Ayub 3:19

3:19 Small and great are ¹  there,

and the slave is free ²  from his master. ³ 

Ayub 21:25

21:25 And another man ⁴  dies in bitterness of soul, ⁵ 

never having tasted ⁶  anything good.

Ayub 24:21

24:21 He preys on ⁷  the barren and childless woman, ⁸ 

and does not treat the widow well.

[3:19]  ¹ tn The versions have taken the pronoun in the sense of the verb “to be.” Others give it the sense of “the same thing,” rendering the verse as “small and great, there is no difference there.” GKC 437 §135.a, n. 1, follows this idea with a meaning of “the same.”

[3:19]  ² tn The LXX renders this as “unafraid,” although the negative has disappeared in some mss to give the reading “and the servant that feared his master.” See I. Mendelsohn, “The Canaanite Term for ‘Free Proletarian’,” BASOR 83 (1941): 36-39; idem, “New Light on hupsu,” BASOR 139 (1955): 9-11.

[3:19]  ³ tn The plural “masters” could be taken here as a plural of majesty rather than as referring to numerous masters.

[21:25]  ⁴ tn The expression “this (v. 23)…and this” (v. 25) means “one…the other.”

[21:25]  ⁵ tn The text literally has “and this [man] dies in soul of bitterness.” Some simply reverse it and translate “in the bitterness of soul.” The genitive “bitterness” may be an attribute adjective, “with a bitter soul.”

[21:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “eaten what is good.” It means he died without having enjoyed the good life.

[24:21]  ⁷ tc The form in the text is the active participle, “feed; graze; shepherd.” The idea of “prey” is not natural to it. R. Gordis (Job, 270) argues that third he (ה) verbs are often by-forms of geminate verbs, and so the meaning here is more akin to רָעַע (ra’a’, “to crush”). The LXX seems to have read something like הֵרַע (hera’, “oppressed”).

[24:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “the childless [woman], she does not give birth.” The verbal clause is intended to serve as a modifier here for the woman. See on subordinate verbal clauses GKC 490 §156.d, f.