Ayub 22:10

22:10 That is why snares surround you,

and why sudden fear terrifies you,

Ayub 24:16

24:16 In the dark the robber ¹  breaks into houses, ² 

but by day they shut themselves in; ³ 

they do not know the light. ⁴ 

Ayub 26:10

26:10 He marks out the horizon ⁵  on the surface of the waters

as a boundary between light and darkness.

Ayub 38:8

38:8 “Who shut up ⁶  the sea with doors

when it burst forth, ⁷  coming out of the womb,

Ayub 38:13

38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, ⁸ 

and shake the wicked out of it?

[24:16]  ¹ tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.

[24:16]  ² tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.

[24:16]  ³ tc The verb חִתְּמוּ (khittÿmu) is the Piel from the verb חָתַם (khatam, “to seal”). The verb is now in the plural, covering all the groups mentioned that work under the cover of darkness. The suggestion that they “seal,” i.e., “mark” the house they will rob, goes against the meaning of the word “seal.”

[24:16]  ⁴ tc Some commentators join this very short colon to the beginning of v. 17: “they do not know the light. For together…” becomes “for together they have not known the light.”

[26:10]  ⁵ tn The expression חֹק־חָג (khoq-khag) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג (khaq-khug, “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג (khug, “describe a circle”) respectively.

[38:8]  ⁶ tn The MT has “and he shut up.” The Vulgate has “Who?” and so many commentaries and editions adopt this reading, if not from the Vulgate, then from the sense of the sequence in the text itself.

[38:8]  ⁷ tn The line uses two expressions, first the temporal clause with גִּיחַ (giakh, “when it burst forth”) and then the finite verb יֵצֵא (yetse’, “go out”) to mark the concomitance of the two actions.

[38:13]  ⁸ sn The poetic image is that darkness or night is like a blanket that covers the earth, and at dawn it is taken by the edges and shaken out. Since the wicked function under the cover of night, they are included in the shaking when the dawn comes up.