Ayub 26:14

26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! ¹ 

How faint is the whisper ²  we hear of him!

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

Ayub 34:20

34:20 In a moment they die, in the middle of the night, ³ 

people ⁴  are shaken ⁵  and they pass away.

The mighty are removed effortlessly. ⁶ 

Ayub 36:7

36:7 He does not take his eyes ⁷  off the righteous;

but with kings on the throne

he seats the righteous ⁸  and exalts them forever. ⁹ 

[26:14]  ¹ tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”

[26:14]  ² tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”

[34:20]  ³ tn Dhorme transposes “in the middle of the night” with “they pass away” to get a smoother reading. But the MT emphasizes the suddenness by putting both temporal ideas first. E. F. Sutcliffe leaves the order as it stands in the text, but adds a verb “they expire” after “in the middle of the night” (“Notes on Job, textual and exegetical,” Bib 30 [1949]: 79ff.).

[34:20]  ⁴ tn R. Gordis (Job, 389) thinks “people” here mean the people who count, the upper class.

[34:20]  ⁵ tn The verb means “to be violently agitated.” There is no problem with the word in this context, but commentators have made suggestions for improving the idea. The proposal that has the most to commend it, if one were inclined to choose a new word, is the change to יִגְוָעוּ (yigva’u, “they expire”; so Ball, Holscher, Fohrer, and others).

[34:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “not by hand.” This means without having to use force.

[36:7]  ⁷ tc Many commentators accept the change of “his eyes” to “his right” (reading דִּינוֹ [dino] for עֵינָיו [’enayv]). There is no compelling reason for the change; it makes the line commonplace.

[36:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the righteous) has been repeated from the first part of the verse for clarity.

[36:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “he seats them forever and exalts them.” The last verb can be understood as expressing a logical consequence of the preceding action (cf. GKC 328 §111.l = “he seats them forever so that he exalts them”). Or the two verbs can be taken as an adverbial hendiadys whereby the first modifies the second adverbially: “he exalts them by seating them forever” or “when he seats them forever” (cf. GKC 326 §111.d). Some interpret this verse to say that God seats kings on the throne, making a change in subject in the middle of the verse. But it makes better sense to see the righteous as the subject matter throughout – they are not only protected, but are exalted.