Ayub 39:6-9

39:6 to whom I appointed the steppe for its home,

the salt wastes as its dwelling place?

39:7 It scorns the tumult in the town;

it does not hear the shouts of a driver. ¹ 

39:8 It ranges the hills as its pasture,

and searches after every green plant.

39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?

Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?

Ayub 39:12-13

39:12 Can you count on ²  it to bring in ³  your grain, ⁴ 

and gather the grain ⁵  to your threshing floor? ⁶ 

39:13 ⁷ “The wings of the ostrich ⁸  flap with joy, ⁹ 

but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork? ¹⁰ 

Ayub 39:15

39:15 She forgets that a foot might crush them,

or that a wild animal ¹¹  might trample them.

Ayub 39:18-20

39:18 But as soon as she springs up, ¹² 

she laughs at the horse and its rider.

39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength?

Do you clothe its neck with a mane? ¹³ 

39:20 Do you make it leap ¹⁴  like a locust?

Its proud neighing ¹⁵  is terrifying!

Ayub 39:22

39:22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

it does not shy away from the sword.

Ayub 39:27

39:27 Is it at your command ¹⁶  that the eagle soars,

and builds its nest on high?

Ayub 39:30

39:30 And its young ones devour the blood,

and where the dead carcasses ¹⁷  are,

there it is.”

Ayub 40:4

40:4 “Indeed, I am completely unworthy ¹⁸  – how could I reply to you?

I put ¹⁹  my hand over my mouth to silence myself. ²⁰ 

Ayub 40:9-11

40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, ²¹ 

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

40:10 Adorn yourself, then, with majesty and excellency,

and clothe yourself with glory and honor!

40:11 Scatter abroad ²²  the abundance ²³  of your anger.

Look at every proud man ²⁴  and bring him low;

Ayub 40:13

40:13 Hide them in the dust ²⁵  together,

imprison ²⁶  them ²⁷  in the grave. ²⁸ 

Ayub 40:17

40:17 It makes its tail stiff ²⁹  like a cedar,

the sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.

Ayub 40:20-22

40:20 For the hills bring it food, ³⁰ 

where all the wild animals play.

40:21 Under the lotus trees it lies,

in the secrecy of the reeds and the marsh.

40:22 The lotus trees conceal it in their ³¹  shadow;

the poplars by the stream conceal it.

Ayub 40:24

40:24 Can anyone catch it by its eyes, ³² 

or pierce its nose with a snare? ³³ 

[39:7]  ¹ sn The animal is happier in open countryside than in a busy town, and on its own rather than being driven by a herdsman.

[39:12]  ² tn The word is normally translated “believe” in the Bible. The idea is that of considering something dependable and acting on it. The idea of reliability is found also in the Niphal stem usages.

[39:12]  ³ tc There is a textual problem here: יָשׁוּב (yashuv) is the Kethib, meaning “[that] he will return”; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) is the Qere, meaning “that he will bring in.” This is the preferred reading, since the object follows it. For commentators who think the line too unbalanced for this, the object is moved to the second colon, and the reading “returns” is taken for the first. But the MT is perfectly clear as it stands.

[39:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.

[39:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:12]  ⁶ tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.

[39:13]  ⁷ tc This whole section on the ostrich is not included in the LXX. Many feel it is an interpolation and should therefore be deleted. The pattern of the chapter changes from the questions being asked to observations being made.

[39:13]  ⁸ tn The word occurs only here and means “shrill cries.” If the MT is correct, this is a poetic name for the ostrich (see Lam 4:3).

[39:13]  ⁹ tn Many proposals have been made here. The MT has a verb, “exult.” Strahan had “flap joyously,” a rendering followed by the NIV. The RSV uses “wave proudly.”

[39:13]  ¹⁰ tn The point of this statement would be that the ostrich cannot compare to the stork. But there are many other proposals for this line – just about every commentator has a different explanation for it. Of the three words here, the first means “pinion,” the third “plumage,” and the second probably “stork,” although the LXX has “heron.” The point of this whole section is that the ostrich is totally lacking in parental care, whereas the stork is characterized by it. The Hebrew word for “stork” is the same word for “love”: חֲסִידָה (khasidah), an interpretation followed by the NASB. The most likely reading is “or are they the pinions and plumage of the stork?” The ostrich may flap about, but cannot fly and does not care for its young.

[39:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “an animal of the field.”

[39:18]  ¹² tn The colon poses a slight problem here. The literal meaning of the Hebrew verb translated “springs up” (i.e., “lifts herself on high”) might suggest flight. But some of the proposals involve a reading about readying herself to run.

[39:19]  ¹³ tn The second half of the verse contains this hapax legomenon, which is usually connected with the word רַעְמָה (ra’mah, “thunder”). A. B. Davidson thought it referred to the quivering of the neck rather than the mane. Gray thought the sound and not the movement was the point. But without better evidence, a reading that has “quivering mane” may not be far off the mark. But it may be simplest to translate it “mane” and assume that the idea of “quivering” is part of the meaning.

[39:20]  ¹⁴ sn The same ideas are found in Joel 2:4. The leaping motion is compared to the galloping of the horse.

[39:20]  ¹⁵ tn The word could mean “snorting” as well (see Jer 8:16). It comes from the root “to blow.” If the horse is running and breathing hard, this could be the sense here.

[39:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your mouth.”

[39:30]  ¹⁷ tn The word חֲלָלִים (khalalim) designates someone who is fatally wounded, literally the “pierced one,” meaning anyone or thing that dies a violent death.

[40:4]  ¹⁸ tn The word קַלֹּתִי (qalloti) means “to be light; to be of small account; to be unimportant.” From this comes the meaning “contemptible,” which in the causative stem would mean “to treat with contempt; to curse.” Dhorme tries to make the sentence a conditional clause and suggests this meaning: “If I have been thoughtless.” There is really no “if” in Job’s mind.

[40:4]  ¹⁹ tn The perfect verb here should be classified as an instantaneous perfect; the action is simultaneous with the words.

[40:4]  ²⁰ tn The words “to silence myself” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[40:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[40:11]  ²² tn The verb was used for scattering lightning (Job 37:11). God is challenging Job to unleash his power and judge wickedness in the world.

[40:11]  ²³ tn Heb “the overflowings.”

[40:11]  ²⁴ tn The word was just used in the positive sense of excellence or majesty; now the exalted nature of the person refers to self-exaltation, or pride.

[40:13]  ²⁵ tn The word “dust” can mean “ground” here, or more likely, “grave.”

[40:13]  ²⁶ tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) means “to bind.” In Arabic the word means “to bind” in the sense of “to imprison,” and that fits here.

[40:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their faces.”

[40:13]  ²⁸ tn The word is “secret place,” the place where he is to hide them, i.e., the grave. The text uses the word “secret place” as a metonymy for the grave.

[40:17]  ²⁹ tn The verb חָפַץ (khafats) occurs only here. It may have the meaning “to make stiff; to make taut” (Arabic). The LXX and the Syriac versions support this with “erects.” But there is another Arabic word that could be cognate, meaning “arch, bend.” This would give the idea of the tail swaying. The other reading seems to make better sense here. However, “stiff” presents a serious problem with the view that the animal is the hippopotamus.

[40:20]  ³⁰ tn The word בּוּל (bul) probably refers to food. Many take it as an abbreviated form of יְבוּל (yÿvul, “produce of the field”). The vegetation that is produced on the low hills is what is meant.

[40:22]  ³¹ tn The suffix is singular, but must refer to the trees’ shade.

[40:24]  ³² tn The idea would be either (1) catch it while it is watching, or (2) in some way disabling its eyes before the attack. But others change the reading; Ball suggested “with hooks” and this has been adopted by some modern English versions (e.g., NRSV).

[40:24]  ³³ tn Ehrlich altered the MT slightly to get “with thorns,” a view accepted by Driver, Dhorme and Pope.