Ayub 8:20

8:20 “Surely, God does not reject a blameless man, ¹ 

nor does he grasp the hand ² 

of the evildoers.

Ayub 9:24

9:24 If a land ³  has been given

into the hand of a wicked man, ⁴ 

he covers ⁵  the faces of its judges; ⁶ 

if it is not he, then who is it? ⁷ 

Ayub 18:19

18:19 He has neither children nor descendants ⁸  among his people,

no survivor in those places he once stayed. ⁹ 

Ayub 20:25

20:25 When he pulls it out ¹⁰  and it comes out of his back,

the gleaming point ¹¹  out of his liver,

terrors come over him.

Ayub 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ¹²  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ¹³  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 33:27

33:27 That person sings ¹⁵  to others, ¹⁶  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ¹⁷ 

[8:20]  ¹ sn This is the description that the book gave to Job at the outset, a description that he deserved according to God’s revelation. The theme “God will not reject the blameless man” becomes Job’s main point (see 9:20,21; 10:3).

[8:20]  ² sn The idiom “to grasp the hand” of someone means to support or help the person.

[9:24]  ³ tn Some would render this “earth,” meaning the whole earth, and having the verse be a general principle for all mankind. But Job may have in mind the more specific issue of individual land.

[9:24]  ⁴ sn The details of the verse are not easy to explain, but the meaning of the whole verse seems to be about the miscarriage of justice in the courts and the failure of God to do anything about it.

[9:24]  ⁵ tn The subject of the verb is God. The reasoning goes this way: it is the duty of judges to make sure that justice prevails, that restitution and restoration are carried through; but when the wicked gain control of the land of other people, and the judges are ineffective to stop it, then God must be veiling their eyes.

[9:24]  ⁶ sn That these words are strong, if not wild, is undeniable. But Job is only taking the implications of his friends’ speeches to their logical conclusion – if God dispenses justice in the world, and there is no justice, then God is behind it all. The LXX omitted these words, perhaps out of reverence for God.

[9:24]  ⁷ tn This seems to be a broken-off sentence (anacoluthon), and so is rather striking. The scribes transposed the words אֵפוֹא (’efo’) and הוּא (hu’) to make the smoother reading: “If it is not he, who then is it?”

[18:19]  ⁸ tn The two words נִין (nin, “offspring”) and נֶכֶד (nekhed, “posterity”) are always together and form an alliteration. This is hard to capture in English, but some have tried: Moffatt had “son and scion,” and Tur-Sinai had “breed or brood.” But the words are best simply translated as “lineage and posterity” or as in the NIV “offspring or descendants.”

[18:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his sojournings.” The verb גּוּר (gur) means “to reside; to sojourn” temporarily, without land rights. Even this word has been selected to stress the temporary nature of his stay on earth.

[20:25]  ¹⁰ tn The MT has “he draws out [or as a passive, “it is drawn out/forth”] and comes [or goes] out of his back.” For the first verb שָׁלַף (shalaf, “pull, draw”), many commentators follow the LXX and use שֶׁלַח (shelakh, “a spear”). It then reads “and a shaft comes out of his back,” a sword flash comes out of his liver.” But the verse could also be a continuation of the preceding.

[20:25]  ¹¹ tn Possibly a reference to lightnings.

[32:3]  ¹² tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ¹³ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ¹⁴ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.

[33:27]  ¹⁵ tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).

[33:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ¹⁷ tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”