Ayub 7:14

7:14 then you scare me ¹  with dreams

and terrify ²  me with ³  visions,

Ayub 31:8

31:8 then let me sow ⁴  and let another eat,

and let my crops ⁵  be uprooted.

Ayub 31:10

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone ⁶  for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her. ⁷ 

Ayub 32:10

32:10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen ⁸  to me.

I, even I, will explain what I know.’

Ayub 32:17

32:17 I too will answer my part,

I too will explain what I know.

[7:14]  ¹ tn The Piel of חָתַת (khatat) occurs only here and in Jer 51:56 (where it is doubtful). The meaning is clearly “startle, scare.” The perfect verb with the ו (vav) is fitting in the apodosis of the conditional sentence.

[7:14]  sn Here Job is boldly saying that it is God who is behind the horrible dreams that he is having at night.

[7:14]  ² tn The Piel of בָּעַת (ba’at, “terrify”) is one of the characteristic words in the book of Job; it occurs in 3:5; 9:34; 13:11, 21; 15:24; 18:11; and 33:7.

[7:14]  ³ tn The prepositions בּ (bet) and מִן (min) interchange here; they express the instrument of causality. See N. Sarna, “The Interchange of the Prepositions bet and min in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 78 (1959): 310-16. Emphasis on the instruments of terror in this verse is highlighted by the use of chiasm in which the prepositional phrases comprise the central elements (ab//b’a’). Verse 18 contains another example.

[31:8]  ⁴ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ⁵ tn The word means “what sprouts up” (from יָצָא [yatsa’] with the sense of “sprout forth”). It could refer metaphorically to children (and so Kissane and Pope), as well as in its literal sense of crops. The latter fits here perfectly.

[31:10]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[32:10]  ⁸ tc In most Hebrew mss this imperative is singular, and so addressed to Job. But two Hebrew mss and the versions have the plural. Elihu was probably addressing all of them.