the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 34:25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the w…
Isaiah 35:9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
Psalms 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Hosea 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of…
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall n…
2 Kings 19:21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 5:17–end
Eliphaz, in this concluding paragraph of his discourse, gives Job (what he himself knew not how to take) a comfortable prospect of the issue of his afflictions, if he did but recover his temper and accommodate himself to them. Observe,
I. The seasonable word of caution and exhortation that he gives him (Job 5:17): "Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Call it a chastening, which comes from the father's love and is designed for the child's good. Call it the chastening of the Almighty, with whom it is madness to contend, to whom it is wisdom and duty to submit, and who will be a God all-sufficient (for so the word signifies) to all those that trust in him. Do not despise it;" it is…
famine thou shalt laugh--Not, in spite of destruction and famine, which is true (Hab 3:17-18), though not the truth meant by Eliphaz, but because those calamities shall not come upon thee. A different Hebrew word from that in Job 5:20; there, famine in general; here, the languid state of those wanting proper nutriment [BARNES].
John Gill on Job 5:22
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh,.... Not deride and despise them, and make a jest of them; for good men have a reverence and awe of the righteous judgments of God upon them, when they are in the world, Psalm 119:120; but the sense is, that such shall reckon themselves safe and secure amidst such calamities, provision being made for their protection and sustenance; and be cheerful and comfortable, putting their trust and confidence in the Lord, as Habakkuk was, in a time of great distress, when all the necessaries of life were cut off from the stall, the herds, the flocks, and the fields; Habakkuk 3:17; just as a man that is in a good harbour, or has a good house over his head, lau…
22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh,
And from the beasts of the earth thou hast nothing to fear.
23 For thou art in league with the stones of the field,
And the beasts of the field are at peace with thee.
24 And thou knowest that peace is thy pavilion;
And thou searchest thy household, and findest nothing wanting.
25 Thou knowest also that thy seed shall be numerous,
And thy offspring as the herb of the ground.
26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a ripe age,
As shocks of corn are brought in in their season.
27 Lo! this we have searched out, so it is:
Hear it, and give thou heed to it.
The verb שׂחק is construed (Job 5:22) with ל of that which is despised, as Job 39:7, Job 39:18; Job…
The Church Fathers
"Thou shalt laugh at the unjust and the wicked; As it is said that wisdom will laugh at the loss of the wicked (2). "You will no longer have to fear the" cruel beasts, "that is to say, you will not fear the Jews any more, for the Gentiles will be docile to your voice. This must be understood as our Lord Jesus Christ. Eliphaz is mistaken here in attributing to Job what is revealed to him; everything must apply to the Savior.
In destruction and famine thou shalt laugh. Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beast of the earth. For the lost shall then suffer 'destruction and famine,' when, being condemned in the last Judgment, they are parted asunder from the sight of 'the Bread' eternal. For it is written, Let the wicked be taken away, that he see not the glory of God. And the Lord declares by His own lips, I am the living Bread, Which came down from heaven. Thus at one and the same time both 'destruction and famine' combine to torture those, who not only feel torments without, but farther suffer death within by the plague of starvation. Hell 'destroys,' in that it burns, famine kills, in that the Redeemer hides His face from them. For well and justly they have their recompense both within and without, in that the wretched people both by thought and by deed did commit offence. Whence it is well said by the Psalmist, Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger: the Lord shall confound them in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. For that, which is 'devoured' by fire, is kindled from the outside. But an oven is set on fire within. And so in the time of God's anger all the unrighteous are both 'made as a fiery oven,' and also 'devoured by the fire,' in that at the appearing of the Judge, when all the multitude of them is banished from the sight of Him, both within the conscience is set on fire from the misery of want, and without hell torments the flesh. 'The scourge of the tongue' too may be understood to mean the sentence of the final doom, whereby the Just Judge saith to the lost, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. The righteous man then is 'hidden from the scourge of the tongue,' and from the coming woe, because in that exceeding strictness of doom, he is then comforted with the mild voice of the Judge, when it is said, For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Before which it is premised; Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Therefore 'in destruction and famine' the righteous man 'shall laugh;' for, when the final vengeance smites all the wicked, he himself joys in the…
Dictionary and topics
Happiness · OF THE RIGHTEOUS — OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
six disasters . . . even in the seventh: This wisdom formula reflects a sense of completeness (cp. Prov 30:15-31). • This list reflects Mosaic covenant blessings and curses (Lev 26; Deut 28). Eliphaz thought that people in right relationship with God would be free from famine (Job 5:20, 22; see Lev 26:4-5, 10; Deut 28:4-6, 8, 11-12), war (i.e., death, Job 5:20) and the destruction it causes (5:21, 22; see Lev 26:6-8; Deut 28:7, 48), and slander. They will even be at peace with wild animals (Job 5:23; see Lev 26:6) and the stones of the field. This peace might indicate fertile rather than stony fields (2 Kgs 3:19, 25; Matt 13:5), or it might symbolize wider harmony with the natural world (see…
from the scourging tongue of the Adversary you shall be hidden. These are the seven troubles: 1 famine, 2) the sword, 3) the tongue, 4) plunder etc., and 5) the beasts of the land, which are brigands.
