Ayub 31:8

31:8 then let me sow ¹  and let another eat,

and let my crops ²  be uprooted.

Mikha 6:15

6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;

you will squeeze oil from the olives, ³  but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; ⁴ 

you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. ⁵ 

[31:8]  ¹ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ² 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.

[6:15]  ³ tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.

[6:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”

[6:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.