Ayub 14:18

14:18 But as ¹  a mountain falls away and crumbles, ² 

and as a rock will be removed from its place,

Ayub 24:8

24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains

and huddle ³  in the rocks because they lack shelter.

Ayub 28:10

28:10 He has cut out channels ⁴  through the rocks;

his eyes have spotted ⁵  every precious thing.

Ayub 29:6

29:6 when my steps ⁶  were bathed ⁷  with butter ⁸ 

and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil! ⁹ 

[14:18]  ¹ tn The indication that this is a simile is to be obtained from the conjunction beginning 19c (see GKC 499 §161.a).

[14:18]  ² tn The word יִבּוֹל (yibbol) usually refers to a flower fading and so seems strange here. The LXX and the Syriac translate “and will fall”; most commentators accept this and repoint the preceding word to get “and will surely fall.” Duhm retains the MT and applies the image of the flower to the falling mountain. The verb is used of the earth in Isa 24:4, and so NIV, RSV, and NJPS all have the idea of “crumble away.”

[24:8]  ³ tn Heb “embrace” or “hug.”

[28:10]  ⁴ tn Or “tunnels.” The word is יְאֹרִים (yÿ’orim), the word for “rivers” and in the singular, the Nile River. Here it refers to tunnels or channels through the rocks.

[28:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “his eye sees.”

[29:6]  ⁶ tn The word is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is clear enough. It refers to the walking, the steps, or even the paths where one walks. It is figurative of his course of life.

[29:6]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word means “to wash; to bathe”; here it is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, “my steps” being the genitive: “in the washing of my steps in butter.”

[29:6]  ⁸ tn Again, as in Job 21:17, “curds.”

[29:6]  ⁹ tn The MT reads literally, “and the rock was poured out [passive participle] for me as streams of oil.” There are some who delete the word “rock” to shorten the line because it seems out of place. But olive trees thrive in rocky soil, and the oil presses are cut into the rock; it is possible that by metonymy all this is intended here (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 186).