Ayub 7:17

Insignificance of Humans

7:17 “What is mankind ¹  that you make so much of them, ² 

and that you pay attention ³  to them?

Ayub 10:10

10:10 Did you not pour ⁴  me out like milk,

and curdle ⁵  me like cheese? ⁶ 

Ayub 13:23

13:23 How many are my ⁷  iniquities and sins?

Show me my transgression and my sin. ⁸ 

Ayub 15:27

15:27 Because he covered his face with fat, ⁹ 

and made ¹⁰  his hips bulge with fat, ¹¹ 

Ayub 21:8

21:8 Their children ¹²  are firmly established

in their presence, ¹³ 

their offspring before their eyes.

Ayub 31:11

31:11 For I would have committed ¹⁴  a shameful act, ¹⁵ 

an iniquity to be judged. ¹⁶ 

[7:17]  ¹ tn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is intended to mean that man is too little for God to be making so much over him in all this.

[7:17]  ² tn The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them.

[7:17]  ³ tn The expression “set your heart on” means “concentrate your mind on” or “pay attention to.”

[10:10]  ⁴ tn The verb נָתַךְ (natakh) means “to flow,” and in the Hiphil, “to cause to flow.”

[10:10]  ⁵ tn This verb קָפָא (qafa’) means “to coagulate.” In the Hiphil it means “to stiffen; to congeal.”

[10:10]  ⁶ tn The verbs in v. 10 are prefixed conjugations; since the reference is to the womb, these would need to be classified as preterites.

[10:10]  sn These verses figuratively describe the formation of the embryo in the womb.

[13:23]  ⁷ tn The pronoun “my” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied here in the translation.

[13:23]  ⁸ sn Job uses three words for sin here: “iniquities,” which means going astray, erring; “sins,” which means missing the mark or the way; and “transgressions,” which are open rebellions. They all emphasize different kinds of sins and different degrees of willfulness. Job is demanding that any sins be brought up. Both Job and his friends agree that great afflictions would have to indicate great offenses – he wants to know what they are.

[15:27]  ⁹ sn This verse tells us that he is not in any condition to fight, because he is bloated and fat from luxurious living.

[15:27]  ¹⁰ tn D. W. Thomas defends a meaning “cover” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah). See “Translating Hebrew `asah,” BT 17 [1966]: 190-93.

[15:27]  ¹¹ tn The term פִּימָה (pimah), a hapax legomenon, is explained by the Arabic fa’ima, “to be fat.” Pope renders this “blubber.” Cf. KJV “and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.”

[21:8]  ¹² tn Heb “their seed.”

[21:8]  ¹³ tn The text uses לִפְנֵיהֶם עִמָּם (lifnehem ’immam, “before them, with them”). Many editors think that these were alternative readings, and so omit one or the other. Dhorme moved עִמָּם (’immam) to the second half of the verse and emended it to read עֹמְדִים (’omÿdim, “abide”). Kissane and Gordis changed only the vowels and came up with עַמָּם (’ammam, “their kinfolk”). But Gordis thinks the presence of both of them in the line is evidence of a conflated reading (p. 229).

[31:11]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn The word for “shameful act” is used especially for sexual offenses (cf. Lev 18:27).

[31:11]  ¹⁶ 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).