Job 5:3
I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
BSB
ASV
I have seen the foolish taking root: But suddenly I cursed his habitation.
KJV
I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
I have seen the foolish - The wicked. To confirm the sentiment which he had just advanced, Eliphaz appeals to his own observation, and says that though the wicked for a time seem to be prosperous, yet he had observed that they were soon overtaken with calamity and cut down. He evidently means that prosperity was no evidence of the divine favor; but that when it had continued for a little time, and was then withdrawn, it was proof that the man who had been prospered was at heart a wicked man.
He seems here to parallel Job's case with that which is commonly the case of wicked people. Job had prospered for a time, seemed confirmed, and was secure in his prosperity; and it is common for foolish wicked men to do so: I have seen them taking root --planted, and, in their own and others' apprehension, fixed, and likely to continue.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 92:7that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.
leads to
But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live…
Through
Psalms 69:25May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
leads to
“For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his position.’
Look, your house is left to you desolate.
Through
Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
leads to
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?