Ayub 29:20-23

29:20 My glory ¹  will always be fresh ²  in me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

Job’s Reputation

29:21 “People ³  listened to me and waited silently; ⁴ 

they kept silent for my advice.

29:22 After I had spoken, they did not respond;

my words fell on them drop by drop. ⁵ 

29:23 They waited for me as people wait ⁶  for the rain,

and they opened their mouths ⁷ 

as for ⁸  the spring rains.

[29:20]  ¹ tn The word is “my glory,” meaning his high respect and his honor. Hoffmann proposed to read כִּידוֹן (kidon) instead, meaning “javelin” (as in 1 Sam 17:6), to match the parallelism (RQ 3 [1961/62]: 388). But the parallelism does not need to be so tight.

[29:20]  ² tn Heb “new.”

[29:21]  ³ tn “People” is supplied; the verb is plural.

[29:21]  ⁴ tc The last verb of the first half, “wait, hope,” and the first verb in the second colon, “be silent,” are usually reversed by the commentators (see G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 86). But if “wait” has the idea of being silent as they wait for him to speak, then the second line would say they were silent for the reason of his advice. The reading of the MT is not impossible.

[29:22]  ⁵ tn The verb simply means “dropped,” but this means like the rain. So the picture of his words falling on them like the gentle rain, drop by drop, is what is intended (see Deut 32:2).

[29:23]  ⁶ tn The phrase “people wait for” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[29:23]  ⁷ sn The analogy is that they received his words eagerly as the dry ground opens to receive the rains.

[29:23]  ⁸ tn The כּ (kaf) preposition is to be supplied by analogy with the preceding phrase. This leaves a double proposition, “as for” (but see Job 29:2).