11:20 But the eyes of the wicked fail, 1
and escape 2 eludes them;
their one hope 3 is to breathe their last.” 4
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, 5
they were driven out of the land with whips. 6
1 tn The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to fail, cease, fade away.” The fading of the eyes, i.e., loss of sight, loss of life’s vitality, indicates imminent death.
2 tn Heb a “place of escape” (with this noun pattern). There is no place to escape to because they all perish.
3 tn The word is to be interpreted as a metonymy; it represents what is hoped for.
4 tn Heb “the breathing out of the soul”; cf. KJV, ASV “the giving up of the ghost.” The line is simply saying that the brightest hope that the wicked have is death.
5 tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
6 tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”