Ayub 19:15

19:15 My guests ¹  and my servant girls

consider ²  me a stranger;

I am a foreigner ³  in their eyes.

Ayub 20:7

20:7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement; ⁴ 

those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’

Ayub 24:1

The Apparent Indifference of God

24:1 “Why are times not appointed by ⁵  the Almighty? ⁶ 

Why do those who know him not see his days?

Ayub 28:7

28:7 a hidden path ⁷  no bird of prey knows –

no falcon’s ⁸  eye has spotted it.

[19:15]  ¹ tn The Hebrew גָּרֵי בֵיתִי (gare beti, “the guests of my house”) refers to those who sojourned in my house – not residents, but guests.

[19:15]  ² tn The form of the verb is a feminine plural, which would seem to lend support to the proposed change of the lines (see last note to v. 14). But the form may be feminine primarily because of the immediate reference. On the other side, the suffix of “their eyes” is a masculine plural. So the evidence lies on both sides.

[19:15]  ³ tn This word נָכְרִי (nokhri) is the person from another race, from a strange land, the foreigner. The previous word, גֵּר (ger), is a more general word for someone who is staying in the land but is not a citizen, a sojourner.

[20:7]  ⁴ tn There have been attempts to change the word here to “like a whirlwind,” or something similar. But many argue that there is no reason to remove a coarse expression from Zophar.

[24:1]  ⁵ tn The preposition מִן (min) is used to express the cause (see GKC 389 §121.f).

[24:1]  ⁶ tc The LXX reads “Why are times hidden from the Almighty?” as if to say that God is not interested in the events on the earth. The MT reading is saying that God fails to set the times for judgment and vindication and makes good sense as it stands.

[28:7]  ⁷ tn The “path” could refer to the mine shaft or it could refer to wisdom. The former seems more likely in the present context; the word “hidden is supplied in the translation to indicate the mines are “hidden” from sharp-eyed birds of prey above.

[28:7]  ⁸ sn The kind of bird mentioned here is debated. The LXX has “vulture,” and so some commentaries follow that. The emphasis on the sight favors the view that it is the falcon.