Ayub 5:23

5:23 For you will have a pact with the stones ¹  of the field,

and the wild animals ²  will be at peace ³  with you.

Ayub 9:2-3

9:2 “Truly, ⁴  I know that this is so.

But how ⁵  can a human ⁶  be just before ⁷  God? ⁸ 

9:3 If someone wishes ⁹  to contend ¹⁰  with him,

he cannot answer ¹¹  him one time in a thousand.

Ayub 10:17

10:17 You bring new witnesses ¹²  against me,

and increase your anger against me;

relief troops ¹³  come against me.

Ayub 14:3

14:3 Do you fix your eye ¹⁴  on such a one? ¹⁵ 

And do you bring me ¹⁶  before you for judgment?

Ayub 25:4

25:4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure? ¹⁷ 

Ayub 26:10

26:10 He marks out the horizon ¹⁸  on the surface of the waters

as a boundary between light and darkness.

Ayub 27:11

27:11 I will teach you ¹⁹  about the power ²⁰  of God;

What is on the Almighty’s mind ²¹  I will not conceal.

Ayub 27:13

27:13 This is the portion of the wicked man

allotted by God, ²² 

the inheritance that evildoers receive

from the Almighty.

Ayub 28:4

28:4 Far from where people live ²³  he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten, ²⁴ 

far from other people he dangles and sways. ²⁵ 

Ayub 33:29

Elihu’s Appeal to Job ²⁶ 

33:29 “Indeed, God does all these things,

twice, three times, in his dealings ²⁷  with a person,

Ayub 34:33

34:33 Is it your opinion ²⁸  that God ²⁹  should recompense it,

because you reject this? ³⁰ 

But you must choose, and not I,

so tell us what you know.

Ayub 40:15

The Description of Behemoth ³¹ 

40:15 “Look now at Behemoth, ³²  which I made as ³³  I made you;

it eats grass like the ox.

[5:23]  ¹ tn Heb “your covenant is with the stones of the field.” The line has been variously interpreted and translated. It is omitted in the LXX. It seems to mean there is a deep sympathy between man and nature. Some think it means that the boundaries will not be violated by enemies; Rashi thought it represented some species of beings, like genii of the field, and so read אֲדֹנֵי (’adone, “lords”) for אַבְנֵי (’avne, “stones”). Ball takes the word as בְּנֵי (bÿne, “sons”), as in “sons of the field,” to get the idea that the reference is to the beasts. E. Dhorme (Job, 71) rejects these ideas as too contrived; he says to have a pact with the stones of the field simply means the stones will not come and spoil the ground, making it less fertile.

[5:23]  ² tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

[5:23]  ³ tn This is the only occurrence of the Hophal of the verb שָׁלֵם (shalem, “to make or have peace” with someone). Compare Isa 11:6-9 and Ps 91:13. The verb form is the perfect; here it is the perfect consecutive following a noun clause (see GKC 494 §159.g).

[9:2]  ⁴ tn The adverb אָמְנָם (’omnam, “in truth”) is characteristic of the Book of Job (12:2; 19:4; 34:12; 36:4). The friends make commonplace statements, general truths, and Job responds with “truly I know this is so.” Job knows as much about these themes as his friends do.

[9:2]  ⁵ sn The interrogative is used to express what is an impossibility.

[9:2]  ⁶ tn The attempt to define אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) as “weak” or “mortal” man is not compelling. Such interpretations are based on etymological links without the clear support of usage (an issue discussed by J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament). This seems to be a poetic word for “human” (the only nonpoetic use is in 2 Chr 14:10).

[9:2]  ⁷ tn The preposition is אִם (’im, “with, before, in the presence of”). This is more specific than מִן (min) in 4:17.

[9:2]  ⁸ sn The point of Job’s rhetorical question is that man cannot be justified as against God, because God is too powerful and too clever – he controls the universe. He is discussing now the question that Eliphaz raised in 4:17. Peake observes that Job is raising the question of whether something is right because God says it is right, or that God declares it right because it is right.

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Some commentators take God to be the subject of this verb, but it is more likely that it refers to the mortal who tries to challenge God in a controversy. The verb is used of Job in 13:3.

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn The verb רִיב (riv) is a common one; it has the idea of “contention; dispute; legal dispute or controversy; go to law.” With the preposition אִם (’im) the idea must be “to contend with” or “to dispute with.” The preposition reflects the prepositional phrase “with God” in v. 2, supporting the view that man is the subject.

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn This use of the imperfect as potential imperfect assumes that the human is the subject, that in a dispute with God he could not answer one of God’s questions (for which see the conclusion of the book when God questions Job). On the other hand, if the interpretation were that God does not answer the demands of mortals, then a simple progressive imperfect would be required. In support of this is the frustration of Job that God does not answer him.

[10:17]  ¹² tn The text has “you renew/increase your witnesses.” This would probably mean Job’s sufferings, which were witness to his sins. But some suggested a different word here, one that is cognate to Arabic ’adiya, “to be an enemy; to be hostile”: thus “you renew your hostility against me.” Less convincing are suggestions that the word is cognate to Ugaritic “troops” (see W. G. E. Watson, “The Metaphor in Job 10,17,” Bib 63 [1982]: 255-57).

[10:17]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew simply says “changes and a host are with me.” The “changes and a host” is taken as a hendiadys, meaning relieving troops (relief troops of the army). The two words appear together again in 14:14, showing that emendation is to be avoided. The imagery depicts blow after blow from God – always fresh attacks.

[14:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “open the eye on,” an idiom meaning to prepare to judge someone.

[14:3]  ¹⁵ tn The verse opens with אַף־עַל־זֶה (’af-’al-zeh), meaning “even on such a one!” It is an exclamation of surprise.

[14:3]  ¹⁶ tn The text clearly has “me” as the accusative; but many wish to emend it to say “him” (אֹתוֹ, ’oto). But D. J. A. Clines rightly rejects this in view of the way Job is written, often moving back and forth from his own tragedy and others’ tragedies (Job [WBC], 283).

[25:4]  ¹⁷ sn Bildad here does not come up with new expressions; rather, he simply uses what Eliphaz had said (see Job 4:17-19 and 15:14-16).

[26:10]  ¹⁸ tn The expression חֹק־חָג (khoq-khag) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג (khaq-khug, “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג (khug, “describe a circle”) respectively.

[27:11]  ¹⁹ tn The object suffix is in the plural, which gives some support to the idea Job is speaking to them.

[27:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the hand of.”

[27:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “[what is] with Shaddai.”

[27:13]  ²² tn The expression “allotted by God” interprets the simple prepositional phrase in the text: “with/from God.”

[28:4]  ²³ tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.

[28:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.

[28:4]  ²⁵ sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.

[33:29]  ²⁶ sn Elihu will repeat these instructions for Job to listen, over and over in painful repetition. See note on the heading to 32:1.

[33:29]  ²⁷ tn The phrase “in his dealings” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[34:33]  ²⁸ tn Heb “is it from with you,” an idiomatic expression meaning “to suit you” or “according to your judgment.”

[34:33]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:33]  ³⁰ tn There is no object on the verb, and the meaning is perhaps lost. The best guess is that Elihu is saying Job has rejected his teaching.

[40:15]  ³¹ sn The next ten verses are devoted to a portrayal of Behemoth (the name means “beast” in Hebrew). It does not fit any of the present material very well, and so many think the section is a later addition. Its style is more like that of a textbook. Moreover, if the animal is a real animal (the usual suggestion is the hippopotamus), then the location of such an animal is Egypt and not Palestine. Some have identified these creatures Behemoth and Leviathan as mythological creatures (Gunkel, Pope). Others point out that these creatures could have been dinosaurs (P. J. Maarten, NIDOTTE, 2:780; H. M. Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job, 115-22). Most would say they are real animals, but probably mythologized by the pagans. So the pagan reader would receive an additional impact from this point about God’s sovereignty over all nature.

[40:15]  ³² sn By form the word is the feminine plural of the Hebrew word for “beast.” Here it is an abstract word – a title.

[40:15]  ³³ tn Heb “with you.” The meaning could be temporal (“when I made you”) – perhaps a reference to the sixth day of creation (Gen 1:24).