Ayub 15:16

15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, ¹ 

who drinks in evil like water! ² 

Ayub 20:11

20:11 His bones ³  were full of his youthful vigor, ⁴ 

but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

Ayub 35:8

35:8 Your wickedness affects only ⁵  a person like yourself,

and your righteousness only other people. ⁶ 

Ayub 36:10

36:10 And he reveals ⁷  this ⁸  for correction,

and says that they must turn ⁹  from evil.

[15:16]  ¹ tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).

[15:16]  ² sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.

[20:11]  ³ tn “Bones” is often used metonymically for the whole person, the bones being the framework, meaning everything inside, as well as the body itself.

[20:11]  ⁴ sn This line means that he dies prematurely – at the height of his youthful vigor.

[35:8]  ⁵ tn The phrase “affects only” is supplied in the translation of this nominal sentence.

[35:8]  sn According to Strahan, “Elihu exalts God’s greatness at the cost of His grace, His transcendence at the expense of His immanence. He sets up a material instead of a spiritual stand of profit and loss. He does not realize that God does gain what He desires most by the goodness of men, and loses what He most loves by their evil.”

[35:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and to [or for] a son of man, your righteousness.”

[36:10]  ⁷ tn The idiom once again is “he uncovers their ear.”

[36:10]  ⁸ tn The revelation is in the preceding verse, and so a pronoun must be added to make the reference clear.

[36:10]  ⁹ tn The verb שׁוּב (shuv, “to turn; to return”) is one of the two major words in the OT for “repent” – to return from evil. Here the imperfect should be obligatory – they must do it.