Job 5:6

"whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance."

Key Reflection

In Job 5:6, the image depicts a harsh reality faced by ancient farmers and their communities. Hungry people would invade fields after harvest to gather whatever food they could, even from among thorns and weeds, illustrating the desperate measures taken during times of famine. The "snare" refers to an actual trap or pit set by bandits, which metaphorically represents unexpected and dangerous threats to one's livelihood, underscoring the precariousness of agricultural life in ancient Israel.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

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;Psalms 55:4;Proverbs 22:8;Psalms 90:10;Job 15:35. The Septuagint renders itκόποςkopos, “labor,” or “trouble.” The Vulgate, Nihil in terra, sine causa - “there is nothing on the earth without a cause.” The general sense is plain.

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