Ayub 12:4

12:4 I am ¹  a laughingstock ²  to my friends, ³ 

I, who called on God and whom he answered ⁴  –

a righteous and blameless ⁵  man

is a laughingstock!

Ayub 17:2

17:2 Surely mockery ⁶  is with me; ⁷ 

my eyes must dwell on their hostility. ⁸ 

Ayub 17:6

17:6 He has made me ⁹  a byword ¹⁰  to people,

I am the one in whose face they spit. ¹¹ 

Ayub 19:19

19:19 All my closest friends ¹²  detest me;

and those whom ¹³  I love have turned against me. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 19:21

19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,

for the hand of God has struck me.

Ayub 21:3

21:3 Bear with me ¹⁵  and I ¹⁶  will speak,

and after I have spoken ¹⁷  you may mock. ¹⁸ 

Ayub 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹⁹  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ²⁰ 

to put with my sheep dogs. ²¹ 

Ayub 30:10

30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; ²² 

they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

Mazmur 38:12

38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ²³ 

those who want to harm me speak destructive words;

all day long they say deceitful things.

Mazmur 69:21

69:21 They put bitter poison ²⁴  into my food,

and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 69:1

Psalm 69 ²⁶ 

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ²⁷  by David.

69:1 Deliver me, O God,

for the water has reached my neck. ²⁸ 

Yohanes 3:17

3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, ²⁹  but that the world should be saved through him.

[12:4]  ¹ tn Some are troubled by the disharmony with “I am” and “to his friend.” Even though the difficulty is not insurmountable, some have emended the text. Some simply changed the verb to “he is,” which was not very compelling. C. D. Isbell argued that אֶהְיֶה (’ehyeh, “I am”) is an orthographic variant of יִהְיֶה (yihyeh, “he will”) – “a person who does not know these things would be a laughingstock” (JANESCU 37 [1978]: 227-36). G. R. Driver suggests the meaning of the MT is something like “(One that is) a mockery to his friend I am to be.”

[12:4]  ² tn The word simply means “laughter”; but it can also mean the object of laughter (see Jer 20:7). The LXX jumps from one “laughter” to the next, eliminating everything in between, presumably due to haplography.

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “his friend.” A number of English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) take this collectively, “to my friends.”

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “one calling to God and he answered him.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 92) contends that because Job has been saying that God is not answering him, these words must be part of the derisive words of his friends.

[12:4]  ⁵ tn The two words, צַדִּיק תָּמִים (tsadiq tamim), could be understood as a hendiadys (= “blamelessly just”) following W. G. E. Watson (Classical Hebrew Poetry, 327).

[17:2]  ⁶ tn The noun is the abstract noun, “mockery.” It indicates that he is the object of derision. But many commentators either change the word to “mockers” (Tur-Sinai, NEB), or argue that the form in the text is a form of the participle (Gordis).

[17:2]  ⁷ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 243) interprets the preposition to mean “aimed at me.”

[17:2]  ⁸ tn The meaning of הַמְּרוֹתָם (hammÿrotam) is unclear, and the versions offer no help. If the MT is correct, it would probably be connected to מָרָה (marah, “to be rebellious”) and the derived form something like “hostility; provocation.” But some commentators suggest it should be related to מָרֹרוֹת (marorot, “bitter things”). Others have changed both the noun and the verb to obtain something like “My eye is weary of their contentiousness” (Holscher), or mine eyes are wearied by your stream of peevish complaints” (G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 78). There is no alternative suggestion that is compelling.

[17:6]  ⁹ tn The verb is the third person, and so God is likely the subject. The LXX has “you have made me.” So most commentators clarify the verb in some such way. However, without an expressed subject it can also be taken as a passive.

[17:6]  ¹⁰ tn The word “byword” is related to the word translated “proverb” in the Bible (מָשָׁל, mashal). Job’s case is so well known that he is synonymous with afflictions and with abuse by people.

[17:6]  ¹¹ tn The word תֹפֶת (tofet) is a hapax legomenon. The expression is “and a spitting in/to the face I have become,” i.e., “I have become one in whose face people spit.” Various suggestions have been made, including a link to Tophet, but they are weak. The verse as it exists in the MT is fine, and fits the context well.

[19:19]  ¹² tn Heb “men of my confidence,” or “men of my council,” i.e., intimate friends, confidants.

[19:19]  ¹³ tn The pronoun זֶה (zeh) functions here in the place of a nominative (see GKC 447 §138.h).

[19:19]  ¹⁴ tn T. Penar translates this “turn away from me” (“Job 19,19 in the Light of Ben Sira 6,11,” Bib 48 [1967]: 293-95).

[21:3]  ¹⁵ tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) means “to lift up; to raise up”; but in this context it means “to endure; to tolerate” (see Job 7:21).

[21:3]  ¹⁶ tn The conjunction and the independent personal pronoun draw emphatic attention to the subject of the verb: “and I on my part will speak.”

[21:3]  ¹⁷ tn The adverbial clauses are constructed of the preposition “after” and the Piel infinitive construct with the subjective genitive suffix: “my speaking,” or “I speak.”

[21:3]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is the imperfect of לָעַג (la’ag). The Hiphil has the same basic sense as the Qal, “to mock; to deride.” The imperfect here would be modal, expressing permission. The verb is in the singular, suggesting that Job is addressing Zophar; however, most of the versions put it into the plural. Note the singular in 16:3 between the plural in 16:1 and 16:4.

[30:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ²¹ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.

[30:10]  ²² tn Heb “they are far from me.”

[38:12]  ²³ tn Heb “lay snares.”

[69:21]  ²⁴ tn According to BDB 912 s.v. II רֹאשׁ the term can mean “a bitter and poisonous plant.”

[69:21]  ²⁵ sn John 19:28-30 appears to understand Jesus’ experience on the cross as a fulfillment of this passage (or Ps 22:15). See the study note on the word “thirsty” in John 19:28.

[69:1]  ²⁶ sn Psalm 69. The psalmist laments his oppressed condition and asks the Lord to deliver him by severely judging his enemies.

[69:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “according to lilies.” See the superscription to Ps 45.

[69:1]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term נפשׁ (nefesh) here refers to the psalmist’s throat or neck. The psalmist compares himself to a helpless, drowning man.

[3:17]  ²⁹ sn That is, “to judge the world to be guilty and liable to punishment.”