Ayub 10:7

10:7 although you know ¹  that I am not guilty,

and that there is no one who can deliver ² 

out of your hand?

Ayub 13:16

13:16 Moreover, this will become my deliverance,

for no godless person would come before him. ³ 

Ayub 17:3

17:3 Make then my pledge ⁴  with you.

Who else will put up security for me? ⁵ 

Ayub 21:16

21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. ⁶ 

The counsel of the wicked is far from me! ⁷ 

Ayub 21:19

21:19 You may say, ⁸  ‘God stores up a man’s ⁹  punishment for his children!’ ¹⁰ 

Instead let him repay ¹¹  the man himself ¹² 

so that ¹³  he may know it!

Ayub 23:12

23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 28:4

28:4 Far from where people live ¹⁵  he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten, ¹⁶ 

far from other people he dangles and sways. ¹⁷ 

Ayub 30:28

30:28 I go about blackened, ¹⁸  but not by the sun;

in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

Ayub 37:24

37:24 Therefore people fear him,

for he does not regard all the wise in heart.” ¹⁹ 

[10:7]  ¹ tn Heb עַל־דַּעְתְּךָ (’al da’tÿkha, “upon your knowledge”). The use of the preposition means basically “in addition to your knowledge,” or “in spite of your knowledge,” i.e., “notwithstanding” or “although” (see GKC 383 §119.aa, n. 2).

[10:7]  ² tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”

[10:7]  sn The fact is that humans are the work of God’s hands. They are helpless in the hand of God. But it is also unworthy of God to afflict his people.

[13:16]  ³ sn The fact that Job will dare to come before God and make his case is evidence – to Job at least – that he is innocent.

[17:3]  ⁴ tn The MT has two imperatives: “Lay down, pledge me, with me.” Most commentators think that the second imperative should be a noun, and take it to say, “Lay my pledge with/beside you.” A. B. Davidson (Job, 126) suggests that the first verb means “give a pledge,” and so the two similar verbs would be emphatic: “Give a pledge, be my surety.” Other than such a change (which would involve changing the vowels) one would have to interpret similarly by seeing the imperatives as a kind of hendiadys, with the main emphasis being on the second imperative, “make a pledge.”

[17:3]  ⁵ sn The idiom is “to strike the hand.” Here the wording is a little different, “Who is he that will strike himself into my hand?”

[21:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “is not in their hand.”

[21:16]  sn The implication of this statement is that their well-being is from God, which is the problem Job is raising in the chapter. A number of commentators make it a question, interpreting it to mean that the wicked enjoy prosperity as if it is their right. Some emend the text to say “his hands” – Gordis reads it, “Indeed, our prosperity is not in his hands.”

[21:16]  ⁷ sn Even though their life seems so good in contrast to his own plight, Job cannot and will not embrace their principles – “far be from me their counsel.”

[21:19]  ⁸ tn These words are supplied. The verse records an idea that Job suspected they might have, namely, that if the wicked die well God will make their children pay for the sins (see Job 5:4; 20:10; as well as Exod 20:5).

[21:19]  ⁹ tn The text simply has אוֹנוֹ (’ono, “his iniquity”), but by usage, “the punishment for the iniquity.”

[21:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his sons.”

[21:19]  ¹¹ tn The verb שָׁלַם (shalam) in the Piel has the meaning of restoring things to their normal, making whole, and so reward, repay (if for sins), or recompense in general.

[21:19]  ¹² tn The text simply has “let him repay [to] him.”

[21:19]  ¹³ tn The imperfect verb after the jussive carries the meaning of a purpose clause, and so taken as a final imperfect: “in order that he may know [or realize].”

[23:12]  ¹⁴ tc The form in the MT (מֵחֻקִּי, mekhuqqi) means “more than my portion” or “more than my law.” An expanded meaning results in “more than my necessary food” (see Ps 119:11; cf. KJV, NASB, ESV). HALOT 346 s.v. חֹק 1 indicates that חֹק (khoq) has the meaning of “portion” and is here a reference to “what is appointed for me.” The LXX and the Latin versions, along with many commentators, have בְּחֵקִי (bÿkheqi, “in my bosom”).

[28:4]  ¹⁵ tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.

[28:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.

[28:4]  ¹⁷ sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.

[30:28]  ¹⁸ tn The construction uses the word קֹדֵר (qoder) followed by the Piel perfect of הָלַךְ (halakh, “I go about”). The adjective “blackened” refers to Job’s skin that has been marred by the disease. Adjectives are often used before verbs to describe some bodily condition (see GKC 374-75 §118.n).

[37:24]  ¹⁹ sn The phrase “wise of heart” was used in Job 9:4 in a negative sense.