Ayub 13:25

13:25 Do you wish to torment ¹  a windblown ²  leaf

and chase after dry chaff? ³ 

Yesaya 2:22

2:22 Stop trusting in human beings,

whose life’s breath is in their nostrils.

For why should they be given special consideration?

Yesaya 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ⁴ 

Who ⁵  officially commissions him for service? ⁶ 

He hands nations over to him, ⁷ 

and enables him to subdue ⁸  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ⁹ 

Yesaya 41:15-16

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ¹⁰  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ¹¹ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ¹² 

41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;

the wind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Daniel 2:35

2:35 Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were broken in pieces without distinction ¹³  and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away. Not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth.

[13:25]  ¹ tn The verb תַּעֲרוֹץ (ta’arots, “you torment”) is from עָרַץ (’arats), which usually means “fear; dread,” but can also mean “to make afraid; to terrify” (Isa 2:19,21). The imperfect is here taken as a desiderative imperfect: “why do you want to”; but it could also be a simple future: “will you torment.”

[13:25]  ² tn The word נִדָּף (niddaf) is “driven” from the root נָדַף (nadaf, “drive”). The words “by the wind” or the interpretation “windblown” has to be added for the clarification. Job is comparing himself to this leaf (so an implied comparison, called hypocatastasis) – so light and insubstantial that it is amazing that God should come after him. Guillaume suggests that the word is not from this root, but from a second root נָדַף (nadaf), cognate to Arabic nadifa, “to dry up” (A. Guillaume, “A Note on Isaiah 19:7,” JTS 14 [1963]: 382-83). But as D. J. A. Clines notes (Job [WBC], 283), a dried leaf is a driven leaf – a point Guillaume allows as he says there is ambiguity in the term.

[13:25]  ³ tn The word קַשׁ (qash) means “chaff; stubble,” or a wisp of straw. It is found in Job 41:20-21 for that which is so worthless and insignificant that it is hardly worth mentioning. If dried up or withered, it too will be blown away in the wind.

[41:2]  ⁴ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ⁵ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ⁸ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ⁹ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[41:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ¹² sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[2:35]  ¹³ tn Aram “as one.” For the meaning “without distinction” see the following: F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 36, §64, and p. 93; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 60.