So he saves ¹  from the sword that comes from their mouth, ²  even ³  the poor from the hand of the powerful.

biblegateway Job 5:15

"But He saves from the sword of their mouth, And the poor from the hand of the mighty.

He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.

"But he saves other people from their slander and the needy from the power of the mighty.

biblegateway Job 5:15

He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.

But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty.

bibleoremus Job 5:15

But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the hand of the mighty.

he saves the destitute from their greed, and the needy from the clutches of the strong.

biblegateway Job 5:15

But He saves the needy from the sword, From the mouth of the mighty, And from their hand.

But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

biblegateway Job 5:15

So he saves ¹  from the sword that comes from their mouth, ²  even ³  the poor from the hand of the powerful.

¹ tn The verb, the Hiphil preterite of יָשַׁע (yasha’, “and he saves”) indicates that by frustrating the plans of the wicked God saves the poor. So the vav (ו) consecutive shows the result in the sequence of the verses.

² tn The juxtaposition of “from the sword from their mouth” poses translation difficulties. Some mss do not have the preposition on “their mouth,” but render the expression as a construct: “from the sword of their mouth.” This would mean their tongue, and by metonymy, what they say. The expression “from their mouth” corresponds well with “from the hand” in the next colon. And as E. Dhorme (Job, 67) notes, what is missing is a parallel in the first part with “the poor” in the second. So he follows Cappel in repointing “from the sword” as a Hophal participle, מֹחֳרָב (mokhorav), meaning “the ruined.” If a change is required, this has the benefit of only changing the pointing. The difficulty with this is that the word “desolate, ruined” is not used for people, but only to cities, lands, or mountains. The sense of the verse can be supported from the present pointing: “from the sword [which comes] from their mouth”; the second phrase could also be in apposition, meaning, “from the sword, i.e., from their mouth.”

³ tn If the word “poor” is to do double duty, i.e., serving as the object of the verb “saves” in the first colon as well as the second, then the conjunction should be explanatory.