5:18 For 1 he 2 wounds, 3 but he also bandages;
he strikes, but his hands also heal.
1 sn Verses 18-23 give the reasons why someone should accept the chastening of God – the hand that wounds is the same hand that heals. But, of course, the lines do not apply to Job because his suffering is not due to divine chastening.
2 tn The addition of the independent pronoun here makes the subject emphatic, as if to say, “For it is he who makes….”
3 tn The imperfect verbs in this verse describe the characteristic activities of God; the classification as habitual imperfect fits the idea and is to be rendered with the English present tense.