Ayub 31:4-7

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

31:5 If ¹  I have walked in falsehood,

and if ²  my foot has hastened ³  to deceit –

31:6 let him ⁴  weigh me with honest ⁵  scales;

then God will discover ⁶  my integrity.

31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,

if my heart has gone after my eyes, ⁷ 

or if anything ⁸  has defiled my hands,

Ayub 31:13-15

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ⁹  with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; ¹⁰ 

when he intervenes, ¹¹ 

how will I respond to him?

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? ¹² 

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

[31:5]  ¹ tn The normal approach is to take this as the protasis, and then have it resumed in v. 7 after a parenthesis in v. 6. But some take v. 6 as the apodosis and a new protasis in v. 7.

[31:5]  ² tn The “if” is understood by the use of the consecutive verb.

[31:5]  ³ sn The verbs “walk” and “hasten” (referring in the verse to the foot) are used metaphorically for the manner of life Job lived.

[31:6]  ⁴ tn “God” is undoubtedly the understood subject of this jussive. However, “him” is retained in the translation at this point to avoid redundancy since “God” occurs in the second half of the verse.

[31:6]  ⁵ tn The word צֶדֶךְ (tsedeq, “righteousness”) forms a fitting genitive for the scales used in trade or justice. The “scales of righteousness” are scales that conform to the standard (see the illustration in Deut 25:13-15). They must be honest scales to make just decisions.

[31:6]  ⁶ tn The verb is וְיֵדַע (vÿyeda’, “and [then] he [God] will know”). The verb could also be subordinated to the preceding jussive, “so that God may know.” The meaning of “to know” here has more the idea of “to come to know; to discover.”

[31:7]  ⁷ sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”

[31:7]  ⁸ tc The word מֻאוּם (mu’um) could be taken in one of two ways. One reading is to represent מוּם (mum, “blemish,” see the Masorah); the other is for מְאוּמָה (mÿ’umah, “anything,” see the versions and the Kethib). Either reading fits the passage.

[31:13]  ⁹ tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[31:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “arises.” The LXX reads “takes vengeance,” an interpretation that is somewhat correct but unnecessary. The verb “to rise” would mean “to confront in judgment.”

[31:14]  ¹¹ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” but with God as the subject it means any divine intervention for blessing or cursing, anything God does that changes a person’s life. Here it is “visit to judge.”

[31:15]  ¹² tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).