for blood The shameless form of the proposal shows at once the insecurity and the low moral tone of society. The language is too strong and vivid to admit of a figurative interpretation: Let us rob them violently of their bread which is their life. Compare

"The bread of the needy is the life of the poor:

He that depriveth him thereof is a man of blood."

Sir 34:21.

without cause So A.V. and R.V., i.e. though (the reflection being that of the author, not of the speaker) he has done them no harm, given them no cause to injure him. So LXX. ἀδίκως. Others, less probably, take the adverb with the word "innocent": for them who are innocent in vain (who serve God for nought, Job 1:9, where the Heb. word is the same as here), because, as we will soon shew, his innocency will profit him nothing. "Contra insontem frustra," Vulg. "Pio nullum pietatis præmium habituro," Maur.

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