Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
Ver. 5. Whose harvest the hungry eateth up] This is another root of the wicked one, his estate, against which God raiseth up a rout of needy wretches to pillage him. These are as a sweeping rain, that leaveth no food, Proverbs 28:1. These, as lean lice, bite hardest, and, as sparrow hawks, are extremly greedy: Malesuada fames putteth them upon it. These harpies seize upon his very harvest ad maiorem cruciatum et miseriam, to the more crude and wretched, pulling the meat out of his mouth, as it were, and not suffering him to roast that which he took in hunting, Proverbs 12:27. He shall meet with greatest disappointment, and come to that poverty which he so studiously shunned, singing that doleful ditty,
- En queis consevimus agros?
Aλλοι μεν σπειρουσ ', αλλοι δ αυ αμησονται .
See this threatened Lev 26:19 Deuteronomy 28:33 Isa 1:6 Micah 6:15 .
And taketh it even out of the thorns] Creeping through the midst of the thorns and bushes wherewith it is fenced and hedged in, to steal it away. Hunger, we say, breaks through stone walls: the Rabbis sense it thus, He that comes out of the thorns, that is, every base fellow, carrieth away the store of this rich oppressor (Scultatus). The armed man carrieth it away, so the Vulgate after the Septuagint. Mr Broughton reads it thus, The hungry shall eat up his harvest which he had gotten through the thorns, that is, not without a great deal of care, and much pains in stubbing up the thorns, that he might not sow amongst them.
And the robber swalloweth up their substance] Or, the thirsty shall drink up their substance, as gold thirsty Babel did Hezekiah's treasure for his coming so near the garb and guise of the wicked in his ostentation. The thirsty shall swill up their wealth, so Broughton rendereth it: so that neither their esculenta food, nor poculenta drink shall escape the spoiler, but there shall be a clean riddance of all; the enemy shall play at sweepstake, he shall sup up all (שׁאף) as the Hebrew hath it, and as Eliphaz would have Job consider that the Chaldeans and Sabeans had done his substance.