Ayub 4:12

Ungodly Complainers Provoke God’s Wrath

4:12 “Now a word was secretly ¹  brought ²  to me,

and my ear caught ³  a whisper ⁴  of it.

Ayub 28:22

28:22 Destruction ⁵  and Death say,

‘With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.’ ⁶ 

Ayub 29:20

29:20 My glory ⁷  will always be fresh ⁸  in me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

Ayub 31:9

31:9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, ⁹ 

Ayub 31:17

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ¹⁰  –

Ayub 31:24

31:24 “If I have put my confidence in gold

or said to pure gold,

‘You are my security!’

Ayub 31:27

31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed,

and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth, ¹¹ 

Ayub 31:31

31:31 if ¹²  the members of my household ¹³  have never said, ¹⁴ 

‘If only there were ¹⁵  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ¹⁶  meat!’ –

[4:12]  ¹ tn The LXX of this verse offers special problems. It reads, “But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have fallen upon you; shall not my ear receive excellent [information] from him?” The major error involves a dittography from the word for “secret,” yielding “truth.”

[4:12]  ² tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal.” The Pual form in this verse is probably to be taken as a preterite since it requires a past tense translation: “it was stolen for me” meaning it was brought to me stealthily (see 2 Sam 19:3).

[4:12]  ³ tn Heb “received.”

[4:12]  ⁴ tn The word שֵׁמֶץ (shemets, “whisper”) is found only here and in Job 26:14. A cognate form שִׁמְצָה (shimtsah) is found in Exod 32:25 with the sense of “a whisper.” In postbiblical Hebrew the word comes to mean “a little.” The point is that Eliphaz caught just a bit, just a whisper of it, and will recount it to Job.

[28:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “Abaddon.”

[28:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “heard a report of it,” which means a report of its location, thus “where it can be found.”

[29:20]  ⁷ tn The word is “my glory,” meaning his high respect and his honor. Hoffmann proposed to read כִּידוֹן (kidon) instead, meaning “javelin” (as in 1 Sam 17:6), to match the parallelism (RQ 3 [1961/62]: 388). But the parallelism does not need to be so tight.

[29:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “new.”

[31:9]  ⁹ tn Gordis notes that the word פֶּתַח (petakh, “door”) has sexual connotations in rabbinic literature, based on Prov 7:6ff. (see b. Ketubbot 9b). See also the use in Song 4:12 using a synonym.

[31:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[31:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and my hand kissed my mouth.” The idea should be that of “my mouth kissed my hand.” H. H. Rowley suggests that the hand was important in waving or throwing the kisses of homage to the sun and the moon, and so it receives the focus. This is the only place in the OT that refers to such a custom. Outside the Bible it was known, however.

[31:31]  ¹² tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

[31:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

[31:31]  ¹⁴ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

[31:31]  ¹⁵ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

[31:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.