Ayub 17:15

17:15 where then ¹  is my hope?

And my hope, ²  who sees it?

Ayub 31:24

31:24 “If I have put my confidence in gold

or said to pure gold,

‘You are my security!’

Ayub 17:13

17:13 If ³  I hope for the grave to be my home,

if I spread out my bed in darkness,

[17:15]  ¹ tn The adverb אֵפוֹ (’efo, “then”) plays an enclitic role here (see Job 4:7).

[17:15]  ² tn The repetition of “my hope” in the verse has thrown the versions off, and their translations have led commentators also to change the second one to something like “goodness,” on the assumption that a word cannot be repeated in the same verse. The word actually carries two different senses here. The first would be the basic meaning “hope,” but the second a metonymy of cause, namely, what hope produces, what will be seen.

[17:13]  ³ tn The clause begins with אִם (’im) which here has more of the sense of “since.” E. Dhorme (Job, 253) takes a rather rare use of the word to get “Can I hope again” (see also GKC 475 §150.f for the caveat).