2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,
but the hungry no longer lack.
Even 1 the barren woman gives birth to seven, 2
but the one with many children withers away. 3
2:6 The Lord both kills and gives life;
he brings down to the grave 4 and raises up.
2:7 The Lord impoverishes and makes wealthy;
he humbles and he exalts.
2:8 He lifts the weak 5 from the dust;
he raises 6 the poor from the ash heap
to seat them with princes
and to bestow on them an honored position. 7
The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,
and he has placed the world on them.
1 tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.
2 sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.
3 tn Or “languishes.”
4 tn Heb “Sheol”; NAB “the nether world”; CEV “the world of the dead.”
5 tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”
6 tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.
7 tn Heb “a seat of honor.”