Ayub 22:10

22:10 That is why snares surround you,

and why sudden fear terrifies you,

Ayub 27:20

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ¹ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

Ayub 36:30

36:30 See how he scattered ²  his lightning ³  about him;

he has covered the depths ⁴  of the sea.

Ayub 37:21

37:21 But now, the sun ⁵  cannot be looked at ⁶  –

it is bright in the skies –

after a wind passed and swept the clouds away. ⁷ 

Ayub 38:8

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

when it burst forth, ⁹  coming out of the womb,

Ayub 38:13

38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, ¹⁰ 

and shake the wicked out of it?

[27:20]  ¹ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[36:30]  ² tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.

[36:30]  ³ tn The word is “light,” but taken to mean “lightning.” Theodotion had “mist” here, and so most commentators follow that because it is more appropriate to the verb and the context.

[36:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “roots.”

[37:21]  ⁵ tn The light here must refer to the sun in the skies that had been veiled by the storm. Then, when the winds blew the clouds away, it could not be looked at because it was so dazzling. Elihu’s analogy will be that God is the same – in his glory one cannot look at him or challenge him.

[37:21]  ⁶ tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.

[37:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and cleaned them.” The referent is the clouds (v. 18), which has been supplied in the translation for clarity. There is another way of reading this verse: the word translated “bright” means “dark; obscured” in Syriac. In this interpretation the first line would mean that they could not see the sun, because it was darkened by the clouds, but then the wind came and blew the clouds away. Dhorme, Gray, and several others take it this way, as does the NAB.

[38:8]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.