Ayub 1:3

1:3 His possessions ¹  included ²  7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys; in addition he had a very great household. ³  Thus he ⁴  was the greatest of all the people in the east. ⁵ 

Ayub 32:9

32:9 It is not the aged ⁶  who are wise,

nor old men who understand what is right.

[1:3]  ¹ tn The word means “cattle, livestock, possessions” (see also Gen 26:14). Here it includes the livestock, but also the entire substance of his household.

[1:3]  ² tn Or “amounted to,” “totaled.” The preterite of הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) is sometimes employed to introduce a total amount or an inventory (see Exod 1:5; Num 3:43).

[1:3]  ³ tn The word עֲבֻדָּה (’avuddah, “service of household servants”) indicates that he had a very large body of servants, meaning a very large household.

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and that man.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The expression is literally “sons of the east.” The use of the genitive after “sons” in this construction may emphasize their nature (like “sons of belial”); it would refer to them as easterners (like “sons of the south” in contemporary American English). BDB 869 s.v. קֶדֶם says “dwellers in the east.”

[32:9]  ⁶ tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.