Ayub 5:1

5:1 “Call now! ¹  Is there anyone who will answer you? ² 

To which of the holy ones ³  will you turn? ⁴ 

Ayub 5:26

5:26 You will come to your grave in a full age, ⁵ 

As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.

Ayub 11:16

11:16 For you ⁶  will forget your trouble; ⁷ 

you will remember it

like water that ⁸  has flowed away.

Ayub 15:6

15:6 Your own mouth condemns ⁹  you, not I;

your own lips testify against ¹⁰  you.

Ayub 22:3

22:3 Is it of any special benefit ¹¹  to the Almighty

that you should be righteous,

or is it any gain to him

that you make your ways blameless? ¹² 

Ayub 30:22

30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; ¹³ 

you toss me about ¹⁴  in the storm. ¹⁵ 

[5:1]  ¹ tn Some commentators transpose this verse with the following paragraph, placing it after v. 7 (see E. Dhorme, Job, 62). But the reasons for this are based on the perceived development of the argument and are not that compelling.

[5:1]  sn The imperative is here a challenge for Job. If he makes his appeal against God, who is there who will listen? The rhetorical questions are intended to indicate that no one will respond, not even the angels. Job would do better to realize that he is guilty and his only hope is in God.

[5:1]  ² tn The participle with the suffix could be given a more immediate translation to accompany the imperative: “Call now! Is anyone listening to you?”

[5:1]  ³ tn The LXX has rendered “holy ones” as “holy angels” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT). The LXX has interpreted the verb in the colon too freely: “if you will see.”

[5:1]  ⁴ sn The point being made is that the angels do not represent the cries of people to God as if mediating for them. But if Job appealed to any of them to take his case against God, there would be no response whatsoever for that.

[5:26]  ⁵ tn The word translated “in a full age” has been given an array of meanings: “health; integrity”; “like a new blade of corn”; “in your strength [or vigor].” The numerical value of the letters in the word בְכֶלָח (bÿkhelakh, “in old age”) was 2, 20, 30, and 8, or 60. This led some of the commentators to say that at 60 one would enter the ripe old age (E. Dhorme, Job, 73).

[11:16]  ⁶ tn For a second time (see v. 13) Zophar employs the emphatic personal pronoun. Could he be providing a gentle reminder that Job might have forgotten the sin that has brought this trouble? After all, there will come a time when Job will not remember this time of trial.

[11:16]  ⁷ sn It is interesting to note in the book that the resolution of Job’s trouble did not come in the way that Zophar prescribed it.

[11:16]  ⁸ tn The perfect verb forms an abbreviated relative clause (without the pronoun) modifying “water.”

[15:6]  ⁹ tn The Hiphil of this root means “declare wicked, guilty” (a declarative Hiphil), and so “condemns.”

[15:6]  ¹⁰ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) with the ל (lamed) preposition following it means “to testify against.” For Eliphaz, it is enough to listen to Job to condemn him.

[22:3]  ¹¹ tn The word חֵפֶץ (khefets) in this passage has the nuance of “special benefit; favor.” It does not just express the desire for something or the interest in it, but the profit one derives from it.

[22:3]  ¹² tn The verb תַתֵּם (tattem) is the Hiphil imperfect of תָּמַם (tamam, “be complete, finished”), following the Aramaic form of the geminate verb with a doubling of the first letter.

[30:22]  ¹³ sn Here Job changes the metaphor again, to the driving storm. God has sent his storms, and Job is blown away.

[30:22]  ¹⁴ tn The verb means “to melt.” The imagery would suggest softening the ground with the showers (see Ps 65:10 [11]). The translation “toss…about” comes from the Arabic cognate that is used for the surging of the sea.

[30:22]  ¹⁵ tc The Qere is תּוּשִׁיָּה (tushiyyah, “counsel”), which makes no sense here. The Kethib is a variant orthography for תְּשֻׁאָה (tÿshu’ah, “storm”).