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 39:21

39:21 It ⁴  paws the ground in the valley, ⁵ 

exulting mightily, ⁶ 

it goes out to meet the weapons.

Ayub 39:28

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

on a rocky crag ⁷  and a fortress. ⁸ 

Ayub 41:30

41:30 Its underparts ⁹  are the sharp points of potsherds,

it leaves its mark in the mud

like a threshing sledge. ¹⁰ 

[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.”

[39:21]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text has a plural verb, “they paw.” For consistency and for stylistic reasons this is translated as a singular.

[39:21]  ⁵ tn The armies would prepare for battles that were usually fought in the valleys, and so the horse was ready to charge. But in Ugaritic the word `mk means “force” as well as “valley.” The idea of “force” would fit the parallelism here well (see M. Dahood, “Value of Ugaritic for textual criticism,” Bib 40 [1959]: 166).

[39:21]  ⁶ tn Or “in strength.”

[39:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon the tooth of a rock.”

[39:28]  ⁸ 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.

[41:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “under him.”

[41:30]  ¹⁰ 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.”