Ayub 21:14

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹  know your ways. ² 

Ayub 27:15

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ³ 

and their ⁴  widows do not mourn for them.

Ayub 30:3

30:3 gaunt ⁵  with want and hunger,

they would gnaw ⁶  the parched land,

in former time desolate and waste. ⁷ 

[21:14]  ¹ tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

[21:14]  ² sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[27:15]  ³ tn The text says “will be buried in/by death.” A number of passages in the Bible use “death” to mean the plague that kills (see Jer 15:2; Isa 28:3; and BDB 89 s.v. בְּ 2.a). In this sense it is like the English expression for the plague, “the Black Death.”

[27:15]  ⁴ tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.

[30:3]  ⁵ tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.

[30:3]  ⁶ tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[30:3]  ⁷ tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”