Ayub 20:22-28

20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, ¹ 

distress ²  overtakes him.

the full force of misery will come upon him. ³ 

20:23 “While he is ⁴  filling his belly,

God ⁵  sends his burning anger ⁶  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ⁷ 

20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon,

then an arrow ⁸  from a bronze bow pierces him.

20:25 When he pulls it out ⁹  and it comes out of his back,

the gleaming point ¹⁰  out of his liver,

terrors come over him.

20:26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; ¹¹ 

a fire which has not been kindled ¹² 

will consume him

and devour what is left in his tent.

20:27 The heavens reveal his iniquity;

the earth rises up against him.

20:28 A flood will carry off his house,

rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.

Ayub 22:15-20

22:15 Will you keep to the old path ¹³ 

that evil men have walked –

22:16 men ¹⁴  who were carried off ¹⁵  before their time, ¹⁶ 

when the flood ¹⁷  was poured out ¹⁸ 

on their foundations? ¹⁹ 

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ²⁰ 

22:18 But it was he ²¹  who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked ²² 

was far from me. ²³ 

22:19 The righteous see their destruction ²⁴  and rejoice;

the innocent mock them scornfully, ²⁵  saying,

22:20 ‘Surely our enemies ²⁶  are destroyed,

and fire consumes their wealth.’

Ayub 27:16-17

27:16 If he piles up silver like dust

and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,

27:17 what he stores up ²⁷  a righteous man will wear,

and an innocent man will inherit his silver.

[20:22]  ¹ tn The word שָׂפַק (safaq) occurs only here; it means “sufficiency; wealth; abundance (see D. W. Thomas, “The Text of Jesaia 2:6 and the Word sapaq,” ZAW 75 [1963]: 88-90).

[20:22]  ² tn Heb “there is straightness for him.” The root צָרַר (tsarar) means “to be narrowed in straits, to be in a bind.” The word here would have the idea of pressure, stress, trouble. One could say he is in a bind.

[20:22]  ³ tn Heb “every hand of trouble comes to him.” The pointing of עָמֵל (’amel) indicates it would refer to one who brings trouble; LXX and Latin read an abstract noun עָמָל (’amal, “trouble”) here.

[20:23]  ⁴ tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.

[20:23]  ⁵ tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”

[20:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “a bronze bow pierces him.” The words “an arrow from” are implied and are supplied in the translation; cf. “pulls it out” in the following verse.

[20:25]  ⁹ tn The MT has “he draws out [or as a passive, “it is drawn out/forth”] and comes [or goes] out of his back.” For the first verb שָׁלַף (shalaf, “pull, draw”), many commentators follow the LXX and use שֶׁלַח (shelakh, “a spear”). It then reads “and a shaft comes out of his back,” a sword flash comes out of his liver.” But the verse could also be a continuation of the preceding.

[20:25]  ¹⁰ tn Possibly a reference to lightnings.

[20:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all darkness is hidden for his laid up things.” “All darkness” refers to the misfortunes and afflictions that await. The verb “hidden” means “is destined for.”

[20:26]  ¹² tn Heb “not blown upon,” i.e., not kindled by man. But G. R. Driver reads “unquenched” (“Hebrew notes on the ‘Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach’,” JBL 53 [1934]: 289).

[22:15]  ¹³ tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.

[22:16]  ¹⁴ tn The word “men” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the relative pronoun “who.”

[22:16]  ¹⁵ tn The verb קָמַט (qamat) basically means “to seize; to tie together to make a bundle.” So the Pual will mean “to be bundled away; to be carried off.”

[22:16]  ¹⁶ tn The clause has “and [it was] not the time.” It may be used adverbially here.

[22:16]  ¹⁷ tn The word is נָהַר (nahar, “river” or “current”); it is taken here in its broadest sense of the waters on the earth that formed the current of the flood (Gen 7:6, 10).

[22:16]  ¹⁸ tn The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out; to shed; to spill; to flow.” The Pual means “to be poured out” (as in Lev 21:10 and Ps 45:3).

[22:16]  ¹⁹ tn This word is then to be taken as an adverbial accusative of place. Another way to look at this verse is what A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) proposes “whose foundation was poured away and became a flood.” This would mean that that on which they stood sank away.

[22:17]  ²⁰ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”

[22:18]  ²¹ tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.

[22:18]  ²² tn See Job 10:3.

[22:18]  ²³ tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).

[22:19]  ²⁴ tn The line is talking about the rejoicing of the righteous when judgment falls on the wicked. An object (“destruction”) has to be supplied here to clarify this (see Pss 52:6 [8]; 69:32 [33]; 107:42).

[22:19]  ²⁵ sn In Ps 2:4 it was God who mocked the wicked by judging them.

[22:20]  ²⁶ tc The word translated “our enemies” is found only here. The word means “hostility,” but used here as a collective for those who are hostile – “enemies.” Some commentators follow the LXX and read “possessions,” explaining its meaning and derivation in different ways. Gordis simply takes the word in the text and affirms that this is the meaning. On the other hand, to get this, E. Dhorme (Job, 336) repoints קִימָנוּ (qimanu) of the MT to יְקוּמַם (yÿqumam), arguing that יְקוּם (yÿqum) means “what exists [or has substance]” (although that is used of animals). He translates: “have not their possessions been destroyed.”

[27:17]  ²⁷ tn The text simply repeats the verb from the last clause. It could be treated as a separate short clause: “He may store it up, but the righteous will wear it. But it also could be understood as the object of the following verb, “[what] he stores up the righteous will wear.” The LXX simply has, “All these things shall the righteous gain.”