Ayub 6:26

6:26 Do you intend to criticize mere words,

and treat ¹  the words of a despairing man as wind?

Ayub 13:18

13:18 See now, ²  I have prepared ³  my ⁴  case; ⁵ 

I know that I am right. ⁶ 

Ayub 14:4

14:4 Who can make ⁷  a clean thing come from an unclean? ⁸ 

No one!

Ayub 16:17

16:17 although ⁹  there is no violence in my hands

and my prayer is pure.

Ayub 21:6

21:6 For, when I think ¹⁰  about this, I am terrified ¹¹ 

and my body feels a shudder. ¹² 

Ayub 21:34

21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?

Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” ¹³ 

Ayub 24:23

24:23 God ¹⁴  may let them rest in a feeling of security, ¹⁵ 

but he is constantly watching ¹⁶  all their ways. ¹⁷ 

Ayub 29:4

29:4 just as I was in my most productive time, ¹⁸ 

when God’s intimate friendship ¹⁹  was experienced in my tent,

Ayub 31:11

31:11 For I would have committed ²⁰  a shameful act, ²¹ 

an iniquity to be judged. ²² 

Ayub 33:29

Elihu’s Appeal to Job ²³ 

33:29 “Indeed, God does all these things,

twice, three times, in his dealings ²⁴  with a person,

Ayub 34:23

34:23 For he does not still consider a person, ²⁵ 

that he should come before God in judgment.

Ayub 37:1

37:1 At this also my heart pounds

and leaps from its place.

[6:26]  ¹ tn This, in the context, is probably the meaning, although the Hebrew simply has the line after the first half of the verse read: “and as/to wind the words of a despairing man.” The line could be translated “and the words of a despairing man, [which are] as wind.” But this translation follows the same approach as RSV, NIV, and NAB, which take the idiom of the verb (“think, imagine”) with the preposition on “wind” to mean “reckon as wind” – “and treat the words of a despairing man as wind.”

[13:18]  ² tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) functions almost as an imperative here, calling attention to what follows: “look” (archaic: behold).

[13:18]  ³ tn The verb עָרַךְ (’arakh) means “to set in order, set in array [as a battle], prepare” in the sense here of arrange and organize a lawsuit.

[13:18]  ⁴ tn The pronoun is added because this is what the verse means.

[13:18]  ⁵ tn The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) usually means “judgment; decision.” Here it means “lawsuit” (and so a metonymy of effect gave rise to this usage; see Num 27:5; 2 Sam 15:4).

[13:18]  ⁶ tn The pronoun is emphatic before the verb: “I know that it is I who am right.” The verb means “to be right; to be righteous.” Some have translated it “vindicated,” looking at the outcome of the suit.

[14:4]  ⁷ tn The expression is מִי־יִתֵּן (mi-yitten, “who will give”; see GKC 477 §151.b). Some commentators (H. H. Rowley and A. B. Davidson) wish to take this as the optative formula: “O that a clean might come out of an unclean!” But that does not fit the verse very well, and still requires the addition of a verb. The exclamation here simply implies something impossible – man is unable to attain purity.

[14:4]  ⁸ sn The point being made is that the entire human race is contaminated by sin, and therefore cannot produce something pure. In this context, since man is born of woman, it is saying that the woman and the man who is brought forth from her are impure. See Ps 51:5; Isa 6:5; and Gen 6:5.

[16:17]  ⁹ tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.

[21:6]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”). Here it has the sense of “to keep in memory; to meditate; to think upon.”

[21:6]  ¹¹ tn The main clause is introduced here by the conjunction, following the adverbial clause of time.

[21:6]  ¹² tn Some commentators take “shudder” to be the subject of the verb, “a shudder seizes my body.” But the word is feminine (and see the usage, especially in Job 9:6 and 18:20). It is the subject in Isa 21:4; Ps 55:6; and Ezek 7:18.

[21:34]  ¹³ tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.

[24:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:23]  ¹⁵ tn The expression לָבֶטַח (lavetakh, “in security”) precedes the verb that it qualifies – God “allows him to take root in security.” For the meaning of the verb, see Job 8:15.

[24:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his eyes are on.”

[24:23]  ¹⁷ sn The meaning of the verse is that God may allow the wicked to rest in comfort and security, but all the time he is watching them closely with the idea of bringing judgment on them.

[29:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the days of my ripeness.” The word חֹרֶף (khoref) denotes the time when the harvest is gathered in because the fruit is ripe. Since this is the autumn, many translate that way here – but “autumn” has a different connotation now. The text is pointing to a time when the righteous reaps what he has sown, and can enjoy the benefits. The translation “most productive time” seems to capture the point better than “autumn” or even “prime.”

[29:4]  ¹⁹ tc The word סוֹד (sod) in this verse is an infinitive construct, prefixed with the temporal preposition and followed by a subjective genitive. It forms a temporal clause. There is some disagreement about the form and its meaning. The confusion in the versions shows that they were paraphrasing to get the general sense. In the Bible the derived noun (from יָסַד, yasad) means (a) a circle of close friends; (b) intimacy. Others follow the LXX and the Syriac with a meaning of “protect,” based on a change from ד (dalet) to כּ (kaf), and assuming the root was סָכַךְ (sakhakh). This would mean, “when God protected my tent” (cf. NAB). D. W. Thomas tries to justify this meaning without changing the text (“The Interpretation of BSOÝD in Job 29:4,” JBL 65 [1946]: 63-66).

[31:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for that [would be].” In order to clarify the referent of “that,” which refers to v. 9 rather than v. 10, the words “I have committed” have been supplied in the translation.

[31:11]  ²¹ tn The word for “shameful act” is used especially for sexual offenses (cf. Lev 18:27).

[31:11]  ²² tc Some have deleted this verse as being short and irrelevant, not to mention problematic. But the difficulties are not insurmountable, and there is no reason to delete it. There is a Kethib-Qere reading in each half verse; in the first the Kethib is masculine for the subject but the Qere is feminine going with “shameless deed.” In the second colon the Kethib is the feminine agreeing with the preceding noun, but the Qere is masculine agreeing with “iniquity.”

[31:11]  tn The expression עָוֹן פְּלִילִים (’avon pÿlilim) means “an iniquity of the judges.” The first word is not spelled as a construct noun, and so this has led some to treat the second word as an adjective (with enclitic mem [ם]). The sense is similar in either case, for the adjective occurs in Job 31:28 meaning “calling for judgment” (See GKC 427 §131.s).

[33:29]  ²³ sn Elihu will repeat these instructions for Job to listen, over and over in painful repetition. See note on the heading to 32:1.

[33:29]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “in his dealings” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[34:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “for he does not put upon man yet.” This has been given a wide variety of interpretations, all of which involve a lot of additional thoughts. The word עוֹד (’od, “yet, still”) has been replaced with מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, “an appointed time,” Reiske and Wright), with the ם (mem) having dropped out by haplography. This makes good sense. If the MT is retained, the best interpretation would be that God does not any more consider (from “place upon the heart”) man, that he might appear in judgment.