Ayub 1:3

1:3 His possessions ¹  included ²  7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys; in addition he had a very great household. ³  Thus he ⁴  was the greatest of all the people in the east. ⁵ 

Ayub 3:21

3:21 to ⁶  those who wait ⁷  for death that ⁸  does not come,

and search for it ⁹ 

more than for hidden treasures,

Ayub 6:3

6:3 But because it is heavier ¹⁰  than the sand ¹¹  of the sea,

that is why my words have been wild. ¹² 

Ayub 7:15

7:15 so that I ¹³  would prefer ¹⁴  strangling, ¹⁵ 

and ¹⁶  death ¹⁷  more ¹⁸  than life. ¹⁹ 

Ayub 9:25

Renewed Complaint

9:25 “My days ²⁰  are swifter than a runner, ²¹ 

they speed by without seeing happiness.

Ayub 11:8-9

11:8 It is higher ²²  than the heavens – what can you do?

It is deeper than Sheol ²³  – what can you know?

11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth,

and broader than the sea.

Ayub 11:17

11:17 And life ²⁴  will be brighter ²⁵  than the noonday;

though there be darkness, ²⁶ 

it will be like the morning.

Ayub 15:9-10

15:9 What do you know that we don’t know?

What do you understand that we don’t understand? ²⁷ 

15:10 The gray-haired ²⁸  and the aged are on our side, ²⁹ 

men far older than your father. ³⁰ 

Ayub 22:12

22:12 “Is not God on high in heaven? ³¹ 

And see ³²  the lofty stars, ³³  how high they are!

Ayub 28:18

28:18 Of coral and jasper no mention will be made;

the price ³⁴  of wisdom is more than pearls. ³⁵ 

Ayub 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ³⁶  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ³⁷ 

to put with my sheep dogs. ³⁸ 

Ayub 32:4

32:4 Now Elihu had waited before speaking ³⁹  to Job, because the others ⁴⁰  were older than he was.

Ayub 33:12

33:12 Now in this, you are not right – I answer you, ⁴¹ 

for God is greater than a human being. ⁴² 

Ayub 33:25

33:25 then his flesh is restored ⁴³  like a youth’s;

he returns to the days of his youthful vigor. ⁴⁴ 

Ayub 35:3

35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ ⁴⁵ 

and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’ ⁴⁶ 

Ayub 35:11

35:11 who teaches us ⁴⁷  more than ⁴⁸  the wild animals of the earth,

and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

Ayub 36:24

36:24 Remember to extol ⁴⁹  his work,

which people have praised in song.

Ayub 38:11

38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come ⁵⁰ 

and no farther, ⁵¹ 

here your proud waves will be confined’? ⁵² 

Ayub 42:12

42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

[1:3]  ¹ tn The word means “cattle, livestock, possessions” (see also Gen 26:14). Here it includes the livestock, but also the entire substance of his household.

[1:3]  ² tn Or “amounted to,” “totaled.” The preterite of הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) is sometimes employed to introduce a total amount or an inventory (see Exod 1:5; Num 3:43).

[1:3]  ³ tn The word עֲבֻדָּה (’avuddah, “service of household servants”) indicates that he had a very large body of servants, meaning a very large household.

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and that man.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The expression is literally “sons of the east.” The use of the genitive after “sons” in this construction may emphasize their nature (like “sons of belial”); it would refer to them as easterners (like “sons of the south” in contemporary American English). BDB 869 s.v. קֶדֶם says “dwellers in the east.”

[3:21]  ⁶ tn The verse simply begins with the participle in apposition to the expressions in the previous verse describing those who are bitter. The preposition is added from the context.

[3:21]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Piel participle of חָכָה (khakhah, “to wait for” someone; Yahweh is the object in Isa 8:17; 64:3; Ps 33:20). Here death is the supreme hope of the miserable and the suffering.

[3:21]  ⁸ tn The verse simply has the form אֵין (’en, “there is not”) with a pronominal suffix and a conjunction – “and there is not it” or “and it is not.” The LXX and the Vulgate add a verb to explain this form: “and obtain it not.”

[3:21]  ⁹ tn The parallel verb is now a preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive; it therefore has the nuance of a characteristic perfect or gnomic perfect – the English present tense.

[3:21]  sn The verb חָפַר (khafar) means “to dig; to excavate.” It may have the accusative of the thing that is being sought (Exod 7:24); but here it is followed by a comparative min (מִן). The verse therefore describes the sufferers who excavate or dig the ground to find death, more than others who seek for treasure.

[6:3]  ¹⁰ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 76) notes that כִּי־עַתָּה (ki ’attah) has no more force than “but”; and that the construction is the same as in 17:4; 20:19-21; 23:14-15. The initial clause is causative, and the second half of the verse gives the consequence (“because”…“that is why”). Others take 3a as the apodosis of v. 2, and translate it “for now it would be heavier…” (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).

[6:3]  ¹¹ sn The point of the comparison with the sand of the sea is that the sand is immeasurable. So the grief of Job cannot be measured.

[6:3]  ¹² tn The verb לָעוּ (la’u) is traced by E. Dhorme (Job, 76) to a root לָעָה (la’ah), cognate to an Arabic root meaning “to chatter.” He shows how modern Hebrew has a meaning for the word “to stammer out.” But that does not really fit Job’s outbursts. The idea in the context is rather that of speaking wildly, rashly, or charged with grief. This would trace the word to a hollow or geminate word and link it to Arabic “talk wildly” (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 158). In the older works the verb was taken from a geminate root meaning “to suck” or “to swallow” (cf. KJV), but that yields a very difficult sense to the line.

[7:15]  ¹³ tn The word נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul.” But since Hebrew thought does not make such a distinction between body and soul, it is usually better to translate it with “person.” When a suffix is added to the word, then that pronoun would serve as the better translation, as here with “my soul” = “I” (meaning with every fiber of my being).

[7:15]  ¹⁴ tn The verb בָּחַר (bakhar, “choose”) followed by the preposition בּ (bet) can have the sense of “prefer.”

[7:15]  ¹⁵ tn The meaning of the term מַחֲנָק (makhanaq, “strangling”), a hapax legomenon, is clear enough; the verb חָנַק (khanaq) in the Piel means “to strangle” (Nah 2:13), and in the Niphal “to strangle oneself” (2 Sam 17:23). This word has tempted some commentators to take נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in a very restricted sense of “throat.”

[7:15]  ¹⁶ tn The conjunction “and” is supplied in the translation. “Death” could also be taken in apposition to “strangling,” providing the outcome of the strangling.

[7:15]  ¹⁷ tn This is one of the few words recognizable in the LXX: “You will separate life from my spirit, and yet keep my bones from death.”

[7:15]  ¹⁸ tn The comparative min (מִן) after the verb “choose” will here have the idea of preferring something before another (see GKC 429-30 §133.b).

[7:15]  ¹⁹ tn The word מֵעַצְמוֹתָי (me’atsmotay) means “more than my bones” (= life or being). The line is poetic; “bones” is often used in scripture metonymically for the whole living person, so there is no need here for conjectural emendation. Nevertheless, there have been several suggestions made. The simplest and most appealing for those who desire a change is the repointing to מֵעַצְּבוֹתָי (me’atsÿvotay, “my sufferings,” adopted by NAB, JB, Moffatt, Driver-Gray, E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and others). Driver obtains this idea by positing a new word based on Arabic without changing the letters; it means “great” – but he has to supply the word “sufferings.”

[9:25]  ²⁰ tn The text has “and my days” following the thoughts in the previous section.

[9:25]  ²¹ sn Job returns to the thought of the brevity of his life (7:6). But now the figure is the swift runner instead of the weaver’s shuttle.

[11:8]  ²² tn The Hebrew says “heights of heaven, what can you do?” A. B. Davidson suggested this was an exclamation and should be left that way. But most commentators will repoint גָּבְהֵי שָׁמַיִם (govhe shamayim, “heights of heaven”) to גְּבֹהָה מִשָּׁמַיִם (gÿvohah mishamayim, “higher than the heavens”) to match the parallel expression. The LXX may have rearranged the text: “heaven is high.”

[11:8]  ²³ tn Or “deeper than hell.” The word “Sheol” always poses problems for translation. Here because it is the opposite of heaven in this merism, “hell” would be a legitimate translation. It refers to the realm of the dead – the grave and beyond. The language is excessive; but the point is that God’s wisdom is immeasurable – and Job is powerless before it.

[11:17]  ²⁴ tn Some translations add the pronoun to make it specifically related to Job (“your life”), but this is not necessary. The word used here has the nuance of lasting life.

[11:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and more than the noonday life will arise.” The present translation is an interpretation in the context. The connotation of “arise” in comparison with the noonday, and in contrast with the darkness, supports the interpretation.

[11:17]  ²⁶ tn The form in the MT is the 3fsg imperfect verb, “[though] it be dark.” Most commentators revocalize the word to make it a noun (תְּעֻפָה, tÿ’ufah), giving the meaning “the darkness [of your life] will be like the morning.” The contrast is with Job 10:22; here the darkness will shine like the morning.

[15:9]  ²⁷ tn The last clause simply has “and it is not with us.” It means that one possesses something through knowledge. Note the parallelism of “know” and “with me” in Ps 50:11.

[15:10]  ²⁸ tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.

[15:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “with us.”

[15:10]  ³⁰ tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age – they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.

[22:12]  ³¹ tn This reading preserves the text as it is. The nouns “high” and “heavens” would then be taken as adverbial accusatives of place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).

[22:12]  ³² tn The parallel passage in Isa 40:26-27, as well as the context here, shows that the imperative is to be retained here. The LXX has “he sees.”

[22:12]  ³³ tn Heb “head of the stars.”

[28:18]  ³⁴ tn The word מֶשֶׁךְ (meshekh) comes from a root meaning “to grasp; to seize; to hold,” and so the derived noun means “grasping; acquiring; taking possession,” and therefore, “price” (see the discussion in R. Gordis, Job, 309). Gray renders it “acquisition” (so A. Cohen, AJSL 40 [1923/24]: 175).

[28:18]  ³⁵ tn In Lam 4:7 these are described as red, and so have been identified as rubies (so NIV) or corals.

[30:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ³⁸ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.

[32:4]  ³⁹ tc This reading requires repointing the word בִּדְבָרִים (bidbarim, “with words”) to בְּדָבְּרָם (bÿdabbÿram, “while they spoke [with Job]”). If the MT is retained, it would mean “he waited for Job with words,” which while understandable is awkward.

[32:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the other friends) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ⁴¹ tn The meaning of this verb is “this is my answer to you.”

[33:12]  ⁴² tc The LXX has “he that is above men is eternal.” Elihu is saying that God is far above Job’s petty problems.

[33:25]  ⁴³ tc The word רֻטֲפַשׁ (rutafash) is found nowhere else. One suggestion is that it should be יִרְטַב (yirtav, “to become fresh”), connected to רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered [or moist]”). It is also possible that it was a combination of רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered”) and טָפַשׁ (tafash, “to grow fat”). But these are all guesses in the commentaries.

[33:25]  ⁴⁴ tn The word describes the period when the man is healthy and vigorous, ripe for what life brings his way.

[35:3]  ⁴⁵ tn The referent of “you” is usually understood to be God.

[35:3]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew text merely says, “What do I gain from my sin?” But Job has claimed that he has not sinned, and so this has to be elliptical: “more than if I had sinned” (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 224). It could also be, “What do I gain without sin?”

[35:11]  ⁴⁷ tn The form in the text, the Piel participle from אָלַף (’alaf, “teach”) is written in a contracted form; the full form is מְאַלְּפֵנוּ (mÿ’allÿfenu).

[35:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Some would render this “teaches us by the beasts.” But Elihu is stressing the unique privilege humans have.

[36:24]  ⁴⁹ tn The expression is “that you extol,” serving as an object of the verb.

[38:11]  ⁵⁰ tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.

[38:11]  ⁵¹ tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).

[38:11]  ⁵² tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.