the causal relation expressed by
כִּי is sometimes subtle, especially in poetry, and not apparent without careful study of a passage. Thus sometimes it justifies a statement or description by pointing to a pregnant fact which involves it, as
Isaiah 3:8 Job 6:21 (ground of the comparison v
Job 6:15-20),
Job 14:16 (
For …: ground of the wishes expressed v
Job 14:13-15),
Job 16:22 (ground of v
Job 16:20)
Job 30:26 (
For …), or by pointing to a general truth which it exemplifies
Job 5:6 (reason why complaining v
Job 5:2-5 is foolish),
Job 15:34;
Job 23:14; sometimes it is
explicative, justifying a statement by unfolding the particulars wh. establish or exemplify it
II Samuel 23:5 Isaiah 1:30;
Isaiah 5:7;
Isaiah 7:8;
Isaiah 9:4;
Isaiah 10:8-11;
Isaiah 13:10 (development of v
Isaiah 13:9),
Isaiah 32:6 (developing the characters of the
נָבָל and
כִּילַי, and so explaining why they will no longer be esteemed v
Isaiah 13:5);
Job 11:16 (explic. of v
Job 11:15),
Job 18:8 (justifying v
Job 18:7),
Job 22:26 (justifying v
Job 22:25); elsewhere the cause is expressed indirectly or figuratively
Isaiah 2:6 (reason why invitation v
Isaiah 2:5 is needed),
Isaiah 5:10 (sterility of the soil the cause of the desolation v
Isaiah 5:9),
Isaiah 18:5;
Isaiah 28:8 (proof of the intoxication v
Isaiah 5:7),
Isaiah 31:7 (reason for the exhortation v
Isaiah 31:6: the certainty that the folly of idolatry will soon be recognized),
Job 7:21 (for soon it will be too late to pardon),
Job 27:8-10 (Job wishes his enemy the lot of the wicked,
because this is so hopeless); or
כִּי relates not to the see which immed. precedes or follows, but to several, as
Isaiah 7:16 (v
Isaiah 7:17 specially the ground of the people being reduced to simple fare v
Isaiah 7:15),
Isaiah 21:6 (ground of the statements v
Isaiah 7:1-5),
Job 4:5 (ground of v
Isaiah 7:2),
Job 14:7-12 (v
Job 14:10-12 specially the ground for the appeal in v
Job 14:6),
Job 23:10-13 (ground why God cannot be found v
Job 23:8),
Psalms 73:21 (ground not of v
Psalms 73:20, but of general train of thought v
Psalms 73:2-14); so also
Genesis 4:24 Deuteronomy 18:14 Isaiah 12:1 Jeremiah 30:11 the reason lies not in the words immed. after
כִּי, but in the second part of the sentence; or, on the other hand, it may state the reason for a partic. word,
Isaiah 28:20 (justifying ‘nought but terror’ v
Isaiah 28:19),
Job 23:17 (
God’s hostility v
Job 23:16 the cause of his misery, not the calamity as such). Sometimes also
כִּי, in a poet. or rhet. style, gives the reason for a thought not expressed but implied, especially the answer to a qu.;
Isaiah 28:11 (the mockeries of v
Isaiah 28:10 have a meaning) ‘
for with men of strange lips, etc. he will speak unto this people,’ who will retort the mockeries, charged with a new and terrible meaning, upon those who uttered them (v
Isaiah 28:13); = (no,)
for Isaiah 28:28 (see RVm),
Job 22:2 no, he that is wise is profitable to himself,
Job 31:18;
Job 39:14 (see v
Job 39:13),
Psalms 44:24 (he cannot do this, v
Psalms 44:23)
for for thy sake are we killed, etc.,
Psalms 130:4 no, with thee is forgiveness; = (yes,)
for Isaiah 49:25 (see the qu. v
Isaiah 49:24),
Isaiah 66:8.