Ayub 15:5

15:5 Your sin inspires ¹  your mouth;

you choose the language ²  of the crafty. ³ 

Ayub 19:4

19:4 But even if it were ⁴  true that I have erred, ⁵ 

my error ⁶  remains solely my concern!

Ayub 21:10

21:10 Their bulls ⁷  breed ⁸  without fail; ⁹ 

their cows calve and do not miscarry.

Ayub 24:25

24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar

and reduce my words to nothing?” ¹⁰ 

[15:5]  ¹ tn The verb אַלֵּף (’allef) has the meaning of “to teach; to instruct,” but it is unlikely that the idea of revealing is intended. If the verb is understood metonymically, then “to inspire; to prompt” will be sufficient. Dahood and others find another root, and render the verb “to increase,” reversing subject and object: “your mouth increases your iniquity.”

[15:5]  ² tn Heb “tongue.”

[15:5]  ³ tn The word means “shrewd; crafty; cunning” (see Gen 3:1). Job uses clever speech that is misleading and destructive.

[19:4]  ⁴ tn Job has held to his innocence, so the only way that he could say “I have erred” (שָׁגִיתִי, shagiti) is in a hypothetical clause like this.

[19:4]  ⁵ tn There is a long addition in the LXX: “in having spoken words which it is not right to speak, and my words err, and are unreasonable.”

[19:4]  ⁶ tn The word מְשׁוּגָה (mÿshugah) is a hapax legomenon. It is derived from שׁוּג (shug, “to wander; to err”) with root paralleling שָׁגַג (shagag) and שָׁגָה (shagah). What Job is saying is that even if it were true that he had erred, it did not injure them – it was solely his concern.

[21:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.

[21:10]  ⁸ tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”).

[21:10]  ⁹ tn The use of the verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) in this place is interesting. It means “to rebuke; to abhor; to loathe.” In the causative stem it means “to occasion impurity” or “to reject as loathsome.” The rabbinic interpretation is that it does not emit semen in vain, and so the meaning is it does not fail to breed (see E. Dhorme, Job, 311; R. Gordis, Job, 229).

[24:25]  ¹⁰ tn The word אַל (’al, “not”) is used here substantivally (“nothing”).