Ayub 28:4

28:4 Far from where people live ¹  he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten, ² 

far from other people he dangles and sways. ³ 

Ayub 30:28

30:28 I go about blackened, ⁴  but not by the sun;

in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

Ayub 32:11

32:11 Look, I waited for you to speak; ⁵ 

I listened closely to your wise thoughts, ⁶ while you were searching for words.

Ayub 33:24

33:24 and if ⁷  God ⁸  is gracious to him and says,

‘Spare ⁹  him from going down

to the place of corruption,

I have found a ransom for him,’ ¹⁰ 

Ayub 33:27

33:27 That person sings ¹¹  to others, ¹²  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ¹³ 

Ayub 35:9

35:9 “People ¹⁴  cry out

because of the excess of oppression; ¹⁵ 

they cry out for help

because of the power ¹⁶  of the mighty. ¹⁷ 

Ayub 38:11

38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come ¹⁸ 

and no farther, ¹⁹ 

here your proud waves will be confined’? ²⁰ 

[28:4]  ¹ tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.

[28:4]  ² tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.

[28:4]  ³ sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.

[30:28]  ⁴ tn The construction uses the word קֹדֵר (qoder) followed by the Piel perfect of הָלַךְ (halakh, “I go about”). The adjective “blackened” refers to Job’s skin that has been marred by the disease. Adjectives are often used before verbs to describe some bodily condition (see GKC 374-75 §118.n).

[32:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “for your words.”

[32:11]  ⁶ tn The word means “understanding.” It refers to the faculty of perception and comprehension; but it also can refer to what that produces, especially when it is in the plural (see Ps 49:4). See R. Gordis, Job, 368. Others translate it “reasonings,” “arguments,” etc.

[33:24]  ⁷ tn This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.

[33:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:24]  ⁹ tc The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (pada’, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (para’, “to let loose,” so Wright).

[33:24]  ¹⁰ sn This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7-9, 15 (8-10, 16 HT) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.

[33:27]  ¹¹ tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).

[33:27]  ¹² tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ¹³ tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”

[35:9]  ¹⁴ tn The word “people” is supplied, because the sentence only has the masculine plural verb.

[35:9]  ¹⁵ tn The final noun is an abstract plural, “oppression.” There is no reason to change it to “oppressors” to fit the early versions. The expression is literally “multitude of oppression.”

[35:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the arm,” a metaphor for strength or power.

[35:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “of the many” (see HALOT 1172 s.v. I רַב 6.a).

[38:11]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.

[38:11]  ¹⁹ tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).

[38:11]  ²⁰ tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.