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 19:7

Job’s Abandonment and Affliction

19:7 “If ⁴  I cry out, ⁵  ‘Violence!’ ⁶ 

I receive no answer; ⁷ 

I cry for help,

but there is no justice.

Ayub 20:25

20:25 When he pulls it out ⁸  and it comes out of his back,

the gleaming point ⁹  out of his liver,

terrors come over him.

Ayub 24:2

24:2 Men ¹⁰  move boundary stones;

they seize the flock and pasture them. ¹¹ 

Ayub 24:9

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched ¹²  from the breast, ¹³ 

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 41:12

41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,

and the extent of its might,

and the grace of its arrangement. ¹⁵ 

[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.

[19:7]  ⁴ tn The particle is used here as in 9:11 (see GKC 497 §159.w).

[19:7]  ⁵ tc The LXX has “I laugh at reproach.”

[19:7]  ⁶ tn The same idea is expressed in Jer 20:8 and Hab 1:2. The cry is a cry for help, that he has been wronged, that there is no justice.

[19:7]  ⁷ tn The Niphal is simply “I am not answered.” See Prov 21:13b.

[20:25]  ⁸ tn The MT has “he draws out [or as a passive, “it is drawn out/forth”] and comes [or goes] out of his back.” For the first verb שָׁלַף (shalaf, “pull, draw”), many commentators follow the LXX and use שֶׁלַח (shelakh, “a spear”). It then reads “and a shaft comes out of his back,” a sword flash comes out of his liver.” But the verse could also be a continuation of the preceding.

[20:25]  ⁹ tn Possibly a reference to lightnings.

[24:2]  ¹⁰ tn The line is short: “they move boundary stones.” So some commentators have supplied a subject, such as “wicked men.” The reason for its being wicked men is that to move the boundary stone was to encroach dishonestly on the lands of others (Deut 19:14; 27:17).

[24:2]  ¹¹ tc The LXX reads “and their shepherd.” Many commentators accept this reading. But the MT says that they graze the flocks that they have stolen. The difficulty with the MT reading is that there is no suffix on the final verb – but that is not an insurmountable difference.

[24:9]  ¹² tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”

[24:9]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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.

[41:12]  ¹⁵ tn Dhorme changes the noun into a verb, “I will tell,” and the last two words into אֵין עֶרֶךְ (’en ’erekh, “there is no comparison”). The result is “I will tell of his incomparable might.”