Ayub 3:22

3:22 who rejoice ¹  even to jubilation, ² 

and are exultant ³  when ⁴  they find the grave? ⁵ 

Ayub 6:30

6:30 Is there any falsehood ⁶  on my lips?

Can my mouth ⁷  not discern evil things? ⁸ 

Ayub 21:32

21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,

and watch is kept ⁹  over the funeral mound, ¹⁰ 

Ayub 27:23

27:23 It claps ¹¹  its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place. ¹² 

Ayub 38:16

38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, ¹³ 

or walked about in the recesses of the deep?

Ayub 38:35

38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?

Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?

[3:22]  ¹ tn Here too the form is the participle in apposition “to him who is in misery” in v. 20. It continues the description of those who are destitute and would be delighted to die.

[3:22]  ² tn The Syriac has “and gather themselves together,” possibly reading גִּיל (gil, “rejoicing”) as גַּל (gal, “heap”). Some have tried to emend the text to make the word mean “heap” or “mound,” as in a funerary mound. While one could argue for a heap of stones as a funerary mound, the passage has already spoken of digging a grave, which would be quite different. And while such a change would make a neater parallelism in the verse, there is no reason to force such; the idea of “jubilation” fits the tenor of the whole verse easily enough and there is no reason to change it. A similar expression is found in Hos 9:1, which says, “rejoice not, O Israel, with jubilation.” Here the idea then is that these sufferers would rejoice “to the point of jubilation” at death.

[3:22]  ³ tn This sentence also parallels an imperfect verb with the substantival participle of the first colon. It is translated as an English present tense.

[3:22]  ⁴ tn The particle could be “when” or “because” in this verse.

[3:22]  ⁵ sn The expression “when they find a grave” means when they finally die. The verse describes the relief and rest that the sufferer will obtain when the long-awaited death is reached.

[6:30]  ⁶ tn The word עַוְלָה (’avlah) is repeated from the last verse. Here the focus is clearly on wickedness or injustice spoken.

[6:30]  sn These words make a fitting transition to ch. 7, which forms a renewed cry of despair from Job. Job still feels himself innocent, but in the hands of cruel fate which is out to destroy him.

[6:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “my palate.” Here “palate” is used not so much for the organ of speech (by metonymy) as of discernment. In other words, what he says indicates what he thinks.

[6:30]  ⁸ tn The final word, הַוּוֹת (havvot) is usually understood as “calamities.” He would be asking if he could not discern his misfortune. But some argue that the word has to be understood in the parallelism to “wickedness” of words (D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 162). Gordis connects it to Mic 7:3 and Ps 5:10 [9] where the meaning “deceit, falsehood” is found. The LXX has “and does not my throat meditate understanding?”

[21:32]  ⁹ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

[21:32]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

[27:23]  ¹¹ tn If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”

[27:23]  ¹² tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).

[38:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “the springs of the sea.” The words “that fill” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of the phrase.