Ayub 15:26

15:26 defiantly charging against him ¹ 

with a thick, strong shield! ² 

Ayub 16:14

16:14 He breaks through against me, time and time again; ³ 

he rushes ⁴  against me like a warrior.

Ayub 18:10

18:10 A rope is hidden for him ⁵  on the ground

and a trap for him ⁶  lies on the path.

Ayub 30:27

30:27 My heart ⁷  is in turmoil ⁸  unceasingly; ⁹ 

the days of my affliction confront me.

Ayub 31:4

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

[15:26]  ¹ tn Heb “he runs against [or upon] him with the neck.” The RSV takes this to mean “with a stiff neck.” Several commentators, influenced by the LXX’s “insolently,” have attempted to harmonize with some idiom for neck (“outstretched neck,” for example). Others have made more extensive changes. Pope and Anderson follow Tur-Sinai in accepting “with full battle armor.” But the main idea seems to be that of a headlong assault on God.

[15:26]  ² tn Heb “with the thickness of the bosses of his shield.” The bosses are the convex sides of the bucklers, turned against the foe. This is a defiant attack on God.

[16:14]  ³ tn The word פָּרַץ (parats) means “to make a breach” in a wall (Isa 5:5; Ps 80:13). It is used figuratively in the birth and naming of Peres in Gen 38:29. Here the image is now of a military attack that breaks through a wall. The text uses the cognate accusative, and then with the addition of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “in addition”) it repeats the cognate noun. A smooth translation that reflects the three words is difficult. E. Dhorme (Job, 237) has “he batters me down, breach upon breach.”

[16:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “runs.”

[18:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.

[18:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.

[30:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “my loins,” “my bowels” (archaic), “my innermost being.” The latter option is reflected in the translation; some translations take the inner turmoil to be literal (NIV: “The churning inside me never stops”).

[30:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “boils.”

[30:27]  ⁹ tn The last clause reads “and they [it] are not quiet” or “do not cease.” The clause then serves adverbially for the sentence – “unceasingly.”