Ayub 1:13

Job’s Integrity in Adversity ¹ 

1:13 Now the day ²  came when Job’s ³  sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

Ayub 14:20

14:20 You overpower him once for all, ⁴ 

and he departs;

you change ⁵  his appearance

and send him away.

Ayub 24:9

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched ⁶  from the breast, ⁷ 

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ⁸ 

Ayub 38:39

38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,

and satisfy the appetite ⁹  of the lions,

[1:13]  ¹ sn The series of catastrophes and the piety of Job is displayed now in comprehensive terms. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and yet Job, the pious servant of Yahweh, continues to worship him in the midst of the rubble. This section, and the next, will lay the foundation for the great dialogues in the book.

[1:13]  ² tn The Targum to Job clarifies that it was the first day of the week. The fact that it was in the house of the firstborn is the reason.

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:20]  ⁴ tn D. W. Thomas took נֵצַח (netsakh) here to have a superlative meaning: “You prevail utterly against him” (“Use of netsach as a superlative in Hebrew,” JSS 1 [1956]: 107). Death would be God’s complete victory over him.

[14:20]  ⁵ tn The subject of the participle is most likely God in this context. Some take it to be man, saying “his face changes.” Others emend the text to read an imperfect verb, but this is not necessary.

[24:9]  ⁶ tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”

[24:9]  ⁷ tn This word is usually defined as “violence; ruin.” But elsewhere it does mean “breast” (Isa 60:16; 66:11), and that is certainly what it means here.

[24:9]  ⁸ tc The MT has a very brief and strange reading: “they take as a pledge upon the poor.” This could be taken as “they take a pledge against the poor” (ESV). Kamphausen suggested that instead of עַל (’al, “against”) one should read עוּל (’ul, “suckling”). This is supported by the parallelism. “They take as pledge” is also made passive here.

[38:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “fill up the life of.”