Ayub 21:28-30

21:28 For you say,

‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, ¹ 

and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ ² 

21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?

Do you not recognize their accounts ³  –

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ⁴ 

from the day of God’s wrath?

[21:28]  ¹ sn The question implies the answer will be “vanished” or “gone.”

[21:28]  ² tn Heb “And where is the tent, the dwellings of the wicked.” The word “dwellings of the wicked” is in apposition to “tent.” A relative pronoun must be supplied in the translation.

[21:29]  ³ tc The LXX reads, “Ask those who go by the way, and do not disown their signs.”

[21:29]  tn The idea is that the merchants who travel widely will talk about what they have seen and heard. These travelers give a different account of the wicked; they tell how he is spared. E. Dhorme (Job, 322) interprets “signs” concretely: “Their custom was to write their names and their thoughts somewhere at the main cross-roads. The main roads of Sinai are dotted with these scribblings made by such passers of a day.”

[21:30]  ⁴ tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.