Ayub 21:7

The Wicked Prosper

21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, ¹ 

grow old, ²  even increase in power?

Ayub 34:37

34:37 For he adds transgression ³  to his sin;

in our midst he claps his hands, ⁴ 

and multiplies his words against God.”

Ayub 17:9

17:9 But the righteous man holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger. ⁵ 

Ayub 42:10

42:10 So the Lord ⁶  restored what Job had lost ⁷  after he prayed for his friends, ⁸  and the Lord doubled ⁹  all that had belonged to Job.

Ayub 27:14

27:14 If his children increase – it is for the sword! ¹⁰ 

His offspring never have enough to eat. ¹¹ 

Ayub 30:13

30:13 They destroy ¹²  my path;

they succeed in destroying me ¹³ 

without anyone assisting ¹⁴  them.

Ayub 15:29

15:29 He will not grow rich,

and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions ¹⁵  spread over the land.

Ayub 10:17

10:17 You bring new witnesses ¹⁶  against me,

and increase your anger against me;

relief troops ¹⁷  come against me.

Ayub 8:7

8:7 Your beginning ¹⁸  will seem so small,

since your future will flourish. ¹⁹ 

Ayub 9:17

9:17 he who ²⁰  crushes ²¹  me with a tempest,

and multiplies my wounds for no reason. ²² 

Ayub 16:2

16:2 “I have heard many things like these before.

What miserable comforters ²³  are you all!

Ayub 29:22

29:22 After I had spoken, they did not respond;

my words fell on them drop by drop. ²⁴ 

Ayub 1:10

1:10 Have you ²⁵  not made a hedge ²⁶  around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed ²⁷  the work of his hands, and his livestock ²⁸  have increased ²⁹  in the land.

Ayub 29:24

29:24 If I smiled at them, they hardly believed it; ³⁰ 

and they did not cause the light of my face to darken. ³¹ 

Ayub 42:13

42:13 And he also had seven sons ³²  and three daughters.

Ayub 39:4

39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; ³³ 

they go off, and do not return to them.

Ayub 40:5

40:5 I have spoken once, but I cannot answer;

twice, but I will say no more.” ³⁴ 

[21:7]  ¹ sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 154) clarifies that Job’s question is of a universal scope. In the government of God, why do the wicked exist at all? The verb could be translated “continue to live.”

[21:7]  ² tn The verb עָתַק (’ataq) means “to move; to proceed; to advance.” Here it is “to advance in years” or “to grow old.” This clause could serve as an independent clause, a separate sentence; but it more likely continues the question of the first colon and is parallel to the verb “live.”

[34:37]  ³ tn Although frequently translated “rebellion,” the basic meaning of this Hebrew term is “transgression.”

[34:37]  ⁴ tc If this reading stands, it would mean that Job shows contempt, meaning that he mocks them and accuses God. It is a bold touch, but workable. Of the many suggested emendations, Dhorme alters some of the vowels and obtains a reading “and casts doubt among us,” and then takes “transgression” from the first colon for the complement. Some commentators simply delete the line.

[17:9]  ⁵ tn The last two words are the imperfect verb יֹסִיף (yosif) which means “he adds,” and the abstract noun “energy, strength.” This noun is not found elsewhere; its Piel verb occurs in Job 4:4 and 16:5. “he increases strength.”

[42:10]  ⁶ tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”

[42:10]  ⁷ sn The expression here is interesting: “he returned the captivity of Job,” a clause used elsewhere in the Bible of Israel (see e.g., Ps 126). Here it must mean “the fortunes of Job,” i.e., what he had lost. There is a good deal of literature on this; for example, see R. Borger, “Zu sub sb(i)t,” ZAW 25 (1954): 315-16; and E. Baumann, ZAW 6 (1929): 17ff.

[42:10]  ⁸ tn This is a temporal clause, using the infinitive construct with the subject genitive suffix. By this it seems that this act of Job was also something of a prerequisite for restoration – to pray for them.

[42:10]  ⁹ tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).

[27:14]  ¹⁰ tn R. Gordis (Job, 294) identifies this as a breviloquence. Compare Ps 92:8 where the last two words also constitute the apodosis.

[27:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will not be satisfied with bread/food.”

[30:13]  ¹² tn This verb נָתְסוּ (natÿsu) is found nowhere else. It is probably a variant of the verb in Job 19:10. R. Gordis (Job, 333-34) notes the Arabic noun natsun (“thorns”), suggesting a denominative idea “they have placed thorns in my path.” Most take it to mean they ruin the way of escape.

[30:13]  ¹³ tc The MT has “they further my misfortune.” The line is difficult, with slight textual problems. The verb יֹעִילוּ (yo’ilu) means “to profit,” and so “to succeed” or “to set forward.” Good sense can be made from the MT as it stands, and many suggested changes are suspect.

[30:13]  ¹⁴ tn The sense of “restraining” for “helping” was proposed by Dillmann and supported by G. R. Driver (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).

[15:29]  ¹⁵ tn This word מִנְלָם (minlam) also is a hapax legomenon, although almost always interpreted to mean “possession” (with Arabic manal) and repointed as מְנֹלָם (mÿnolam). M. Dahood further changes “earth” to the netherworld, and interprets it to mean “his possessions will not go down to the netherworld (“Value of Ugaritic for Textual Criticism,” Bib 40 [1959]: 164-66). Others suggest it means “ear of grain,” either from the common word for “ears of grain” or a hapax legomenon in Deuteronomy 23:26 [25].

[10:17]  ¹⁶ tn The text has “you renew/increase your witnesses.” This would probably mean Job’s sufferings, which were witness to his sins. But some suggested a different word here, one that is cognate to Arabic ’adiya, “to be an enemy; to be hostile”: thus “you renew your hostility against me.” Less convincing are suggestions that the word is cognate to Ugaritic “troops” (see W. G. E. Watson, “The Metaphor in Job 10,17,” Bib 63 [1982]: 255-57).

[10:17]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew simply says “changes and a host are with me.” The “changes and a host” is taken as a hendiadys, meaning relieving troops (relief troops of the army). The two words appear together again in 14:14, showing that emendation is to be avoided. The imagery depicts blow after blow from God – always fresh attacks.

[8:7]  ¹⁸ tn The reference to “your beginning” is a reference to Job’s former estate of wealth and peace. The reference to “latter end” is a reference to conditions still in the future. What Job had before will seem so small in comparison to what lies ahead.

[8:7]  ¹⁹ tn The verb has the idea of “to grow”; here it must mean “to flourish; to grow considerably” or the like. The statement is not so much a prophecy; rather Bildad is saying that “if Job had recourse to God, then….” This will be fulfilled, of course, at the end of the book.

[9:17]  ²⁰ tn The relative pronoun indicates that this next section is modifying God, the Judge. Job does not believe that God would respond or listen to him, because this is the one who is crushing him.

[9:17]  ²¹ tn The verb יְשׁוּפֵנִי (yÿshufeni) is the same verb that is used in Gen 3:15 for the wounding of the serpent. The Targum to Job, the LXX, and the Vulgate all translate it “to crush; to pound,” or “to bruise.” The difficulty for many exegetes is that this is to be done “with a tempest.” The Syriac and Targum Job see a different vocalization and read “with a hair.” The text as it stands is understandable and so no change is needed. The fact that the word “tempest” is written with a different sibilant in other places in Job is not greatly significant in this consideration.

[9:17]  ²² tn חִנָּם (khinnam) is adverbial, meaning “gratuitously, without a cause, for no reason, undeservedly.” See its use in 2:4.

[16:2]  ²³ tn The expression uses the Piel participle in construct: מְנַחֲמֵי עָמָל (mÿnahame ’amal, “comforters of trouble”), i.e., comforters who increase trouble instead of relieving it. D. W. Thomas translates this “breathers out of trouble” (“A Note on the Hebrew Root naham,” ExpTim 44 [1932/33]: 192).

[29:22]  ²⁴ tn The verb simply means “dropped,” but this means like the rain. So the picture of his words falling on them like the gentle rain, drop by drop, is what is intended (see Deut 32:2).

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn The use of the independent personal pronoun here emphasizes the subject of the verb: “Have you not put up a hedge.”

[1:10]  ²⁶ tn The verb שׂוּךְ (sukh) means “to hedge or fence up, about” something (BDB 962 s.v. I שׂוּךְ). The original idea seems to have been to surround with a wall of thorns for the purpose of protection (E. Dhorme, Job, 7). The verb is an implied comparison between making a hedge and protecting someone.

[1:10]  ²⁷ sn Here the verb “bless” is used in one of its very common meanings. The verb means “to enrich,” often with the sense of enabling or empowering things for growth or fruitfulness. See further C. Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the Life of the Church (OBT).

[1:10]  ²⁸ tn Or “substance.” The herds of livestock may be taken by metonymy of part for whole to represent possessions or prosperity in general.

[1:10]  ²⁹ tn The verb פָּרַץ (parats) means “to break through.” It has the sense of abundant increase, as in breaking out, overflowing (see also Gen 30:30 and Exod 1:12).

[29:24]  ³⁰ tn The connection of this clause with the verse is difficult. The line simply reads: “[if] I would smile at them, they would not believe.” Obviously something has to be supplied to make sense out of this. The view adopted here makes the most sense, namely, that when he smiled at people, they could hardly believe their good fortune. Other interpretations are strained, such as Kissane’s, “If I laughed at them, they believed not,” meaning, people rejected the views that Job laughed at.

[29:24]  ³¹ tn The meaning, according to Gordis, is that they did nothing to provoke Job’s displeasure.

[42:13]  ³² tn The word for “seven” is spelled in an unusual way. From this some have thought it means “twice seven,” or fourteen sons. Several commentators take this view; but it is probably not warranted.

[39:4]  ³³ tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.

[40:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I will not add.”