Ayub 33:5

33:5 Reply to me, if you can;

set your arguments ¹  in order before me

and take your stand!

Ayub 15:24

15:24 Distress and anguish ²  terrify him;

they prevail against him

like a king ready to launch an attack, ³ 

Ayub 13:18

13:18 See now, ⁴  I have prepared ⁵  my ⁶  case; ⁷ 

I know that I am right. ⁸ 

Ayub 18:12

18:12 Calamity is ⁹  hungry for him, ¹⁰ 

and misfortune is ready at his side. ¹¹ 

Ayub 38:3

38:3 Get ready for a difficult task ¹²  like a man;

I will question you

and you will inform me!

Ayub 15:23

15:23 he wanders about – food for vultures; ¹³ 

he knows that the day of darkness is at hand. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 40:7

40:7 “Get ready for a difficult task ¹⁵  like a man.

I will question you and you will inform me!

Ayub 13:13-14

13:13 “Refrain from talking ¹⁶  with me so that ¹⁷  I may speak;

then let come to me ¹⁸  what may. ¹⁹ 

13:14 Why ²⁰  do I put myself in peril, ²¹ 

and take my life in my hands?

Ayub 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken, ²² 

my days have faded out, ²³ 

the grave ²⁴  awaits me.

Ayub 33:2

33:2 See now, I have opened ²⁵  my mouth;

my tongue in my mouth has spoken. ²⁶ 

Ayub 20:29

20:29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked,

and the heritage of his appointment ²⁷  from God.”

Ayub 38:15

38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,

and the arm raised in violence ²⁸  is broken. ²⁹ 

Ayub 42:4

42:4 You said, ³⁰ 

‘Pay attention, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you will answer me.’

Ayub 13:20

13:20 Only in two things spare me, ³¹  O God, ³² 

and then I will not hide from your face:

Ayub 16:9

16:9 His ³³  anger has torn me ³⁴  and persecuted ³⁵  me;

he has gnashed at me with his teeth;

my adversary locks ³⁶  his eyes on me.

Ayub 20:23

20:23 “While he is ³⁷  filling his belly,

God ³⁸  sends his burning anger ³⁹  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ⁴⁰ 

Ayub 24:14

24:14 Before daybreak ⁴¹  the murderer rises up;

he kills the poor and the needy;

in the night he is ⁴²  like a thief. ⁴³ 

[33:5]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text does not contain the term “arguments,” but this verb has been used already for preparing or arranging a defense.

[15:24]  ² tn If “day and darkness” are added to this line, then this verse is made into a tri-colon – the main reason for transferring it away from the last verse. But the newly proposed reading follows the LXX structure precisely, as if that were the approved construction. The Hebrew of MT has “distress and anguish terrify him.”

[15:24]  ³ tn This last colon is deleted by some, moved to v. 26 by others, and the NEB puts it in brackets. The last word (translated here as “launch an attack”) occurs only here. HALOT 472 s.v. כִּידוֹר links it to an Arabic root kadara, “to rush down,” as with a bird of prey. J. Reider defines it as “perturbation” from the same root (“Etymological Studies in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 2 [1952]: 127).

[13:18]  ⁴ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) functions almost as an imperative here, calling attention to what follows: “look” (archaic: behold).

[13:18]  ⁵ tn The verb עָרַךְ (’arakh) means “to set in order, set in array [as a battle], prepare” in the sense here of arrange and organize a lawsuit.

[13:18]  ⁶ tn The pronoun is added because this is what the verse means.

[13:18]  ⁷ tn The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) usually means “judgment; decision.” Here it means “lawsuit” (and so a metonymy of effect gave rise to this usage; see Num 27:5; 2 Sam 15:4).

[13:18]  ⁸ tn The pronoun is emphatic before the verb: “I know that it is I who am right.” The verb means “to be right; to be righteous.” Some have translated it “vindicated,” looking at the outcome of the suit.

[18:12]  ⁹ tn The jussive is occasionally used without its normal sense and only as an imperfect (see GKC 323 §109.k).

[18:12]  ¹⁰ tn There are a number of suggestions for אֹנוֹ (’ono). Some take it as “vigor”: thus “his strength is hungry.” Others take it as “iniquity”: thus “his iniquity/trouble is hungry.”

[18:12]  ¹¹ tn The expression means that misfortune is right there to destroy him whenever there is the opportunity.

[38:3]  ¹² tn Heb “Gird up your loins.” This idiom basically describes taking the hem of the long garment or robe and pulling it up between the legs and tucking it into the front of the belt, allowing easier and freer movement of the legs. “Girding the loins” meant the preparation for some difficult task (Jer 1:17), or for battle (Isa 5:27), or for running (1 Kgs 18:46). C. Gordon suggests that it includes belt-wrestling, a form of hand-to-hand mortal combat (“Belt-wrestling in the Bible World,” HUCA 23 [1950/51]: 136).

[15:23]  ¹³ tn The MT has “he wanders about for food – where is it?” The LXX has “he has been appointed for food for vultures,” reading אַיָּה (’ayyah, “vulture”) for אַיֵּה (’ayyeh, “where is it?”). This would carry on the thought of the passage – he sees himself destined for the sword and food for vultures. Many commentators follow this reading while making a number of smaller changes in נֹדֵד (noded, “wandering”) such as נִתַּן (nittan, “is given”), נוֹעַד (no’ad, “is appointed”), נוֹדַע (noda’, “is known”), or something similar. The latter involves no major change in consonants. While the MT “wandering” may not be as elegant as some of the other suggestions, it is not impossible. But there is no reading of this verse that does not involve some change. The LXX has “and he has been appointed for food for vultures.”

[15:23]  ¹⁴ tn This line is fraught with difficulties (perceived or real), which prompt numerous suggestions. The reading of the MT is “he knows that a day of darkness is fixed in his hand,” i.e., is certain. Many commentators move “day of darkness” to the next verse, following the LXX. Then, suggestions have been offered for נָכוֹן (nakhon, “ready”), such as נֵכֶר (nekher, “disaster”); and for בְּיָדוֹ (bÿyado, “in his hand”) a number of ideas – לְאֵיד (lÿ’ed, “calamity”) or פִּידוֹ (pido, “his disaster”). Wright takes this last view and renders it “he knows that misfortune is imminent,” leaving the “day of darkness” to the next verse.

[40:7]  ¹⁵ tn See note on “task” in 38:3.

[13:13]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew has a pregnant construction: “be silent from me,” meaning “stand away from me in silence,” or “refrain from talking with me.” See GKC 384 §119.ff. The LXX omits “from me,” as do several commentators.

[13:13]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is the Piel cohortative; following the imperative of the first colon this verb would show purpose or result. The inclusion of the independent personal pronoun makes the focus emphatic – “so that I (in my turn) may speak.”

[13:13]  ¹⁸ tn The verb עָבַר (’avar, “pass over”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) to express the advent of misfortune, namely, something coming against him.

[13:13]  ¹⁹ tn The interrogative pronoun מָה (mah) is used in indirect questions, here introducing a clause [with the verb understood] as the object – “whatever it be” (see GKC 443-44 §137.c).

[13:14]  ²⁰ tc Most editors reject עַל־מָה (’al mah) as dittography from the last verse.

[13:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “why do I take my flesh in my teeth?” This expression occurs nowhere else. It seems to be drawn from animal imagery in which the wild beast seizes the prey and carries it off to a place of security. The idea would then be that Job may be destroying himself. An animal that fights with its flesh (prey) in its mouth risks losing it. Other commentators do not think this is satisfactory, but they are unable to suggest anything better.

[17:1]  ²² tn The verb חָבַל (khaval, “to act badly”) in the Piel means “to ruin.” The Pual translation with “my spirit” as the subject means “broken” in the sense of finished (not in the sense of humbled as in Ps 51).

[17:1]  ²³ tn The verb זָעַךְ (za’aq, equivalent of Aramaic דָעַק [da’aq]) means “to be extinguished.” It only occurs here in the Hebrew.

[17:1]  ²⁴ tn The plural “graves” could be simply an intensification, a plural of extension (see GKC 397 §124.c), or a reference to the graveyard. Coverdale had: “I am harde at deathes dore.” The Hebrew expression simply reads “graves for me.” It probably means that graves await him.

[33:2]  ²⁵ tn The perfect verbs in this verse should be classified as perfects of resolve: “I have decided to open…speak.”

[33:2]  ²⁶ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 210) says, “The self-importance of Elihu is boundless, and he is the master of banality.” He adds that whoever wrote these speeches this way clearly intended to expose the character rather than exalt him.

[20:29]  ²⁷ tn For the word אִמְרוֹ (’imro) some propose reading “his appointment,” and the others, “his word.” Driver shows that “the heritage of his appointment” means “his appointed heritage” (see GKC 440 §135.n).

[38:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the raised arm.” The words “in violence” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[38:15]  ²⁹ sn What is active at night, the violence symbolized by the raised arm, is broken with the dawn. G. R. Driver thought the whole verse referred to stars, and that the arm is the navigator’s term for the line of stars (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 4 [1953]: 208-12).

[42:4]  ³⁰ tn This phrase, “you said,” is supplied in the translation to introduce the recollection of God’s words.

[13:20]  ³¹ tn The line reads “do not do two things.”

[13:20]  ³² tn “God” is supplied to the verse, for the address is now to him. Job wishes to enter into dispute with God, but he first appeals that God not take advantage of him with his awesome power.

[16:9]  ³³ tn The referent of these pronouns in v. 9 (“his anger…he has gnashed…his teeth…his eyes”) is best taken as God.

[16:9]  ³⁴ sn The figure used now is that of a wild beast. God’s affliction of Job is compared to the attack of such an animal. Cf. Amos 1:11.

[16:9]  ³⁵ tn The verb שָׂטַם (satam) is translated “hate” in the RSV, but this is not accepted by very many. Many emend it to שָׁמט (shamat), reading “and he dropped me” (from his mouth). But that suggests escape. D. J. A. Clines notes that usage shows it reflects ongoing hatred represented by an action such as persecution or attack (Job [WBC], 370).

[16:9]  ³⁶ tn The verb is used of sharpening a sword in Ps 7:12; here it means “to look intently” as an animal looks for prey. The verse describes God’s relentless pursuit of Job.

[20:23]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ⁴⁰ 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.”

[24:14]  ⁴¹ tn The text simply has לָאוֹר (la’or, “at light” or “at daylight”), probably meaning just at the time of dawn.

[24:14]  ⁴² tn In a few cases the jussive is used without any real sense of the jussive being present (see GKC 323 §109.k).

[24:14]  ⁴³ sn The point is that he is like a thief in that he works during the night, just before the daylight, when the advantage is all his and the victim is most vulnerable.