7:10 He returns no more to his house,
nor does his place of residence 1 know him 2 any more.
8:18 If he is uprooted 3 from his place,
then that place 4 will disown him, saying, 5
‘I have never seen you!’
20:9 People 6 who had seen him will not see him again,
and the place where he was
will recognize him no longer.
27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity 7
as he flees headlong from its power.
27:23 It claps 8 its hands at him in derision
and hisses him away from his place. 9
1 tn M. Dahood suggests the meaning is the same as “his abode” (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography V,” Bib 48 [1967]: 421-38).
2 tn The verb means “to recognize” by seeing. “His place,” the place where he was living, is the subject of the verb. This personification is intended simply to say that the place where he lived will not have him any more. The line is very similar to Ps 103:16b – when the wind blows the flower away, its place knows it no more.
3 tc Ball reads אֵל (’el, “God”) instead of אִם (’im, “if”): “God destroys it” – but there is no reason for this. The idea would be implied in the context. A. B. Davidson rightly points out that who destroys it is not important, but the fact that it is destroyed.
tn The Hebrew has “if one destroys it”; the indefinite subject allows for a passive interpretation. The verb means “swallow” in the Qal, but in the Piel it means “to engulf; to destroy; to ruin” (2:3; 10:8). It could here be rendered “removed from its place” (the place where it is rooted); since the picture is that of complete destruction, “uprooted” would be a good rendering.
4 tn Heb “it”; the referent (“his place” in the preceding line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
sn The place where the plant once grew will deny ever knowing it. Such is the completeness of the uprooting that there is not a trace left.
5 tn Here “saying” is supplied in the translation.
6 tn Heb “the eye that had seen him.” Here a part of the person (the eye, the instrument of vision) is put by metonymy for the entire person.
7 tn The verb is once again functioning in an adverbial sense. The text has “it hurls itself against him and shows no mercy.”
8 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.”
9 tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).