Ayub 2:7

Job’s Integrity in Suffering

2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he afflicted ¹  Job with a malignant ulcer ²  from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. ³ 

Ayub 17:3

17:3 Make then my pledge ⁴  with you.

Who else will put up security for me? ⁵ 

Ayub 28:3

28:3 Man puts an end to the darkness; ⁶ 

he searches the farthest recesses

for the ore in the deepest darkness. ⁷ 

Ayub 28:8

28:8 Proud beasts ⁸  have not set foot on it,

and no lion has passed along it.

Ayub 37:4

37:4 After that a voice roars;

he thunders with an exalted voice,

and he does not hold back his lightning bolts ⁹ 

when his voice is heard.

Ayub 38:37

38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,

and who can tip over ¹⁰  the water jars of heaven,

Ayub 40:15

The Description of Behemoth ¹¹ 

40:15 “Look now at Behemoth, ¹²  which I made as ¹³  I made you;

it eats grass like the ox.

Ayub 41:30-31

41:30 Its underparts ¹⁴  are the sharp points of potsherds,

it leaves its mark in the mud

like a threshing sledge. ¹⁵ 

41:31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron

and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment, ¹⁶ 

[2:7]  ¹ tn The verb is נָכָה (nakhah, “struck, smote”); it can be rendered in this context as “afflicted.”

[2:7]  ² sn The general consensus is that Job was afflicted with a leprosy known as elephantiasis, named because the rough skin and the swollen limbs are animal-like. The Hebrew word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin, “boil”) can indicate an ulcer as well. Leprosy begins with such, but so do other diseases. Leprosy normally begins in the limbs and spreads, but Job was afflicted everywhere at once. It may be some other disease also characterized by such a malignant ulcer. D. J. A. Clines has a thorough bibliography on all the possible diseases linked to this description (Job [WBC], 48). See also HALOT 1460 s.v. שְׁחִין.

[2:7]  ³ tn Heb “crown.”

[17:3]  ⁴ tn The MT has two imperatives: “Lay down, pledge me, with me.” Most commentators think that the second imperative should be a noun, and take it to say, “Lay my pledge with/beside you.” A. B. Davidson (Job, 126) suggests that the first verb means “give a pledge,” and so the two similar verbs would be emphatic: “Give a pledge, be my surety.” Other than such a change (which would involve changing the vowels) one would have to interpret similarly by seeing the imperatives as a kind of hendiadys, with the main emphasis being on the second imperative, “make a pledge.”

[17:3]  ⁵ sn The idiom is “to strike the hand.” Here the wording is a little different, “Who is he that will strike himself into my hand?”

[28:3]  ⁶ sn The text appears at first to be saying that by opening up a mine shaft, or by taking lights down below, the miner dispels the darkness. But the clause might be more general, meaning that man goes deep into the earth as if it were day.

[28:3]  ⁷ tn The verse ends with “the stone of darkness and deep darkness.” The genitive would be location, describing the place where the stones are found.

[28:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.

[37:4]  ⁹ tn The verb simply has the pronominal suffix, “them.” The idea must be that when God brings in all the thunderings he does not hold back his lightning bolts either.

[38:37]  ¹⁰ tn The word actually means “to cause to lie down.”

[40:15]  ¹¹ sn The next ten verses are devoted to a portrayal of Behemoth (the name means “beast” in Hebrew). It does not fit any of the present material very well, and so many think the section is a later addition. Its style is more like that of a textbook. Moreover, if the animal is a real animal (the usual suggestion is the hippopotamus), then the location of such an animal is Egypt and not Palestine. Some have identified these creatures Behemoth and Leviathan as mythological creatures (Gunkel, Pope). Others point out that these creatures could have been dinosaurs (P. J. Maarten, NIDOTTE, 2:780; H. M. Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job, 115-22). Most would say they are real animals, but probably mythologized by the pagans. So the pagan reader would receive an additional impact from this point about God’s sovereignty over all nature.

[40:15]  ¹² sn By form the word is the feminine plural of the Hebrew word for “beast.” Here it is an abstract word – a title.

[40:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “with you.” The meaning could be temporal (“when I made you”) – perhaps a reference to the sixth day of creation (Gen 1:24).

[41:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “under him.”

[41:30]  ¹⁵ tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”

[41:31]  ¹⁶ sn The idea is either that the sea is stirred up like the foam from beating the ingredients together, or it is the musk-smell that is the point of comparison.