Job 22:5-11 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 5 Is not thy wickedness great? - Thy sins are not only many, but they are great; and of thy continuance in them there is no end, אין קץ ein kets.

‏ Job 22:5-11

Verse 5

Is not thy wickedness great? - Thy sins are not only many, but they are great; and of thy continuance in them there is no end, אין קץ ein kets. Verse 6

Thou hast taken a pledge - Thou hast been vexatious in all thy doings, and hast exacted where nothing was due, so that through thee the poor have been unable to procure their necessary clothing. Verse 7

Thou hast not given water - It was esteemed a great virtue in the East to furnish thirsty travelers with water; especially in the deserts, where scarcely a stream was to be found, and where wells were very rare. Some of the Indian devotees are accustomed to stand with a girbah or skin full of water, on the public roads, to give drink to weary travelers who are parched with thirst. Verse 8

But as for the mighty man, he had the earth - איש זרוע ish zeroa, the man of arm. Finger, hand, and arm, are all emblems of strength and power. The man of arm is not only the strong man, but the man of power and influence, the man of rapine and plunder.

The honorable man - Literally, the man whose face is accepted, the respectable man, the man of wealth. Thou wert an enemy to the poor and needy, but thou didst favor and flatter the rich and great. Verse 9

The arms of the fatherless - Whatever strength or power or property they had, of that thou hast deprived them. Thou hast been hard-hearted and cruel, and hast enriched thyself with the spoils of the poor and the defenceless. Verse 10

Therefore snares - As thou hast dealt with others, so has God, in his retributive providence, dealt with thee. As thou hast spoiled, so art thou spoiled. Thou art taken in a net from which thou canst not escape. There is an allusion here to the hunting of the elephant: he is driven into an inclosure in the woods, passing from strait to strait, till brought into a narrow point, from which he cannot escape; and then his consternation is great, and his roaring terrible. God hath hunted thee down, as men hunt down those wild and dangerous beasts. See on Job 18:21 (note). Verse 11

Or darkness, that thou canst not see - The sense of this passage, in the connection that the particle or gives it with the preceding verse, is not easy to be ascertained. To me it seems very probable that a letter has been lost from the first word; and that או o which we translate Or, was originally אור or Light. The copy used by the Septuagint had certainly this reading; and therefore they translate the verse thus: Το φως σοι εις σκοτος απεβη; Thy Light is changed into darkness; that is, Thy prosperity is turned into adversity.

Houbigant corrects the text thus: instead of או חשך לא תראה o chosech lo tireh, or darkness thou canst not see, he reads חשך לא אור תראה chosech lo or tireh, darkness, not light, shalt thou behold; that is, Thou shalt dwell in thick darkness. Mr. Good translates: "Or darkness which thou canst not penetrate, and a flood of waters shall cover thee." Thou shalt either be enveloped in deep darkness, or overwhelmed with a flood.

The versions all translate differently; and neither they nor the MSS. give any light, except what is afforded by the Septuagint. Coverdale is singular: Shuldest thou then send darcknesse? Shulde not the water floude runne over the? Perhaps the meaning is: "Thou art so encompassed with darkness, that thou canst not see thy way; and therefore fallest into the snares and traps that are laid for thee."