1 Samuel 2:7-8

2:7 The Lord impoverishes and makes wealthy;

he humbles and he exalts.

2:8 He lifts the weak ¹  from the dust;

he raises ²  the poor from the ash heap

to seat them with princes

and to bestow on them an honored position. ³ 

The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,

and he has placed the world on them.

Ayub 4:7

4:7 Call to mind now: ⁴ 

Who, ⁵  being innocent, ever perished? ⁶ 

And where were upright people ⁷  ever destroyed? ⁸ 

Mazmur 75:8

75:8 For the Lord holds in his hand a cup full

of foaming wine mixed with spices, ⁹ 

and pours it out. ¹⁰ 

Surely all the wicked of the earth

will slurp it up and drink it to its very last drop.” ¹¹ 

[2:8]  ¹ tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”

[2:8]  ² tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.

[2:8]  ³ tn Heb “a seat of honor.”

[4:7]  ⁴ sn Eliphaz will put his thesis forward first negatively and then positively (vv. 8ff). He will argue that the suffering of the righteous is disciplinary and not for their destruction. He next will argue that it is the wicked who deserve judgment.

[4:7]  ⁵ tn The use of the independent personal pronoun is emphatic, almost as an enclitic to emphasize interrogatives: “who indeed….” (GKC 442 §136.c).

[4:7]  ⁶ tn The perfect verb in this line has the nuance of the past tense to express the unique past – the uniqueness of the action is expressed with “ever” (“who has ever perished”).

[4:7]  ⁷ tn The adjective is used here substantivally. Without the article the word stresses the meaning of “uprightness.” Job will use “innocent” and “upright” together in 17:8.

[4:7]  ⁸ tn The Niphal means “to be hidden” (see the Piel in 6:10; 15:18; and 27:11); the connotation here is “destroyed” or “annihilated.”

[75:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “for a cup [is] in the hand of the Lord, and wine foams, it is full of a spiced drink.” The noun מֶסֶךְ (mesekh) refers to a “mixture” of wine and spices.

[75:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he pours out from this.”

[75:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “surely its dregs they slurp up and drink, all the wicked of the earth.”

[75:8]  sn The psalmist pictures God as forcing the wicked to gulp down an intoxicating drink that will leave them stunned and vulnerable. Divine judgment is also depicted this way in Ps 60:3; Isa 51:17-23; and Hab 2:16.