Ayub 4:16

4:16 It stands still, ¹ 

but I cannot recognize ²  its appearance;

an image is before my eyes,

and I hear a murmuring voice: ³ 

Ayub 39:2

39:2 Do you count the months they must fulfill,

and do you know the time they give birth? ⁴ 

[4:16]  ¹ tc The LXX has the first person of the verb: “I arose and perceived it not, I looked and there was no form before my eyes; but I only heard a breath and a voice.”

[4:16]  ² tn The imperfect verb is to be classified as potential imperfect. Eliphaz is unable to recognize the figure standing before him.

[4:16]  ³ sn The colon reads “a silence and a voice I hear.” Some have rendered it “there is a silence, and then I hear.” The verb דָּמַם (damam) does mean “remain silent” (Job 29:21; 31:34) and then also “cease.” The noun דְּמָמָה (dÿmamah, “calm”) refers to the calm after the storm in Ps 107:29. Joined with the true object of the verb, “voice,” it probably means something like stillness or murmuring or whispering here. It is joined to “voice” with a conjunction, indicating that it is a hendiadys, “murmur and a voice” or a “murmuring voice.”

[39:2]  ⁴ tn Here the infinitive is again a substantive: “the time of their giving birth.”