Ayub 1:2

1:2 Seven ¹  sons and three daughters were born to him. ² 

Ayub 6:22

Friends’ Fears

6:22 “Have I ³  ever said, ⁴  ‘Give me something,

and from your fortune ⁵  make gifts ⁶  in my favor’?

Ayub 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ⁷  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ⁸ 

Ayub 7:13

7:13 If ⁹  I say, ¹⁰  “My bed will comfort me, ¹¹ 

my couch will ease ¹²  my complaint,”

Ayub 9:11

9:11 If ¹³  he passes by me, I cannot see ¹⁴  him, ¹⁵ 

if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. ¹⁶ 

Ayub 9:21

9:21 I am blameless. ¹⁷  I do not know myself. ¹⁸ 

I despise my life.

Ayub 13:16

13:16 Moreover, this will become my deliverance,

for no godless person would come before him. ¹⁹ 

Ayub 13:26

13:26 For you write down ²⁰  bitter things against me

and cause me to inherit the sins of my youth. ²¹ 

Ayub 20:17

20:17 He will not look on the streams, ²² 

the rivers, which are the torrents ²³ 

of honey and butter. ²⁴ 

Ayub 22:8

22:8 Although you were a powerful man, ²⁵  owning land, ²⁶ 

an honored man ²⁷  living on it, ²⁸ 

Ayub 25:5

25:5 If even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned, ²⁹ 

Ayub 28:5

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire; ³⁰ 

Ayub 29:13

29:13 the blessing of the dying man descended on me, ³¹ 

and I made the widow’s heart rejoice; ³² 

Ayub 30:12

30:12 On my right the young rabble ³³  rise up;

they drive me from place to place, ³⁴ 

and build up siege ramps ³⁵  against me. ³⁶ 

Ayub 30:23

30:23 I know that you are bringing ³⁷  me to death,

to the meeting place for all the living.

Ayub 32:7

32:7 I said to myself, ‘Age ³⁸  should speak, ³⁹ 

and length of years ⁴⁰  should make wisdom known.’

Ayub 34:14

34:14 If God ⁴¹  were to set his heart on it, ⁴² 

and gather in his spirit and his breath,

Ayub 38:15

38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,

and the arm raised in violence ⁴³  is broken. ⁴⁴ 

Ayub 38:22

38:22 Have you entered the storehouse ⁴⁵  of the snow,

or seen the armory ⁴⁶  of the hail,

Ayub 38:24

38:24 In what direction is lightning ⁴⁷  dispersed,

or the east winds scattered over the earth?

[1:2]  ¹ sn The numbers used in the chapter, seven, three, and five, carry the symbolism in the Bible of perfection and completeness (see J. J. Davis, Biblical Numerology). Job’s “seven sons” are listed first because in the East sons were considered more valuable than daughters (recall Ruth, who is “better than seven sons” [Ruth 4:15]).

[1:2]  ² tn The verb begins the sentence: “and there were born.” This use of the preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, especially after the verb הָיָה (hayah, “to be”), is explanatory: there was a man…and there was born to him…” (IBHS 551-52 §33.2.2b).

[6:22]  ³ tn The Hebrew הֲכִי (hakhi) literally says “Is it because….”

[6:22]  ⁴ sn For the next two verses Job lashes out in sarcasm against his friends. If he had asked for charity, for their wealth, he might have expected their cold response. But all he wanted was sympathy and understanding (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 63).

[6:22]  ⁵ tn The word כֹּחַ (koakh) basically means “strength, force”; but like the synonym חַיִל (khayil), it can also mean “wealth, fortune.” E. Dhorme notes that to the Semitic mind, riches bring power (Job, 90).

[6:22]  ⁶ tn Or “bribes.” The verb שִׁחֲדוּ (shikhadu) means “give a שֹׁחַד (shokhad, “bribe”).” The significance is simply “make a gift” (especially in the sense of corrupting an official [Ezek 16:33]). For the spelling of the form in view of the guttural, see GKC 169 §64.a.

[7:1]  ⁷ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ⁸ tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[7:13]  ⁹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) could also be translated “when,” but “if” might work better to introduce the conditional clause and to parallel the earlier reasoning of Job in v. 4 (using אִם, ’im). See GKC 336-37 §112.hh.

[7:13]  ¹⁰ tn The verb literally means “say,” but here the connotation must be “think” or “say to oneself” – “when I think my bed….”

[7:13]  ¹¹ sn Sleep is the recourse of the troubled and unhappy. Here “bed” is metonymical for sleep. Job expects sleep to give him the comfort that his friends have not.

[7:13]  ¹² tn The verb means “to lift up; to take away” (נָשָׂא, nasa’). When followed by the preposition בּ (bet) with the complement of the verb, the idea is “to bear a part; to take a share,” or “to share in the burden” (cf. Num 11:7). The idea then would be that the sleep would ease the complaint. It would not end the illness, but the complaining for a while.

[9:11]  ¹³ tn The NIV has “when” to form a temporal clause here. For the use of “if,” see GKC 497 §159.w.

[9:11]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse are consistent with the clauses. In the conditional clauses a progressive imperfect is used, but in the following clauses the verbs are potential imperfects.

[9:11]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun “him” is supplied here; it is not in MT, but the Syriac and Vulgate have it (probably for translation purposes as well).

[9:11]  ¹⁶ sn Like the mountains, Job knows that God has passed by and caused him to shake and tremble, but he cannot understand or perceive the reasons.

[9:21]  ¹⁷ tn Dhorme, in an effort to avoid tautology, makes this a question: “Am I blameless?” The next clause then has Job answering that he does not know. But through the last section Job has been proclaiming his innocence. The other way of interpreting these verses is to follow NIV and make all of them hypothetical (“If I were blameless, he would pronounce me guilty”) and then come to this verse with Job saying, “I am blameless.” The second clause of this verse does not fit either view very well. In vv. 20, 21, and 22 Job employs the same term for “blameless” (תָּם, tam) as in the prologue (1:1). God used it to describe Job in 1:8 and 2:3. Bildad used it in 8:20. These are the final occurrences in the book.

[9:21]  ¹⁸ tn The meaning of the expression “I do not know myself” seems to be, “I do not care.” NIV translates it, “I have no concern for my life.”

[9:21]  sn Job believes he is blameless and not deserving of all this suffering; he will hold fast to that claim, even if the future is uncertain, especially if that future involved a confrontation with God.

[13:16]  ¹⁹ sn The fact that Job will dare to come before God and make his case is evidence – to Job at least – that he is innocent.

[13:26]  ²⁰ tn The meaning is that of writing down a formal charge against someone (cf. Job 31:15).

[13:26]  ²¹ sn Job acknowledges sins in his youth, but they are trifling compared to the suffering he now endures. Job thinks it unjust of God to persecute him now for those – if that is what is happening.

[20:17]  ²² tn The word פְּלַגּוֹת (pÿlaggot) simply means “streams” or “channels.” Because the word is used elsewhere for “streams of oil” (cf. 29:6), and that makes a good parallelism here, some supply “oil” (cf. NAB, NLT). But the second colon of the verse is probably in apposition to the first. The verb “see” followed by the preposition bet, “to look on; to look over,” means “to enjoy as a possession,” an activity of the victor.

[20:17]  ²³ tn The construct nouns here have caused a certain amount of revision. It says “rivers of, torrents of.” The first has been emended by Klostermann to יִצְהָר (yitshar, “oil”) and connected to the first colon. Older editors argued for a נָהָר (nahar) that meant “oil” but that was not convincing. On the other hand, there is support for having more than one construct together serving as apposition (see GKC 422 §130.e). If the word “streams” in the last colon is a construct, that would mean three of them; but that one need not be construct. The reading would be “He will not see the streams, [that is] the rivers [which are] the torrents of honey and butter.” It is unusual, but workable.

[20:17]  ²⁴ sn This word is often translated “curds.” It is curdled milk, possibly a type of butter.

[22:8]  ²⁵ tn The idiom is “a man of arm” (= “powerful”; see Ps 10:15). This is in comparison to the next line, “man of face” (= “dignity; high rank”; see Isa 3:5).

[22:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and a man of arm, to whom [was] land.” The line is in contrast to the preceding one, and so the vav here introduces a concessive clause.

[22:8]  ²⁷ tn The expression is unusual: “the one lifted up of face.” This is the “honored one,” the one to whom the dignity will be given.

[22:8]  ²⁸ tn Many commentators simply delete the verse or move it elsewhere. Most take it as a general reference to Job, perhaps in apposition to the preceding verse.

[25:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “not pure in his eyes.”

[28:5]  ³⁰ sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.

[29:13]  ³¹ tn The verb is simply בּוֹא (bo’, “to come; to enter”). With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it could mean “came to me,” or “came upon me,” i.e., descended (see R. Gordis, Job, 320).

[29:13]  ³² tn The verb אַרְנִן (’arnin) is from רָנַן (ranan, “to give a ringing cry”) but here “cause to give a ringing cry,” i.e., shout of joy. The rejoicing envisioned in this word is far greater than what the words “sing” or “rejoice” suggest.

[30:12]  ³³ tn This Hebrew word occurs only here. The word פִּרְחַח (pirkhakh, “young rabble”) is a quadriliteral, from פָּרַח (parakh, “to bud”) The derivative אֶפְרֹחַ (’efroakh) in the Bible refers to a young bird. In Arabic farhun means both “young bird” and “base man.” Perhaps “young rabble” is the best meaning here (see R. Gordis, Job, 333).

[30:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “they cast off my feet” or “they send my feet away.” Many delete the line as troubling and superfluous. E. Dhorme (Job, 438) forces the lines to say “they draw my feet into a net.”

[30:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”

[30:12]  ³⁶ sn See Job 19:12.

[30:23]  ³⁷ tn The imperfect verb would be a progressive imperfect, it is future, but it is also already underway.

[32:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “days.”

[32:7]  ³⁹ tn The imperfect here is to be classified as an obligatory imperfect.

[32:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “abundance of years.”

[34:14]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:14]  ⁴² tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.

[38:15]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the raised arm.” The words “in violence” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[38:15]  ⁴⁴ sn What is active at night, the violence symbolized by the raised arm, is broken with the dawn. G. R. Driver thought the whole verse referred to stars, and that the arm is the navigator’s term for the line of stars (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 4 [1953]: 208-12).

[38:22]  ⁴⁵ sn Snow and ice are thought of as being in store, brought out by God for specific purposes, such as times of battle (see Josh 10:11; Exod 9:2ff.; Isa 28:17; Isa 30:30; and Ps 18:12 [13]).

[38:22]  ⁴⁶ tn The same Hebrew term (אוֹצָר, ’otsar), has been translated “storehouse” in the first line and “armory” in the second. This has been done for stylistic variation, but also because “hail,” as one of God’s “weapons” (cf. the following verse) suggests military imagery; in this context the word refers to God’s “ammunition dump” where he stockpiles hail.

[38:24]  ⁴⁷ tn Because the parallel with “light” and “east wind” is not tight, Hoffmann proposed ‘ed instead, “mist.” This has been adopted by many. G. R. Driver suggests “parching heat” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 91-92).