Job 5:11

11 who sets up the humble on high, that those who mourn may be lifted up with saving health.

Job 5:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 5:11

To set up on high those that be low
Not the low plants, which, through rain, are made to run up on high, though there is a truth in that; but husbandmen and gardeners, and such like persons, in low circumstances, who, by means of showers of rain, which make their gardens, fields, and lands fruitful, are raised to enjoy good estates, and large possessions:

that those which mourn may be exalted to safety;
or "are black" F12, that are clothed in black, as a token of mourning; or whose faces are black with famine, see ( Lamentations 4:8 ) ( 5:10 ) ; or are in very distressed circumstances, and black through poverty, as the Targum, and mourn over and grieve at their sad and deplorable case; those, through rain and fruitful seasons, are brought out of such an uncomfortable situation, and put into a better condition of life, where they are as in a fortress, out of the reach of such sad calamities: some connect the words with the following, that in order to do this, to raise up the humble and exalt mourners, "he disappoints the devices of the crafty", &c. ( Job 5:12 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F12 (Myrdq) "denigrati", Montanus, Bolducius; "atrati", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis; "pullati", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Beza; "sordidati", Schultens.

Job 5:11 In-Context

9 who does great things that no one can understand, and marvels that have no explanation;
10 who gives rain upon the earth and sends waters abroad;
11 who sets up the humble on high, that those who mourn may be lifted up with saving health.
12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13 He takes the wise in their own prudence, and the counsel of his adversaries is turned to folly.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010