Ayub 6:16

6:16 They ¹  are dark ²  because of ice;

snow is piled ³  up over them. ⁴ 

Ayub 9:34

9:34 who ⁵  would take his ⁶  rod ⁷  away from me

so that his terror ⁸  would not make me afraid.

Ayub 13:21

13:21 Remove ⁹  your hand ¹⁰  far from me

and stop making me afraid with your terror. ¹¹ 

Ayub 14:17

14:17 My offenses would be sealed up ¹²  in a bag; ¹³ 

you would cover over ¹⁴  my sin.

Ayub 16:17

16:17 although ¹⁵  there is no violence in my hands

and my prayer is pure.

Ayub 18:6

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished. ¹⁶ 

Ayub 18:9-10

18:9 A trap ¹⁷  seizes him by the heel;

a snare ¹⁸  grips him.

18:10 A rope is hidden for him ¹⁹  on the ground

and a trap for him ²⁰  lies on the path.

Ayub 19:9

19:9 He has stripped me of my honor

and has taken the crown off my head. ²¹ 

Ayub 19:11

19:11 Thus ²²  his anger burns against me,

and he considers me among his enemies. ²³ 

Ayub 21:27

Futile Words, Deceptive Answers

21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, ²⁴ 

the schemes ²⁵  by which you would wrong me. ²⁶ 

Ayub 21:32

21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,

and watch is kept ²⁷  over the funeral mound, ²⁸ 

Ayub 26:9

26:9 He conceals ²⁹  the face of the full moon, ³⁰ 

shrouding it with his clouds.

Ayub 30:5

30:5 They were banished from the community ³¹  –

people ³²  shouted at them

like they would shout at thieves ³³  –

Ayub 31:10

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone ³⁴  for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her. ³⁵ 

Ayub 38:10

38:10 when I prescribed ³⁶  its limits,

and set ³⁷  in place its bolts and doors,

Ayub 39:23

39:23 On it the quiver rattles;

the lance and javelin ³⁸  flash.

[6:16]  ¹ tn The article on the participle joins this statement to the preceding noun; it can have the sense of “they” or “which.” The parallel sense then can be continued with a finite verb (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[6:16]  ² tn The participle הַקֹּדְרים (haqqodÿrim), often rendered “which are black,” would better be translated “dark,” for it refers to the turbid waters filled with melting ice or melting snow, or to the frozen surface of the water, but not waters that are muddied. The versions failed to note that this referred to the waters introduced in v. 15.

[6:16]  ³ tn The verb יִתְעַלֶּם (yit’allem) has been translated “is hid” or “hides itself.” But this does not work easily in the sentence with the preposition “upon them.” Torczyner suggested “pile up” from an Aramaic root עֲלַם (’alam), and E. Dhorme (Job, 87) defends it without changing the text, contending that the form we have was chosen for alliterative value with the prepositional phrase before it.

[6:16]  ⁴ tn The LXX paraphrases the whole verse: “They who used to reverence me now come against me like snow or congealed ice.”

[9:34]  ⁵ tn The verse probably continues the description from the last verse, and so a relative pronoun may be supplied here as well.

[9:34]  ⁶ tn According to some, the reference of this suffix would be to God. The arbiter would remove the rod of God from Job. But others take it as a separate sentence with God removing his rod.

[9:34]  ⁷ sn The “rod” is a symbol of the power of God to decree whatever judgments and afflictions fall upon people.

[9:34]  ⁸ tn “His terror” is metonymical; it refers to the awesome majesty of God that overwhelms Job and causes him to be afraid.

[13:21]  ⁹ tn The imperative הַרְחַק (harkhaq, “remove”; GKC 98 §29.q), from רָחַק (rakhaq, “far, be far”) means “take away [far away]; to remove.”

[13:21]  ¹⁰ sn This is a common, but bold, anthropomorphism. The fact that the word used is כַּף (kaf, properly “palm”) rather than יָד (yad, “hand,” with the sense of power) may stress Job’s feeling of being trapped or confined (see also Ps 139:5, 7).

[13:21]  ¹¹ tn See Job 9:34.

[14:17]  ¹² tn The passive participle חָתֻם (khatum), from חָתַם (khatam, “seal”), which is used frequently in the Bible, means “sealed up.” The image of sealing sins in a bag is another of the many poetic ways of expressing the removal of sin from the individual (see 1 Sam 25:29). Since the term most frequently describes sealed documents, the idea here may be more that of sealing in a bag the record of Job’s sins (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 334).

[14:17]  ¹³ tn The idea has been presented that the background of putting tally stones in a bag is intended (see A. L. Oppenheim, “On an Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy,” JNES 18 [1959]: 121-28).

[14:17]  ¹⁴ tn This verb was used in Job 13:4 for “plasterers of lies.” The idea is probably that God coats or paints over the sins so that they are forgotten (see Isa 1:18). A. B. Davidson (Job, 105) suggests that the sins are preserved until full punishment is exacted. But the verse still seems to be continuing the thought of how the sins would be forgotten in the next life.

[16:17]  ¹⁵ tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.

[18:6]  ¹⁶ tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

[18:6]  sn This thesis of Bildad will be questioned by Job in 21:17 – how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?

[18:9]  ¹⁷ tn This word פָּח (pakh) specifically refers to the snare of the fowler – thus a bird trap. But its plural seems to refer to nets in general (see Job 22:10).

[18:9]  ¹⁸ tn This word does not occur elsewhere. But another word from the same root means “plait of hair,” and so this term has something to do with a net like a trellis or lattice.

[18:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.

[18:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.

[19:9]  ²¹ sn The images here are fairly common in the Bible. God has stripped away Job’s honorable reputation. The crown is the metaphor for the esteem and dignity he once had. See 29:14; Isa 61:3; see Ps 8:5 [6].

[19:11]  ²² tn The verb is a nonpreterite vayyiqtol perhaps employed to indicate that the contents of v. 11 are a logical sequence to the actions described in v. 10.

[19:11]  ²³ tn This second half of the verse is a little difficult. The Hebrew has “and he reckons me for him like his adversaries.” Most would change the last word to a singular in harmony with the versions, “as his adversary.” But some retain the MT pointing and try to explain it variously: Weiser suggests that the plural might have come from a cultic recitation of Yahweh’s deeds against his enemies; Fohrer thinks it refers to the primeval enemies; Gordis takes it as distributive, “as one of his foes.” If the plural is retained, this latter view makes the most sense.

[21:27]  ²⁴ tn The word is “your thoughts.” The word for “thoughts” (from חָצַב [khatsav, “to think; to reckon; to plan”]) has more to do with their intent than their general thoughts. He knows that when they talked about the fate of the wicked they really were talking about him.

[21:27]  ²⁵ tn For the meaning of this word, and its root זָמַם (zamam), see Job 17:11. It usually means the “plans” or “schemes” that are concocted against someone.

[21:27]  ²⁶ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 321) distinguishes the verb חָמַס (khamas) from the noun for “violence.” He proposes a meaning of “think, imagine”: “and the ideas you imagined about me.”

[21:32]  ²⁷ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

[21:32]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

[26:9]  ²⁹ tn The verb means “to hold; to seize,” here in the sense of shutting up, enshrouding, or concealing.

[26:9]  ³⁰ tc The MT has כִסֵּה (khisseh), which is a problematic vocalization. Most certainly כֵּסֶה (keseh), alternative for כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”) is intended here. The MT is close to the form of “throne,” which would be כִּסֵּא (kisse’, cf. NLT “he shrouds his throne with his clouds”). But here God is covering the face of the moon by hiding it behind clouds.

[30:5]  ³¹ tn The word גֵּו (gev) is an Aramaic term meaning “midst,” indicating “midst [of society].” But there is also a Phoenician word that means “community” (DISO 48).

[30:5]  ³² tn The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.

[30:5]  ³³ tn The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.

[31:10]  ³⁴ tn Targum Job interpreted the verb טָחַן (takhan, “grind”) in a sexual sense, and this has influenced other versions and commentaries. But the literal sense fits well in this line. The idea is that she would be a slave for someone else. The second line of the verse then might build on this to explain what kind of a slave – a concubine (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 215).

[31:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “bow down over her,” an idiom for sexual relations.

[31:10]  sn The idea is that if Job were guilty of adultery it would be an offense against the other woman’s husband, and so by talionic justice another man’s adultery with Job’s wife would be an offense against him. He is not wishing something on his wife; rather, he is simply looking at what would be offenses in kind.

[38:10]  ³⁶ tc The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ashiyt, “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” (2 Sam 5:24; Job 14:3; Dan 11:36).

[38:10]  ³⁷ tn Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.

[39:23]  ³⁸ tn This may be the scimitar (see G. Molin, “What is a kidon?” JSS 1 [1956]: 334-37).