CHAPTER 5
1Call now! Will anyone respond to you?
To which of the holy ones* will you turn?
2Surely impatience kills the fool
and indignation slays the simpleton.
3I have seen a fool spreading his roots,a
but I cursed his household suddenly:
4May his children be far from safety;
may they be crushed at the gate* without a rescuer.
5What they have reaped may the hungry eat up,
or God take away by blight,
or the thirsty swallow their substance.
6For not from dust does mischief come,
nor from the soil does trouble sprout.
7Human beings beget mischief
as sparks* fly upward.
8In your place, I would appeal to God,
and to God I would state my plea.
9* He does things great and unsearchable,
things marvelous and innumerable.
10He gives rain upon the earth
and sends water upon the fields;
11b He sets up the lowly on high,
and those who mourn are raised to safety.
12He frustrates the plans of the cunning,
so that their hands achieve no success;
13He catches the wise in their own ruses,c
and the designs of the crafty are routed.
14They meet with darkness in the daytime,
at noonday they grope as though it were night.
15But he saves the poor from the sword of their mouth,*
from the hand of the mighty.
16Thus the needy have hope,
and iniquity closes its mouth.
17Happy the one whom God reproves!
The Almighty’s* discipline do not reject.
18For he wounds, but he binds up;d
he strikes, but his hands give healing.
19Out of six troubles he will deliver you,
and at the seventh* no evil shall touch you.
20In famine he will deliver you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword;
21From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden,
and you shall not fear approaching ruin.
22At ruin and want you shall laugh;
the beasts of the earth, do not fear.
23With the stones of the field shall your covenant be,
and the wild beasts shall be at peace with you.
24And you shall know that your tent is secure;
taking stock of your household, you shall miss nothing.
25You shall know that your descendants are many,
and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
26You shall approach the grave in full vigor,
as a shock of grain comes in at its season.
27See, this we have searched out; so it is!
This we have heard, and you should know.
* [5:1] Holy ones: members of the heavenly court; cf. 1:6 and note. They were viewed as heavenly intercessors.
* [5:4] At the gate: of the city, where justice was administered.
* [5:7] Sparks: in Hebrew, “sons of resheph,” which the ancient versions took as the name of a bird. Resheph was an underworld deity of plague, but the word also means “flames” in Sg 8:6.
* [5:9] Perhaps to be omitted here; it is a duplicate of 9:10.
* [5:15] From the sword of their mouth: the Hebrew is obscure.
* [5:17] Almighty: standard translation of Heb. Shaddai.
* [5:19] Six…the seventh: proverbial expression for any large number; cf. Prv 24:16; Lk 17:4.
b. [5:11] 1 Sm 2:7–8; Ps 113:7; Lk 1:52.
c. [5:13] 1 Cor 3:19.
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