Ayub 21:4

21:4 Is my ¹  complaint against a man? ² 

If so, ³  why should I not be impatient? ⁴ 

Ayub 12:15

12:15 If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; ⁵ 

if he releases them, ⁶  they destroy ⁷  the land.

Ayub 14:21

14:21 If ⁸  his sons are honored, ⁹ 

he does not know it; ¹⁰ 

if they are brought low,

he does not see ¹¹  it.

Ayub 34:32

34:32 Teach me what I cannot see. ¹² 

If I have done evil, I will do so no more.’

[21:4]  ¹ tn The addition of the independent pronoun at the beginning of the sentence (“Is it I / against a man / my complaint”) strengthens the pronominal suffix on “complaint” (see GKC 438 §135.f).

[21:4]  ² sn The point seems to be that if his complaint were merely against men he might expect sympathy from other men; but no one dares offer him sympathy when his complaint is against God. So he will give free expression to his spirit (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 147).

[21:4]  ³ tn On disjunctive interrogatives, see GKC 475 §150.g.

[21:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “why should my spirit/breath not be short” (see Num 21:4; Judg 16:16).

[12:15]  ⁵ tc The LXX has a clarification: “he will dry the earth.”

[12:15]  ⁶ sn The verse is focusing on the two extremes of drought and flood. Both are described as being under the power of God.

[12:15]  ⁷ tn The verb הָפַךְ (hafakh) means “to overthrow; to destroy; to overwhelm.” It was used in Job 9:5 for “overturning” mountains. The word is used in Genesis for the destruction of Sodom.

[14:21]  ⁸ tn The clause may be interpreted as a conditional clause, with the second clause beginning with the conjunction serving as the apodosis.

[14:21]  ⁹ tn There is no expressed subject for the verb “they honor,” and so it may be taken as a passive.

[14:21]  ¹⁰ sn Death is separation from the living, from the land of the living. And ignorance of what goes on in this life, good or bad, is part of death. See also Eccl 9:5-6, which makes a similar point.

[14:21]  ¹¹ tn The verb is בִּין (bin, “to perceive; to discern”). The parallelism between “know” and “perceive” stress the point that in death a man does not realize what is happening here in the present life.

[34:32]  ¹² tn Heb “what I do not see,” more specifically, “apart from [that which] I see.”