Ayub 5:25

5:25 You will also know that your children ¹  will be numerous,

and your descendants ²  like the grass of the earth.

Ayub 14:18

14:18 But as ³  a mountain falls away and crumbles, ⁴ 

and as a rock will be removed from its place,

Ayub 15:16

15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, ⁵ 

who drinks in evil like water! ⁶ 

Ayub 15:29

15:29 He will not grow rich,

and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions ⁷  spread over the land.

Ayub 16:15

16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, ⁸ 

and buried ⁹  my horn ¹⁰  in the dust;

Ayub 20:11

20:11 His bones ¹¹  were full of his youthful vigor, ¹² 

but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

Ayub 22:24

22:24 and throw ¹³  your gold ¹⁴  in the dust –

your gold ¹⁵  of Ophir

among the rocks in the ravines –

Ayub 28:13

28:13 Mankind does not know its place; ¹⁶ 

it cannot be found in the land of the living.

Ayub 29:6

29:6 when my steps ¹⁷  were bathed ¹⁸  with butter ¹⁹ 

and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil! ²⁰ 

Ayub 30:8

30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, ²¹ 

they were driven out of the land with whips. ²² 

Ayub 36:30

36:30 See how he scattered ²³  his lightning ²⁴  about him;

he has covered the depths ²⁵  of the sea.

Ayub 39:12

39:12 Can you count on ²⁶  it to bring in ²⁷  your grain, ²⁸ 

and gather the grain ²⁹  to your threshing floor? ³⁰ 

Ayub 40:13

40:13 Hide them in the dust ³¹  together,

imprison ³²  them ³³  in the grave. ³⁴ 

[5:25]  ¹ tn Heb “your seed.”

[5:25]  ² tn The word means “your shoots” and is parallel to “your seed” in the first colon. It refers here (as in Isa 34:1 and 42:5) to the produce of the earth. Some commentators suggest that Eliphaz seems to have forgotten or was insensitive to Job’s loss of his children; H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 57) says his conventional theology is untouched by human feeling.

[14:18]  ³ tn The indication that this is a simile is to be obtained from the conjunction beginning 19c (see GKC 499 §161.a).

[14:18]  ⁴ tn The word יִבּוֹל (yibbol) usually refers to a flower fading and so seems strange here. The LXX and the Syriac translate “and will fall”; most commentators accept this and repoint the preceding word to get “and will surely fall.” Duhm retains the MT and applies the image of the flower to the falling mountain. The verb is used of the earth in Isa 24:4, and so NIV, RSV, and NJPS all have the idea of “crumble away.”

[15:16]  ⁵ tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).

[15:16]  ⁶ sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.

[15:29]  ⁷ tn This word מִנְלָם (minlam) also is a hapax legomenon, although almost always interpreted to mean “possession” (with Arabic manal) and repointed as מְנֹלָם (mÿnolam). M. Dahood further changes “earth” to the netherworld, and interprets it to mean “his possessions will not go down to the netherworld (“Value of Ugaritic for Textual Criticism,” Bib 40 [1959]: 164-66). Others suggest it means “ear of grain,” either from the common word for “ears of grain” or a hapax legomenon in Deuteronomy 23:26 [25].

[16:15]  ⁸ sn The language is hyperbolic; Job is saying that the sackcloth he has put on in his lamentable state is now stuck to his skin as if he had stitched it into the skin. It is now a habitual garment that he never takes off.

[16:15]  ⁹ tn The Poel עֹלַלְתִּי (’olalti) from עָלַל (’alal, “to enter”) has here the meaning of “to thrust in.” The activity is the opposite of “raising high the horn,” a picture of dignity and victory.

[16:15]  ¹⁰ tn There is no English term that captures exactly what “horn” is meant to do. Drawn from the animal world, the image was meant to convey strength and pride and victory. Some modern commentators have made other proposals for the line. Svi Rin suggested from Ugaritic that the verb be translated “lower” or “dip” (“Ugaritic – Old Testament Affinities,” BZ 7 [1963]: 22-33).

[20:11]  ¹¹ tn “Bones” is often used metonymically for the whole person, the bones being the framework, meaning everything inside, as well as the body itself.

[20:11]  ¹² sn This line means that he dies prematurely – at the height of his youthful vigor.

[22:24]  ¹³ tc The form is the imperative. Eliphaz is telling Job to get rid of his gold as evidence of his repentance. Many commentators think that this is too improbable for Eliphaz to have said, and that Job has lost everything anyway, and so they make proposals for the text. Most would follow Theodotion and the Syriac to read וְשָׁתָּ (vÿshatta, “and you will esteem….”). This would mean that he is promising Job restoration of his wealth.

[22:24]  tn Heb “place.”

[22:24]  ¹⁴ tn The word for “gold” is the rare בֶּצֶר (betser), which may be derived from a cognate of Arabic basara, “to see; to examine.” If this is the case, the word here would refer to refined gold. The word also forms a fine wordplay with בְצוּר (bÿtsur, “in the rock”).

[22:24]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text simply has “Ophir,” a metonymy for the gold that comes from there.

[28:13]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX has “its way, apparently reading דַּרְכָה (darkhah) in place of עֶרְכָּהּ (’erkah, “place”). This is adopted by most modern commentators. But R. Gordis (Job, 308) shows that this change is not necessary, for עֶרֶךְ (’erekh) in the Bible means “order; row; disposition,” and here “place.” An alternate meaning would be “worth” (NIV, ESV).

[29:6]  ¹⁷ tn The word is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is clear enough. It refers to the walking, the steps, or even the paths where one walks. It is figurative of his course of life.

[29:6]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew word means “to wash; to bathe”; here it is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, “my steps” being the genitive: “in the washing of my steps in butter.”

[29:6]  ¹⁹ tn Again, as in Job 21:17, “curds.”

[29:6]  ²⁰ tn The MT reads literally, “and the rock was poured out [passive participle] for me as streams of oil.” There are some who delete the word “rock” to shorten the line because it seems out of place. But olive trees thrive in rocky soil, and the oil presses are cut into the rock; it is possible that by metonymy all this is intended here (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 186).

[30:8]  ²¹ tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).

[30:8]  ²² tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”

[36:30]  ²³ tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.

[36:30]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “roots.”

[39:12]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.

[39:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:12]  ³⁰ tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.

[40:13]  ³¹ tn The word “dust” can mean “ground” here, or more likely, “grave.”

[40:13]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “their faces.”

[40:13]  ³⁴ 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.