Ayub 4:11

4:11 The mighty lion ¹  perishes ²  for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness ³  are scattered.

Ayub 17:14

17:14 If I cry ⁴  to corruption, ⁵  ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My Mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

Ayub 18:12

18:12 Calamity is ⁶  hungry for him, ⁷ 

and misfortune is ready at his side. ⁸ 

Ayub 19:22

19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does? ⁹ 

Will you never be satiated with my flesh? ¹⁰ 

Ayub 21:26

21:26 Together they lie down in the dust,

and worms cover over them both.

Ayub 30:30

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; ¹¹ 

my body ¹²  is hot with fever. ¹³ 

[4:11]  ¹ tn The word לַיִשׁ (layish) traditionally rendered “strong lion,” occurs only here and in Prov 30:30 and Isa 30:6. It has cognates in several of the Semitic languages, and so seems to indicate lion as king of the beasts.

[4:11]  ² tn The form of the verb is the Qal active participle; it stresses the characteristic action of the verb as if a standard universal truth.

[4:11]  ³ tn The text literally has “sons of the lioness.”

[17:14]  ⁴ tn This is understood because the conditional clauses seem to run to the apodosis in v. 15.

[17:14]  ⁵ tn The word שַׁחַת (shakhat) may be the word “corruption” from a root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) or a word “pit” from שׁוּחַ (shuakh, “to sink down”). The same problem surfaces in Ps 16:10, where it is parallel to “Sheol.” E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life, 76ff., defends the meaning “corruption.” But many commentators here take it to mean “the grave” in harmony with “Sheol.” But in this verse “worms” would suggest “corruption” is better.

[18:12]  ⁶ tn The jussive is occasionally used without its normal sense and only as an imperfect (see GKC 323 §109.k).

[18:12]  ⁷ tn There are a number of suggestions for אֹנוֹ (’ono). Some take it as “vigor”: thus “his strength is hungry.” Others take it as “iniquity”: thus “his iniquity/trouble is hungry.”

[18:12]  ⁸ tn The expression means that misfortune is right there to destroy him whenever there is the opportunity.

[19:22]  ⁹ sn Strahan comments, “The whole tragedy of the book is packed into these extraordinary words.”

[19:22]  ¹⁰ sn The idiom of eating the pieces of someone means “slander” in Aramaic (see Dan 3:8), Arabic and Akkadian.

[30:30]  ¹¹ tn The MT has “become dark from upon me,” prompting some editions to supply the verb “falls from me” (RSV, NRSV), or “peels” (NIV).

[30:30]  ¹² tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.

[30:30]  ¹³ tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.