Ayub 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹  himself ²  with while he was sitting ³  among the ashes. ⁴ 

Ayub 3:19

3:19 Small and great are ⁵  there,

and the slave is free ⁶  from his master. ⁷ 

Ayub 5:23

5:23 For you will have a pact with the stones ⁸  of the field,

and the wild animals ⁹  will be at peace ¹⁰  with you.

Ayub 5:25

5:25 You will also know that your children ¹¹  will be numerous,

and your descendants ¹²  like the grass of the earth.

Ayub 9:33

9:33 Nor is there an arbiter ¹³  between us,

who ¹⁴  might lay ¹⁵  his hand on us both, ¹⁶ 

Ayub 18:17

18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,

he has no name in the land. ¹⁷ 

Ayub 20:4

20:4 “Surely you know ¹⁸  that it has been from old,

ever since humankind was placed ¹⁹  on the earth,

Ayub 24:6

24:6 They reap fodder ²⁰  in the field,

and glean ²¹  in the vineyard of the wicked.

Ayub 25:4

25:4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure? ²² 

Ayub 26:7

26:7 He spreads out the northern skies ²³  over empty space; ²⁴ 

he suspends the earth on nothing. ²⁵ 

Ayub 27:3

27:3 for while ²⁶  my spirit ²⁷  is still in me,

and the breath from God is in my nostrils,

Ayub 28:13-14

28:13 Mankind does not know its place; ²⁸ 

it cannot be found in the land of the living.

28:14 The deep ²⁹  says, ‘It is not with ³⁰  me.’

And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

Ayub 28:21

28:21 For ³¹  it has been hidden

from the eyes of every living creature,

and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.

Ayub 29:7

29:7 When I went out to the city gate

and secured my seat in the public square, ³² 

Ayub 31:32

31:32 But ³³  no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler ³⁴  –

Ayub 38:19

38:19 “In what direction ³⁵  does light reside,

and darkness, where is its place,

[2:8]  ¹ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ² sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ³ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ⁴ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[3:19]  ⁵ tn The versions have taken the pronoun in the sense of the verb “to be.” Others give it the sense of “the same thing,” rendering the verse as “small and great, there is no difference there.” GKC 437 §135.a, n. 1, follows this idea with a meaning of “the same.”

[3:19]  ⁶ tn The LXX renders this as “unafraid,” although the negative has disappeared in some mss to give the reading “and the servant that feared his master.” See I. Mendelsohn, “The Canaanite Term for ‘Free Proletarian’,” BASOR 83 (1941): 36-39; idem, “New Light on hupsu,” BASOR 139 (1955): 9-11.

[3:19]  ⁷ tn The plural “masters” could be taken here as a plural of majesty rather than as referring to numerous masters.

[5:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “your covenant is with the stones of the field.” The line has been variously interpreted and translated. It is omitted in the LXX. It seems to mean there is a deep sympathy between man and nature. Some think it means that the boundaries will not be violated by enemies; Rashi thought it represented some species of beings, like genii of the field, and so read אֲדֹנֵי (’adone, “lords”) for אַבְנֵי (’avne, “stones”). Ball takes the word as בְּנֵי (bÿne, “sons”), as in “sons of the field,” to get the idea that the reference is to the beasts. E. Dhorme (Job, 71) rejects these ideas as too contrived; he says to have a pact with the stones of the field simply means the stones will not come and spoil the ground, making it less fertile.

[5:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

[5:23]  ¹⁰ tn This is the only occurrence of the Hophal of the verb שָׁלֵם (shalem, “to make or have peace” with someone). Compare Isa 11:6-9 and Ps 91:13. The verb form is the perfect; here it is the perfect consecutive following a noun clause (see GKC 494 §159.g).

[5:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your seed.”

[5:25]  ¹² tn The word means “your shoots” and is parallel to “your seed” in the first colon. It refers here (as in Isa 34:1 and 42:5) to the produce of the earth. Some commentators suggest that Eliphaz seems to have forgotten or was insensitive to Job’s loss of his children; H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 57) says his conventional theology is untouched by human feeling.

[9:33]  ¹³ tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).

[9:33]  sn The old translation of “daysman” came from a Latin expression describing the fixing of a day for arbitration.

[9:33]  ¹⁴ tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.

[9:33]  ¹⁵ tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).

[9:33]  ¹⁶ sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.

[18:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.

[20:4]  ¹⁸ tn The MT has “Do you not know?” The question can be interpreted as a rhetorical question affirming that Job must know this. The question serves to express the conviction that the contents are well-known to the audience (see GKC 474 §150.e).

[20:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the putting of man on earth.” The infinitive is the object of the preposition, which is here temporal. If “man” is taken as the subjective genitive, then the verb would be given a passive translation. Here “man” is a generic, referring to “mankind” or “the human race.”

[24:6]  ²⁰ tc The word בְּלִילוֹ (bÿlilo) means “his fodder.” It is unclear to what this refers. If the suffix is taken as a collective, then it can be translated “they gather/reap their fodder.” The early versions all have “they reap in a field which is not his” (taking it as בְּלִי לוֹ, bÿli lo). A conjectural emendation would change the word to בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “in the night”). But there is no reason for this.

[24:6]  ²¹ tn The verbs in this verse are uncertain. In the first line “reap” is used, and that would be the work of a hired man (and certainly not done at night). The meaning of this second verb is uncertain; it has been taken to mean “glean,” which would be the task of the poor.

[25:4]  ²² sn Bildad here does not come up with new expressions; rather, he simply uses what Eliphaz had said (see Job 4:17-19 and 15:14-16).

[26:7]  ²³ sn The Hebrew word is צָפוֹן (tsafon). Some see here a reference to Mount Zaphon of the Ugaritic texts, the mountain that Baal made his home. The Hebrew writers often equate and contrast Mount Zion with this proud mountain of the north. Of course, the word just means north, and so in addition to any connotations for pagan mythology, it may just represent the northern skies – the stars. Since the parallel line speaks of the earth, that is probably all that was intended in this particular context.

[26:7]  ²⁴ sn There is an allusion to the creation account, for this word is תֹּהוּ (tohu), translated “without form” in Gen 1:2.

[26:7]  ²⁵ sn Buttenwieser suggests that Job had outgrown the idea of the earth on pillars, and was beginning to see it was suspended in space. But in v. 11 he will still refer to the pillars.

[27:3]  ²⁶ tn The adverb עוֹד (’od) was originally a noun, and so here it could be rendered “all the existence of my spirit.” The word comes between the noun in construct and its actual genitive (see GKC 415 §128.e).

[27:3]  ²⁷ tn The word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah) is the “breath” that was breathed into Adam in Gen 2:7. Its usage includes the animating breath, the spiritual understanding, and the functioning conscience – so the whole spirit of the person. The other word in this verse, רוּחַ (ruakh), may be translated as “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit/Spirit” depending on the context. Here, since it talks about the nostrils, it should be translated “breath.”

[28:13]  ²⁸ tc The LXX has “its way, apparently reading דַּרְכָה (darkhah) in place of עֶרְכָּהּ (’erkah, “place”). This is adopted by most modern commentators. But R. Gordis (Job, 308) shows that this change is not necessary, for עֶרֶךְ (’erekh) in the Bible means “order; row; disposition,” and here “place.” An alternate meaning would be “worth” (NIV, ESV).

[28:14]  ²⁹ sn The תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) is the “deep” of Gen 1:2, the abyss or primordial sea. It was always understood to be a place of darkness and danger. As remote as it is, it asserts that wisdom is not found there (personification). So here we have the abyss and the sea, then death and destruction – but they are not the places that wisdom resides.

[28:14]  ³⁰ tn The בּ (bet) preposition is taken here to mean “with” in the light of the parallel preposition.

[28:21]  ³¹ tn The vav on the verb is unexpressed in the LXX. It should not be overlooked, for it introduces a subordinate clause of condition (R. Gordis, Job, 310).

[29:7]  ³² sn In the public square. The area referred to here should not be thought of in terms of modern western dimensions. The wide space, plaza, or public square mentioned here is the open area in the gate complex where legal and business matters were conducted. The area could be as small as a few hundred square feet.

[31:32]  ³³ tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.

[31:32]  ³⁴ tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.

[38:19]  ³⁵ tn The interrogative with דֶרֶךְ (derekh) means “in what road” or “in what direction.”