Ayub 6:19

6:19 The caravans of Tema ¹  looked intently ²  for these streams; ³ 

the traveling merchants ⁴  of Sheba hoped for them.

Ayub 19:15

19:15 My guests ⁵  and my servant girls

consider ⁶  me a stranger;

I am a foreigner ⁷  in their eyes.

Ayub 28:23

28:23 God understands the way to it,

and he alone knows its place.

Ayub 37:15

37:15 Do you know how God commands them, ⁸ 

how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? ⁹ 

[6:19]  ¹ sn Tema is the area of the oasis SE of the head of the Gulf of Aqaba; Sheba is in South Arabia. In Job 1:15 the Sabeans were raiders; here they are traveling merchants.

[6:19]  ² tn The verb נָבַט (navat) means “to gaze intently”; the looking is more intentional, more of a close scrutiny. It forms a fine parallel to the idea of “hope” in the second part. The NIV translates the second verb קִוּוּ (qivvu) as “look in hope.” In the previous verbs the imperfect form was used, expressing what generally happens (so the English present tense was used). Here the verb usage changes to the perfect form. It seems that Job is narrating a typical incident now – they looked, but were disappointed.

[6:19]  ³ tn The words “for these streams” are supplied from context to complete the thought and make the connection with the preceding context.

[6:19]  ⁴ tn In Ps 68:24 this word has the meaning of “processions”; here that procession is of traveling merchants forming convoys or caravans.

[19:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew גָּרֵי בֵיתִי (gare beti, “the guests of my house”) refers to those who sojourned in my house – not residents, but guests.

[19:15]  ⁶ tn The form of the verb is a feminine plural, which would seem to lend support to the proposed change of the lines (see last note to v. 14). But the form may be feminine primarily because of the immediate reference. On the other side, the suffix of “their eyes” is a masculine plural. So the evidence lies on both sides.

[19:15]  ⁷ tn This word נָכְרִי (nokhri) is the person from another race, from a strange land, the foreigner. The previous word, גֵּר (ger), is a more general word for someone who is staying in the land but is not a citizen, a sojourner.

[37:15]  ⁸ tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.

[37:15]  ⁹ tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”