Ayub 24:12

24:12 From the city the dying ¹  groan,

and the wounded ²  cry out for help,

but God charges no one with wrongdoing. ³ 

Ayub 18:9-10

18:9 A trap ⁴  seizes him by the heel;

a snare ⁵  grips him.

18:10 A rope is hidden for him ⁶  on the ground

and a trap for him ⁷  lies on the path.

[24:12]  ¹ tc The MT as pointed reads “from the city of men they groan.” Most commentators change one vowel in מְתִים (mÿtim) to get מֵתִים (metim) to get the active participle, “the dying.” This certainly fits the parallelism better, although sense could be made out of the MT.

[24:12]  ² tn Heb “the souls of the wounded,” which here refers to the wounded themselves.

[24:12]  ³ tc The MT has the noun תִּפְלָה (tiflah) which means “folly; tastelessness” (cf. 1:22). The verb, which normally means “to place; to put,” would then be rendered “to impute; to charge.” This is certainly a workable translation in the context. Many commentators have emended the text, changing the noun to תְּפִלָּה (tÿfillah, “prayer”), and so then also the verb יָשִׂים (yasim, here “charges”) to יִשְׁמַע (yishma’, “hears”). It reads: “But God does not hear the prayer” – referring to the groans.

[18:9]  ⁴ tn This word פָּח (pakh) specifically refers to the snare of the fowler – thus a bird trap. But its plural seems to refer to nets in general (see Job 22:10).

[18:9]  ⁵ tn This word does not occur elsewhere. But another word from the same root means “plait of hair,” and so this term has something to do with a net like a trellis or lattice.

[18:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.

[18:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.