrasebene resepmight refer to the Resheph the Phoenician god of the lightning,[72] which would be possible if the book is from the patriarchal period. The R. S. V. translation is superior to that of the A. V. As surely as sparks fly upward, man falls into sin, and he is responsible for his own decisions.

[71] M. Dahood, Biblica, XLVI, 1965, p. 318.

[72] A. Caquot, Semitica, VI, 1956, pp. 53ff.