Ayub 13:28

13:28 So I ¹  waste away like something rotten, ² 

like a garment eaten by moths.

Ayub 30:4

30:4 By the brush ³  they would gather ⁴  herbs from the salt marshes, ⁵ 

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

Ayub 31:8

31:8 then let me sow ⁶  and let another eat,

and let my crops ⁷  be uprooted.

Ayub 31:39

31:39 if I have eaten its produce without paying, ⁸ 

or caused the death ⁹  of its owners, ¹⁰ 

[13:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he.” Some of the commentators move the verse and put it after Job 14:2, 3 or 6.

[13:28]  ² tn The word רָקָב (raqav) is used elsewhere in the Bible of dry rot in a house, or rotting bones in a grave. It is used in parallelism with “moth” both here and in Hos 5:12. The LXX has “like a wineskin.” This would be from רֹקֶב (roqev, “wineskin”). This word does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but is attested in Sir 43:20 and in Aramaic. The change is not necessary.

[30:4]  ³ tn Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:209) in their philological notes.

[30:4]  ⁴ tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.

[30:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.

[31:8]  ⁶ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ⁷ tn The word means “what sprouts up” (from יָצָא [yatsa’] with the sense of “sprout forth”). It could refer metaphorically to children (and so Kissane and Pope), as well as in its literal sense of crops. The latter fits here perfectly.

[31:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “without silver.”

[31:39]  ⁹ tc The versions have the verb “grieved” here. The Hebrew verb means “to breathe,” but the form is Hiphil. This verb in that stem could mean something of a contemptuous gesture, like “sniff” in Mal 1:13. But with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in Job 11:20 it means “to cause death,” i.e., “to cause to breathe out; to expire.” This is likely the meaning here, although it is possible that it only meant “to cause suffering” to the people.

[31:39]  ¹⁰ tn There is some debate over the meaning of בְּעָלֶיהָ (bÿ’aleyha), usually translated “its owners.” Dahood, following others (although without their emendations), thought it referred to “laborers” (see M. Dahood, Bib 41 [1960]: 303; idem, Bib 43 [1962]: 362).