Job 5:7
Man is born to labour and the bird to fly.
Open Job 5:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Homo nascitur ad laborem, et avis ad volatum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀλλὰ ἄνθρωπος γεννᾶται κόπῳ, νεοσσοὶ δὲ γυπὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτονται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּֽי אָ֭דָם לְעָמָ֣ל יוּלָּ֑ד וּבְנֵי רֶ֝֗שֶׁף יַגְבִּ֥יהוּ עֽוּף
Haydock's commentary
Bird. Hebrew, "sparks fly up." (Haydock)
You can no more then expect to pass unpunished, since it is impossible for man to be innocent! (Calmet) and, at any rate, labour is inevitable. (Menochius)
We must gain our bread by the sweat of our brow. [Genesis iii. 19.] (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus
Job v. 7 . Calmness is a thing which, of all other things, is most to be prized. As an example of this, the word proposes to us the blessed Job. For it is said of him, “What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?” For truly enviable, and, in my judgment, worthy of all admiration, a man is, if he has attained to such a degree of long-suffering as to be able with ease to grapple with the pain, truly keen, and not easily conquered by everybody, which arises from being wronged.
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter VI. Of perseverance as regards care of the thoughts
But we shall find out by our own experience that we can and ought to cling to the Lord if we have our wills mortified and the desires of this world cut off, and we shall be taught by the authority of those who in converse with the Lord say in all confidence: “My soul hath stuck close to Thee;” and: “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies, O Lord;” and: “It is good for me to stick fast to God;” and: “He who cleaveth to the Lord, is one spirit.” We ought not then to be wearied out by these wanderings of mind and relax from our fervour: for “he that tilleth his ground shall be filled with bread: but he that followeth idleness shall be filled with poverty.” Nor should we be drawn away from being intent on this watchfulness through a dangerous despair, for “in every one who is anxious there is abundance, for he who is pleasant and free from grief will be in want;” and again: “a man in grief labour …