Ayub 5:16

5:16 Thus the poor have hope,

and iniquity ¹  shuts its mouth. ² 

Ayub 7:6

7:6 My days ³  are swifter ⁴  than a weaver’s shuttle ⁵ 

and they come to an end without hope. ⁶ 

Ayub 14:9

14:9 at the scent ⁷  of water it will flourish ⁸ 

and put forth ⁹  shoots like a new plant.

Ayub 29:20

29:20 My glory ¹⁰  will always be fresh ¹¹  in me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

Ayub 36:27

36:27 He draws up drops of water;

they distill ¹²  the rain into its mist, ¹³ 

[5:16]  ¹ tn Other translations render this “injustice” (NIV, NRSV, CEV) or “unrighteousness” (NASB).

[5:16]  ² tn The verse summarizes the result of God’s intervention in human affairs, according to Eliphaz’ idea that even-handed justice prevails. Ps 107:42 parallels v. 16b.

[7:6]  ³ sn The first five verses described the painfulness of his malady, his life; now, in vv. 6-10 he will focus on the brevity of his life, and its extinction with death. He introduces the subject with “my days,” a metonymy for his whole life and everything done on those days. He does not mean individual days – they drag on endlessly.

[7:6]  ⁴ tn The verb קָלַל (qalal) means “to be light” (40:4), and then by extension “to be swift; to be rapid” (Jer 4:13; Hab 1:8).

[7:6]  ⁵ sn The shuttle is the part which runs through the meshes of the web. In Judg 16:14 it is a loom (see BDB 71 s.v. אֶרֶג), but here it must be the shuttle. Hezekiah uses the imagery of the weaver, the loom, and the shuttle for the brevity of life (see Isa 38:12). The LXX used, “My life is lighter than a word.”

[7:6]  ⁶ tn The text includes a wonderful wordplay on this word. The noun is תִּקְוָה (tiqvah, “hope”). But it can also have the meaning of one of its cognate nouns, קַו (qav, “thread, cord,” as in Josh 2:18,21). He is saying that his life is coming to an end for lack of thread/for lack of hope (see further E. Dhorme, Job, 101).

[14:9]  ⁷ tn The personification adds to the comparison with people – the tree is credited with the sense of smell to detect the water.

[14:9]  ⁸ tn The sense of “flourish” for this verb is found in Ps 92:12,13[13,14], and Prov 14:11. It makes an appropriate parallel with “bring forth boughs” in the second half.

[14:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “and will make.”

[29:20]  ¹⁰ tn The word is “my glory,” meaning his high respect and his honor. Hoffmann proposed to read כִּידוֹן (kidon) instead, meaning “javelin” (as in 1 Sam 17:6), to match the parallelism (RQ 3 [1961/62]: 388). But the parallelism does not need to be so tight.

[29:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “new.”

[36:27]  ¹² tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”

[36:27]  ¹³ tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.