Ayub 2:9

2:9 Then ¹  his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? ²  Curse ³  God, and die!” ⁴ 

Ayub 10:16

10:16 If I lift myself up, ⁵ 

you hunt me as a fierce lion, ⁶ 

and again ⁷  you display your power ⁸  against me.

Ayub 11:17

11:17 And life ⁹  will be brighter ¹⁰  than the noonday;

though there be darkness, ¹¹ 

it will be like the morning.

Ayub 12:24

12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth ¹² 

of their understanding; ¹³ 

he makes them wander

in a trackless desert waste. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 21:19

21:19 You may say, ¹⁵  ‘God stores up a man’s ¹⁶  punishment for his children!’ ¹⁷ 

Instead let him repay ¹⁸  the man himself ¹⁹ 

so that ²⁰  he may know it!

Ayub 21:30

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ²¹ 

from the day of God’s wrath?

Ayub 22:18

22:18 But it was he ²²  who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked ²³ 

was far from me. ²⁴ 

Ayub 28:4

28:4 Far from where people live ²⁵  he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten, ²⁶ 

far from other people he dangles and sways. ²⁷ 

Ayub 28:7-8

28:7 a hidden path ²⁸  no bird of prey knows –

no falcon’s ²⁹  eye has spotted it.

28:8 Proud beasts ³⁰  have not set foot on it,

and no lion has passed along it.

Ayub 30:24

The Contrast With the Past

30:24 “Surely one does not stretch out his hand

against a broken man ³¹ 

when he cries for help in his distress. ³² 

Ayub 30:26

30:26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came;

when I expected light, then darkness came.

Ayub 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ³³  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ³⁴  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ³⁵ 

Ayub 32:13

32:13 So do not say, ³⁶  ‘We have found wisdom!

God will refute ³⁷  him, not man!’

Ayub 33:17

33:17 to turn a person from his sin, ³⁸ 

and to cover a person’s pride. ³⁹ 

Ayub 34:6

34:6 Concerning my right, should I lie? ⁴⁰ 

My wound ⁴¹  is incurable,

although I am without transgression.’ ⁴² 

Ayub 35:11

35:11 who teaches us ⁴³  more than ⁴⁴  the wild animals of the earth,

and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

Ayub 38:25

38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,

and a path for the rumble of thunder,

Ayub 39:1

39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way ⁴⁵ 

the mountain goats ⁴⁶  give birth?

Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?

Ayub 39:21

39:21 It ⁴⁷  paws the ground in the valley, ⁴⁸ 

exulting mightily, ⁴⁹ 

it goes out to meet the weapons.

[2:9]  ¹ tn The versions have some information here that is interesting, albeit fanciful. The Targum calls her “Dinah.” The LXX has “when a long time had passed.” But the whole rendering of the LXX is paraphrastic: “How long will you hold out, saying, ‘Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance?’ for behold, your memorial is abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows, and you yourself sit down to spend the night in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting sun, that I may rest from my labors and pains that now beset me, but say some word against the Lord and die.”

[2:9]  ² sn See R. D. Moore, “The Integrity of Job,” CBQ 45 (1983): 17-31. The reference of Job’s wife to his “integrity” could be a precursor of the conclusion reached by Elihu in 32:2 where he charged Job with justifying himself rather than God.

[2:9]  ³ tn The verb is literally בָּרַךְ, (barakh, “bless”). As in the earlier uses, the meaning probably has more to do with renouncing God than of speaking a curse. The actual word may be taken as a theological euphemism for the verb קִלֵּל (qillel, “curse”). If Job’s wife had meant that he was trying to justify himself rather than God, “bless God” might be translated “speak well of God,” the resolution accepted by God in 42:7-8 following Job’s double confession of having spoken wrongly of God (40:3-5; 42:1-6).

[2:9]  sn The church fathers were quick to see here again the role of the wife in the temptation – she acts as the intermediary between Satan and Job, pressing the cause for him. However, Job’s wife has been demonized falsely. Job did not say that she was a foolish woman, only that she was speaking like one of them (2:10). Also, Job did not exclude her from sharing in his suffering (“should we receive”). He evidently recognized that her words were the result of her personal loss and pain as well as the desire to see her husband’s suffering ended. When God gave instructions for the restoration of Job’s friends because of their foolish words (42:7-9), no mention is made of any need for Job’s wife to be restored.

[2:9]  ⁴ tn The imperative with the conjunction in this expression serves to express the certainty that will follow as the result or consequence of the previous imperative (GKC 324-25 §110.f).

[10:16]  ⁵ tn The MT has the 3rd person of the verb, “and he lifts himself up.” One might assume that the subject is “my head” – but that is rather far removed from the verb. It appears that Job is talking about himself in some way. Some commentators simply emend the text to make it first person. This has the support of Targum Job, which would be expected since it would be interpreting the passage in its context (see D. M. Stec, “The Targum Rendering of WYG’H in Job X 16,” VT 34 [1984]: 367-8). Pope and Gordis make the word adjectival, modifying the subject: “proudly you hunt me,” but support is lacking. E. Dhorme thinks the line should be parallel to the two preceding it, and so suggests יָגֵּעַ (yagea’, “exhausted”) for יִגְאֶה (yig’eh, “lift up”). The contextual argument is that Job has said that he cannot raise his head, but if he were to do so, God would hunt him down. God could be taken as the subject of the verb if the text is using enallage (shifting of grammatical persons within a discourse) for dramatic effect. Perhaps the initial 3rd person was intended with respect within a legal context of witnesses and a complaint, but was switched to 2nd person for direct accusation.

[10:16]  ⁶ sn There is some ambiguity here: Job could be the lion being hunted by God, or God could be hunting Job like a lion hunts its prey. The point of the line is clear in either case.

[10:16]  ⁷ tn The text uses two verbs without a coordinating conjunction: “then you return, you display your power.” This should be explained as a verbal hendiadys, the first verb serving adverbially in the clause (see further GKC 386-87 §120.g).

[10:16]  ⁸ tn The form is the Hitpael of פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be surpassing; to be extraordinary”). Here in this stem it has the sense of “make oneself admirable, surpassing” or “render oneself powerful, glorious.” The text is ironic; the word that described God’s marvelous creation of Job is here used to describe God’s awesome destruction of Job.

[11:17]  ⁹ tn Some translations add the pronoun to make it specifically related to Job (“your life”), but this is not necessary. The word used here has the nuance of lasting life.

[11:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and more than the noonday life will arise.” The present translation is an interpretation in the context. The connotation of “arise” in comparison with the noonday, and in contrast with the darkness, supports the interpretation.

[11:17]  ¹¹ tn The form in the MT is the 3fsg imperfect verb, “[though] it be dark.” Most commentators revocalize the word to make it a noun (תְּעֻפָה, tÿ’ufah), giving the meaning “the darkness [of your life] will be like the morning.” The contrast is with Job 10:22; here the darkness will shine like the morning.

[12:24]  ¹² tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”

[12:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “heart.”

[12:24]  ¹⁴ tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).

[21:19]  ¹⁵ tn These words are supplied. The verse records an idea that Job suspected they might have, namely, that if the wicked die well God will make their children pay for the sins (see Job 5:4; 20:10; as well as Exod 20:5).

[21:19]  ¹⁶ tn The text simply has אוֹנוֹ (’ono, “his iniquity”), but by usage, “the punishment for the iniquity.”

[21:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his sons.”

[21:19]  ¹⁸ tn The verb שָׁלַם (shalam) in the Piel has the meaning of restoring things to their normal, making whole, and so reward, repay (if for sins), or recompense in general.

[21:19]  ¹⁹ tn The text simply has “let him repay [to] him.”

[21:19]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect verb after the jussive carries the meaning of a purpose clause, and so taken as a final imperfect: “in order that he may know [or realize].”

[21:30]  ²¹ tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.

[22:18]  ²² tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.

[22:18]  ²³ tn See Job 10:3.

[22:18]  ²⁴ tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).

[28:4]  ²⁵ tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.

[28:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.

[28:4]  ²⁷ sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.

[28:7]  ²⁸ tn The “path” could refer to the mine shaft or it could refer to wisdom. The former seems more likely in the present context; the word “hidden is supplied in the translation to indicate the mines are “hidden” from sharp-eyed birds of prey above.

[28:7]  ²⁹ sn The kind of bird mentioned here is debated. The LXX has “vulture,” and so some commentaries follow that. The emphasis on the sight favors the view that it is the falcon.

[28:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.

[30:24]  ³¹ tc Here is another very difficult verse, as is attested by the differences among commentaries and translations. The MT has “surely not against a ruinous heap will he [God] put forth his [God’s] hand.” But A. B. Davidson takes Job as the subject, reading “does not one stretch out his hand in his fall?” The RSV suggests a man walking in the ruins and using his hand for support. Dillmann changed it to “drowning man” to say “does not a drowning man stretch out his hand?” Beer has “have I not given a helping hand to the poor?” Dhorme has, “I did not strike the poor man with my hand.” Kissane follows this but retains the verb form, “one does not strike the poor man with his hand.”

[30:24]  ³² tc The second colon is also difficult; it reads, “if in his destruction to them he cries.” E. Dhorme (Job, 425-26) explains how he thinks “to them” came about, and he restores “to me.” This is the major difficulty in the line, and Dhorme’s suggestion is the simplest resolution.

[32:3]  ³³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ³⁴ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ³⁵ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.

[32:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “lest you say.” R. Gordis (Job, 368) calls this a breviloquence: “beware lest [you say].” He then suggests the best reading for their quote to be, “We have attained wisdom, but only God can refute him, not man.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 209) suggests the meaning is a little different, namely, that they are saying they have found wisdom in Job, and only God can deal with it. Elihu is in effect saying that they do not need God, for he is quite capable for this.

[32:13]  ³⁷ tn The root is נָדַף (nadaf, “to drive away; to drive off”). Here it is in the abstract sense of “succeed in doing something; confound,” and so “refute; rebut.” Dhorme wants to change the meaning of the word with a slight emendation in the text, deriving it from אָלַף (’alaf, “instruct”) the form becoming יַלְּפֶנוּ (yallÿfenu) instead of יִדְּפֶנּוּ (yiddÿfenu), obtaining the translation “God will instruct us.” This makes a smoother reading, but does not have much support for it.

[33:17]  ³⁸ tc The MT simply has מַעֲשֶׂה (ma’aseh, “deed”). The LXX has “from his iniquity” which would have been מֵעַוְלָה (me’avlah). The two letters may have dropped out by haplography. The MT is workable, but would have to mean “[evil] deeds.”

[33:17]  ³⁹ tc Here too the sense of the MT is difficult to recover. Some translations took it to mean that God hides pride from man. Many commentators changed יְכַסֶּה (yÿkhasseh, “covers”) to יְכַסֵּחַ (yÿkhasseakh, “he cuts away”), or יְכַלֶּה (yÿkhalleh, “he puts an end to”). The various emendations are not all that convincing.

[34:6]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb is the Piel imperfect of כָּזַב (kazav), meaning “to lie.” It could be a question: “Should I lie [against my right?] – when I am innocent. If it is repointed to the Pual, then it can be “I am made to lie,” or “I am deceived.” Taking it as a question makes good sense here, and so emendations are unnecessary.

[34:6]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew text has only “my arrow.” Some commentators emend that word slightly to get “my wound.” But the idea could be derived from “arrows” as well, the wounds caused by the arrows. The arrows are symbolic of God’s affliction.

[34:6]  ⁴² tn Heb “without transgression”; but this is parallel to the first part where the claim is innocence.

[35:11]  ⁴³ tn The form in the text, the Piel participle from אָלַף (’alaf, “teach”) is written in a contracted form; the full form is מְאַלְּפֵנוּ (mÿ’allÿfenu).

[35:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Some would render this “teaches us by the beasts.” But Elihu is stressing the unique privilege humans have.

[39:1]  ⁴⁵ tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”

[39:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “ibex.”

[39:21]  ⁴⁷ tc The Hebrew text has a plural verb, “they paw.” For consistency and for stylistic reasons this is translated as a singular.

[39:21]  ⁴⁸ 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]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “in strength.”