Ayub 18:20

18:20 People of the west ¹  are appalled at his fate; ² 

people of the east are seized with horror, ³  saying, ⁴ 

Ayub 20:12

20:12 “If ⁵  evil is sweet in his mouth

and he hides it under his tongue, ⁶ 

Ayub 24:8

24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains

and huddle ⁷  in the rocks because they lack shelter.

[18:20]  ¹ tn The word אַחֲרֹנִים (’akharonim) means “those [men] coming after.” And the next word, קַדְמֹנִים (qadmonim), means “those [men] coming before.” Some commentators have tried to see here references to people who lived before and people who lived after, but that does not explain their being appalled at the fate of the wicked. So the normal way this is taken is in connection to the geography, notably the seas – “the hinder sea” refers to the Mediterranean, the West, and “the front sea” refers to the Dead Sea (Zech 14:8), namely, the East. The versions understood this as temporal: “the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first” (LXX).

[18:20]  ² tn Heb “his day.”

[18:20]  ³ tn The expression has “they seize horror.” The RSV renders this “horror seizes them.” The same idiom is found in Job 21:6: “laid hold on shuddering.” The idiom would solve the grammatical problem, and not change the meaning greatly; but it would change the parallelism.

[18:20]  ⁴ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation to mark and introduce the following as a quotation of these people who are seized with horror. The alternative is to take v. 21 as Bildad’s own summary statement (cf. G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray, Job [ICC], 2:162; J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 280).

[20:12]  ⁵ tn The conjunction אִם (’im) introduces clauses that are conditional or concessive. With the imperfect verb in the protasis it indicates what is possible in the present or future. See GKC 496 §159.q).

[20:12]  ⁶ sn The wicked person holds on to evil as long as he can, savoring the taste or the pleasure of it.

[24:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “embrace” or “hug.”