Ayub 10:9

10:9 Remember that you have made me as with ¹  the clay;

will ²  you return me to dust?

Ayub 39:4

39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; ³ 

they go off, and do not return to them.

[10:9]  ¹ tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).

[10:9]  ² tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”

[39:4]  ³ tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.