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.

1 Samuel 24:14

24:14 Who has the king of Israel come out after? Who is it that you are pursuing? A dead dog? A single flea?

1 Samuel 24:2

24:2 So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ⁴  David and his men in the region of ⁵  the rocks of the mountain goats. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 7:8-9

7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ⁷  crying out to the Lord our ⁸  God so that he may save us ⁹  from the hand of the Philistines!” 7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ¹⁰  and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹¹  himself ¹²  with while he was sitting ¹³  among the ashes. ¹⁴ 

Job 36:6-7

36:6 He does not allow the wicked to live, ¹⁵ 

but he gives justice to the poor.

36:7 He does not take his eyes ¹⁶  off the righteous;

but with kings on the throne

he seats the righteous ¹⁷  and exalts them forever. ¹⁸ 

[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.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to search [for].”

[24:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Or “the region of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats,” if this expression is understood as a place name (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV).

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

[7:8]  ⁸ tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

[7:8]  ⁹ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ¹² sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹⁴ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[36:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “he does not keep the wicked alive.”

[36:7]  ¹⁶ tc Many commentators accept the change of “his eyes” to “his right” (reading דִּינוֹ [dino] for עֵינָיו [’enayv]). There is no compelling reason for the change; it makes the line commonplace.

[36:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the righteous) has been repeated from the first part of the verse for clarity.

[36:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he seats them forever and exalts them.” The last verb can be understood as expressing a logical consequence of the preceding action (cf. GKC 328 §111.l = “he seats them forever so that he exalts them”). Or the two verbs can be taken as an adverbial hendiadys whereby the first modifies the second adverbially: “he exalts them by seating them forever” or “when he seats them forever” (cf. GKC 326 §111.d). Some interpret this verse to say that God seats kings on the throne, making a change in subject in the middle of the verse. But it makes better sense to see the righteous as the subject matter throughout – they are not only protected, but are exalted.