Job 5:24

24. Thy tabernacle shall be… peace Hebrews, ohel; equally a tent in which to live and the house of God in which to worship. Our homes should be God’s houses; then shall they be peace.

And shalt not sin Or err, as in the margin. Among the radical meanings of the word חשׂא are, to miss, want, miss the mark. The word originally used in a physical sense, for instance, of the skill of the warrior, (Judges 20:16,) took upon itself a moral meaning, as in the case of the Greek αμαρτανω . Comp. Iliad, 5:287, and 9:501.* The sense of this passage, according to most moderns, is, that he shall return to his dwelling and find nothing wanting. Thus Wordsworth: “Not one of thy cattle, sheep, or lambs will be missing” a forced and feeble interpretation. The more natural reading which at the same time is consistent with the legitimate sense of the verb is that of the Vulgate, Luther, and our English version, that the good man may be kept by the grace of God from the commission of sin. As “habitation” corresponds with “tabernacle” of the preceding clause, so does God’s protection from sin answer to the “peace” Eliphaz promises. The antithesis is thus well sustained, and the sense harmonious. Hengstenberg accepts of the English version, and explains: “In looking over thy possessions thou shalt find thou art not treated by God as a sinner but as a friend, being richly blessed by him” a paraphrase which Evans rightly condemns.

[* The following hymn, taken from the Rig Veda, 7:85, contains a similar thought:

1 . Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy!

2 . If I go along trembling like a cloud driven by the wind; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy!

3 . Through want of strength, thou strong and bright God, have I gone to the wrong shore; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy! See further, MULLER’S Sanscrit. Lit., p. 540.]