Ayub 11:20

11:20 But the eyes of the wicked fail, ¹ 

and escape ²  eludes them;

their one hope ³  is to breathe their last.” ⁴ 

Ayub 16:8

16:8 You have seized me, ⁵ 

and it ⁶  has become a witness;

my leanness ⁷  has risen up against me

and testifies against me.

Ayub 39:28

39:28 It lives on a rock and spends the night there,

on a rocky crag ⁸  and a fortress. ⁹ 

[11:20]  ¹ tn The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to fail, cease, fade away.” The fading of the eyes, i.e., loss of sight, loss of life’s vitality, indicates imminent death.

[11:20]  ² tn Heb a “place of escape” (with this noun pattern). There is no place to escape to because they all perish.

[11:20]  ³ tn The word is to be interpreted as a metonymy; it represents what is hoped for.

[11:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the breathing out of the soul”; cf. KJV, ASV “the giving up of the ghost.” The line is simply saying that the brightest hope that the wicked have is death.

[16:8]  ⁵ tn The verb is קָמַט (qamat) which is used only here and in 22:16; it means “to seize; to grasp.” By God’s seizing him, Job means his afflictions.

[16:8]  ⁶ tn The subject is “my calamity.”

[16:8]  ⁷ tn The verb is used in Ps 109:24 to mean “to be lean”; and so “leanness” is accepted here for the noun by most. Otherwise the word is “lie, deceit.” Accordingly, some take it here as “my slanderer” or “my liar” (gives evidence against me).

[39:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “upon the tooth of a rock.”

[39:28]  ⁹ tn The word could be taken as the predicate, but because of the conjunction it seems to be adding another description of the place of its nest.