Ayub 27:5-15

27:5 I will never ¹  declare that you three ²  are in the right;

until I die, I will not set aside my integrity!

27:6 I will maintain my righteousness

and never let it go;

my conscience ³  will not reproach me

for as long as I live. ⁴ 

The Condition of the Wicked

27:7 “May my enemy be like the wicked, ⁵ 

my adversary ⁶  like the unrighteous. ⁷ 

27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off, ⁸ 

when God takes away his life? ⁹ 

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

27:10 Will he find delight ¹⁰  in the Almighty?

Will he call out to God at all times?

27:11 I will teach you ¹¹  about the power ¹²  of God;

What is on the Almighty’s mind ¹³  I will not conceal.

27:12 If you yourselves have all seen this,

Why in the world ¹⁴  do you continue this meaningless talk? ¹⁵ 

27:13 This is the portion of the wicked man

allotted by God, ¹⁶ 

the inheritance that evildoers receive

from the Almighty.

27:14 If his children increase – it is for the sword! ¹⁷ 

His offspring never have enough to eat. ¹⁸ 

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ¹⁹ 

and their ²⁰  widows do not mourn for them.

[27:5]  ¹ tn The text uses חָלִילָה לִּי (khalilah li) meaning “far be it from me,” or more strongly, something akin to “sacrilege.”

[27:5]  ² tn In the Hebrew text “you” is plural – a reference to Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. To make this clear, “three” is supplied in the translation.

[27:6]  ³ tn Heb “my heart.”

[27:6]  ⁴ tn The prepositional phrase “from my days” probably means “from the days of my birth,” or “all my life.”

[27:7]  ⁵ sn Of course, he means like his enemy when he is judged, not when he is thriving in prosperity and luxury.

[27:7]  ⁶ tn The form is the Hitpolel participle from קוּם (qum): “those who are rising up against me,” or “my adversary.”

[27:7]  ⁷ tc The LXX made a free paraphrase: “No, but let my enemies be as the overthrow of the ungodly, and they that rise up against me as the destruction of transgressors.”

[27:8]  ⁸ tn The verb יִבְצָע (yivtsa’) means “to cut off.” It could be translated transitively or intransitively – the latter is better here (“when he is cut off”). Since the next line speaks of prayer, some have thought this verse should be about prayer. Mandelkern, in his concordance (p. 228b), suggested the verb should be “when he prays” (reading יִפְגַּע [yifga’] in place of יִבְצָע [yivtsa’]).

[27:8]  ⁹ tn The verb יֵשֶׁל (yeshel) is found only here. It has been related spoils [or sheaves]”); שָׁאַל (sha’al, “to ask”); נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up” [i.e., pray]); and a host of others.

[27:10]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on 22:26 where the same verb is employed.

[27:11]  ¹¹ tn The object suffix is in the plural, which gives some support to the idea Job is speaking to them.

[27:11]  ¹² tn Heb “the hand of.”

[27:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “[what is] with Shaddai.”

[27:12]  ¹⁴ tn The interrogative uses the demonstrative pronoun in its emphatic position: “Why in the world…?” (IBHS 312-13 §17.4.3c).

[27:12]  ¹⁵ tn The text has the noun “vain thing; breath; vapor,” and then a denominative verb from the same root: “to become vain with a vain thing,” or “to do in vain a vain thing.” This is an example of the internal object, or a cognate accusative (see GKC 367 §117.q). The LXX has “you all know that you are adding vanity to vanity.”

[27:13]  ¹⁶ tn The expression “allotted by God” interprets the simple prepositional phrase in the text: “with/from God.”

[27:14]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will not be satisfied with bread/food.”

[27:15]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.