20:10 His sons must recompense 1 the poor;
his own hands 2 must return his wealth.
24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together. 3
30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate? 4
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
36:6 He does not allow the wicked to live, 5
but he gives justice to the poor.
1 tn The early versions confused the root of this verb, taking it from רָצַץ (ratsats, “mistreat”) and not from רָצָה (ratsah, “be please with”). So it was taken to mean, “Let inferiors destroy his children.” But the verb is רָצָה (ratsah). This has been taken to mean “his sons will seek the favor of the poor.” This would mean that they would be reduced to poverty and need help from even the poor. Some commentators see this as another root רָצָה (ratsah) meaning “to compensate; to restore” wealth their father had gained by impoverishing others. This fits the parallelism well, but not the whole context that well.
2 tn Some commentators are surprised to see “his hands” here, thinking the passage talks about his death. Budde changed it to “his children,” by altering one letter. R. Gordis argued that “hand” can mean offspring, and so translated it that way without changing anything in the text (“A note on YAD,” JBL 62 [1943]: 343).
3 sn Because of the violence and oppression of the wicked, the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, all are deprived of their rights and forced out of the ways and into hiding just to survive.
4 tn Heb “for the hard of day.”
5 tn Or “he does not keep the wicked alive.”