Ayub 30:12

30:12 On my right the young rabble ¹  rise up;

they drive me from place to place, ² 

and build up siege ramps ³  against me. ⁴ 

Ayub 37:9

37:9 A tempest blows out from its chamber,

icy cold from the driving winds. ⁵ 

Ayub 1:19

1:19 and suddenly ⁶  a great wind ⁷  swept across ⁸  the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died! And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

Ayub 23:9

23:9 In the north ⁹  when he is at work, ¹⁰ 

I do not see him; ¹¹ 

when he turns ¹²  to the south,

I see no trace of him.

Ayub 37:22

37:22 From the north he comes in golden splendor; ¹³ 

around God is awesome majesty.

Ayub 16:13

16:13 his archers ¹⁴  surround me.

Without pity ¹⁵  he pierces ¹⁶  my kidneys

and pours out my gall ¹⁷  on the ground.

Ayub 6:26

6:26 Do you intend to criticize mere words,

and treat ¹⁸  the words of a despairing man as wind?

Ayub 7:5

7:5 My body ¹⁹  is clothed ²⁰  with worms ²¹  and dirty scabs; ²² 

my skin is broken ²³  and festering.

Ayub 15:5

15:5 Your sin inspires ²⁴  your mouth;

you choose the language ²⁵  of the crafty. ²⁶ 

Ayub 28:9

28:9 On the flinty rock man has set to work ²⁷  with his hand;

he has overturned mountains at their bases. ²⁸ 

Ayub 39:3

39:3 They crouch, they bear ²⁹  their young,

they bring forth the offspring they have carried. ³⁰ 

Ayub 9:9

9:9 he makes the Bear, ³¹  Orion, ³²  and the Pleiades, ³³ 

and the constellations of the southern sky; ³⁴ 

Ayub 24:11

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; ³⁵ 

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. ³⁶ 

Ayub 26:8

26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,

and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

Ayub 30:14

30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;

amid the crash ³⁷  they come rolling in. ³⁸ 

Ayub 31:32

31:32 But ³⁹  no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler ⁴⁰  –

Ayub 36:32

36:32 With his hands ⁴¹  he covers ⁴²  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Ayub 39:26

39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, ⁴³ 

and spreads its wings toward the south?

Ayub 23:12

23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion. ⁴⁴ 

Ayub 27:5

27:5 I will never ⁴⁵  declare that you three ⁴⁶  are in the right;

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

Ayub 41:30

41:30 Its underparts ⁴⁷  are the sharp points of potsherds,

it leaves its mark in the mud

like a threshing sledge. ⁴⁸ 

Ayub 1:3

1:3 His possessions ⁴⁹  included ⁵⁰  7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys; in addition he had a very great household. ⁵¹  Thus he ⁵²  was the greatest of all the people in the east. ⁵³ 

Ayub 1:14

1:14 and a messenger came to Job, saying, “The oxen were plowing ⁵⁴  and the donkeys were grazing beside them,

[30:12]  ¹ tn This Hebrew word occurs only here. The word פִּרְחַח (pirkhakh, “young rabble”) is a quadriliteral, from פָּרַח (parakh, “to bud”) The derivative אֶפְרֹחַ (’efroakh) in the Bible refers to a young bird. In Arabic farhun means both “young bird” and “base man.” Perhaps “young rabble” is the best meaning here (see R. Gordis, Job, 333).

[30:12]  ² tn Heb “they cast off my feet” or “they send my feet away.” Many delete the line as troubling and superfluous. E. Dhorme (Job, 438) forces the lines to say “they draw my feet into a net.”

[30:12]  ³ tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”

[30:12]  ⁴ sn See Job 19:12.

[37:9]  ⁵ tn The “driving winds” reflects the Hebrew “from the scatterers.” This refers to the north winds that bring the cold air and the ice and snow and hard rains.

[1:19]  ⁶ tn The use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) in this sentence is deictic, pointing out with excitement the events that happened as if the listener was there.

[1:19]  ⁷ sn Both wind and lightning (v. 16) were employed by Satan as his tools. God can permit him such control over factors of the weather when it suits the divine purpose, but God retains ultimate control (see 28:23-27; Prov 3:4; Luke 8:24-25).

[1:19]  ⁸ tn The word מֵעֵבֶר (me’ever) is simply “from the direction of”; the word עֵבֶר (’ever) indicates the area the whirlwind came across.

[23:9]  ⁹ sn The text has “the left hand,” the Semitic idiom for directions. One faces the rising sun, and so left is north, right is south.

[23:9]  ¹⁰ tc The form בַּעֲשֹׂתוֹ (ba’asoto) would be the temporal clause using the infinitive construct with a pronoun (subject genitive). This would be “when he works.” Several follow the Syriac with “I seek him.” The LXX has “[when] he turns.” R. Gordis (Job, 261) notes that there is no need to emend the text; he shows a link to the Arabic cognate ghasa, “to cover.” To him this is a perfect parallel to יַעְטֹף (ya’tof, “covers himself”).

[23:9]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the apocopated form of the imperfect. The object is supplied.

[23:9]  ¹² tn The MT has “he turns,” but the Syriac and Vulgate have “I turn.”

[37:22]  ¹³ tn The MT has “out of the north comes gold.” Left in that sense the line seems irrelevant. The translation “golden splendor” (with RV, RSV, NRSV, NIV) depends upon the context of theophany. Others suggest “golden rays” (Dhorme), the aurora borealis (Graetz, Gray), or some mythological allusion (Pope), such as Baal’s palace. Golden rays or splendor is what is intended, although the reference is not to a natural phenomenon – it is something that would suggest the glory of God.

[16:13]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning of “his archers” is supported for רַבָּיו (rabbayv) in view of Jer 50:29. The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum Job, followed by several translations and commentators prefer “arrows.” They see this as a more appropriate figure without raising the question of who the archers might be (see 6:4). The point is an unnecessary distinction, for the figure is an illustration of the affliction that God has brought on him.

[16:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he does not pity,” but the clause is functioning adverbially in the line.

[16:13]  ¹⁶ tn The verb פָּלַח (palakh) in the Piel means “to pierce” (see Prov 7:23). A fuller comparison should be made with Lam 3:12-13.

[16:13]  ¹⁷ tn This word מְרֵרָתִי (mÿrerati, “my gall”) is found only here. It is close to the form in Job 13:26, “bitter things.” In Job 20:14 it may mean “poison.” The thought is also found in Lam 2:11.

[6:26]  ¹⁸ tn This, in the context, is probably the meaning, although the Hebrew simply has the line after the first half of the verse read: “and as/to wind the words of a despairing man.” The line could be translated “and the words of a despairing man, [which are] as wind.” But this translation follows the same approach as RSV, NIV, and NAB, which take the idiom of the verb (“think, imagine”) with the preposition on “wind” to mean “reckon as wind” – “and treat the words of a despairing man as wind.”

[7:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my flesh.”

[7:5]  ²⁰ tn The implied comparison is vivid: the dirty scabs cover his entire body like a garment – so he is clothed with them.

[7:5]  ²¹ sn The word for “worms” (רִמָּה, rimmah, a collective noun), is usually connected with rotten food (Exod 16:24), or the grave (Isa 14:11). Job’s disease is a malignant ulcer of some kind that causes the rotting of the flesh. One may recall that both Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Macc 9:9) and Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:23) were devoured by such worms in their diseases.

[7:5]  ²² tn The text has “clods of dust.” The word גִּישׁ (gish, “dirty scabs”) is a hapax legomenon from גּוּשׁ (gush, “clod”). Driver suggests the word has a medical sense, like “pustules” (G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 73) or “scabs” (JB, NEB, NAB, NIV). Driver thinks “clods of dust” is wrong; he repoints “dust” to make a new verb “to cover,” cognate to Arabic, and reads “my flesh is clothed with worms, and scab covers my skin.” This refers to the dirty scabs that crusted over the sores all over his body. The LXX links this with the second half of the verse: “And my body has been covered with loathsome worms, and I waste away, scraping off clods of dirt from my eruption.”

[7:5]  ²³ tn The meaning of רָגַע (raga’) is also debated here. D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 163) does not think the word can mean “cracked” because scabs show evidence of the sores healing. But E. Dhorme (Job, 100) argues that the usage of the word shows the idea of “splitting, separating, making a break,” or the like. Here then it would mean “my skin splits” and as a result festers. This need not be a reference to the scabs, but to new places. Or it could mean that the scabbing never heals, but is always splitting open.

[15:5]  ²⁴ tn The verb אַלֵּף (’allef) has the meaning of “to teach; to instruct,” but it is unlikely that the idea of revealing is intended. If the verb is understood metonymically, then “to inspire; to prompt” will be sufficient. Dahood and others find another root, and render the verb “to increase,” reversing subject and object: “your mouth increases your iniquity.”

[15:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “tongue.”

[15:5]  ²⁶ tn The word means “shrewd; crafty; cunning” (see Gen 3:1). Job uses clever speech that is misleading and destructive.

[28:9]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “to stretch out; to send” (שָׁלח, shalakh). With יָדוֹ (yado, “his hand”) the idea is that of laying one’s hand on the rock, i.e., getting to work on the hardest of rocks.

[28:9]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ (mishoresh) means “from/at [their] root [or base].” In mining, people have gone below ground, under the mountains, and overturned rock and dirt. It is also interesting that here in a small way humans do what God does – overturn mountains (cf. 9:5).

[39:3]  ²⁹ tc The Hebrew verb used here means “to cleave,” and this would not have the object “their young.” Olshausen and others after him change the ח (khet) to ט (tet) and get a verb “to drop,” meaning “drop [= give birth to] young” as used in Job 21:10. G. R. Driver holds out for the MT, arguing it is an idiom, “to breach the womb” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 92-93).

[39:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they cast forth their labor pains.” This word usually means “birth pangs” but here can mean what caused the pains (metonymy of effect). This fits better with the parallelism, and the verb (“cast forth”). The words “their offspring” are supplied in the translation for clarity; direct objects were often omitted when clear from the context, although English expects them to be included.

[9:9]  ³¹ sn The Hebrew has עָשׁ (’ash), although in 38:32 it is עַיִשׁ (’ayish). This has been suggested to be Aldebaran, a star in the constellation Taurus, but there have been many other suggestions put forward by the commentaries.

[9:9]  ³² sn There is more certainty for the understanding of this word as Orion, even though there is some overlap of the usage of the words in the Bible. In classical literature we have the same stereotypical reference to these three (see E. Dhorme, Job, 131).

[9:9]  ³³ sn The identification of this as the Pleiades is accepted by most (the Vulgate has “Hyades”). In classical Greek mythology, the seven Pleiades were seven sisters of the Hyades who were pursued by Orion until they were changed into stars by Zeus. The Greek myth is probably derived from an older Semitic myth.

[9:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and the chambers of the south.”

[24:11]  ³⁵ tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.

[24:11]  ³⁶ tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.

[30:14]  ³⁷ tn The MT has “under the crash,” with the idea that they rush in while the stones are falling around them (which is continuing the figure of the military attack). G. R. Driver took the expression to mean in a temporal sense “at the moment of the crash” (AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163-64). Guillaume, drawing from Arabic, has “where the gap is made.”

[30:14]  ³⁸ tn The verb, the Hitpalpel of גָּלַל (galal), means “they roll themselves.” This could mean “they roll themselves under the ruins” (Dhorme), “they roll on like a storm” (Gordis), or “they roll on” as in waves of enemy attackers (see H. H. Rowley). This particular verb form is found only here (but see Amos 5:24).

[31:32]  ³⁹ tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.

[31:32]  ⁴⁰ tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.

[36:32]  ⁴¹ tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ⁴² tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.

[39:26]  ⁴³ tn This word occurs only here. It is connected to “pinions” in v. 13. Dhorme suggests “clad with feathers,” but the line suggests more the use of the wings.

[23:12]  ⁴⁴ tc The form in the MT (מֵחֻקִּי, mekhuqqi) means “more than my portion” or “more than my law.” An expanded meaning results in “more than my necessary food” (see Ps 119:11; cf. KJV, NASB, ESV). HALOT 346 s.v. חֹק 1 indicates that חֹק (khoq) has the meaning of “portion” and is here a reference to “what is appointed for me.” The LXX and the Latin versions, along with many commentators, have בְּחֵקִי (bÿkheqi, “in my bosom”).

[27:5]  ⁴⁵ tn The text uses חָלִילָה לִּי (khalilah li) meaning “far be it from me,” or more strongly, something akin to “sacrilege.”

[27:5]  ⁴⁶ 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.

[41:30]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “under him.”

[41:30]  ⁴⁸ tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”

[1:3]  ⁴⁹ tn The word means “cattle, livestock, possessions” (see also Gen 26:14). Here it includes the livestock, but also the entire substance of his household.

[1:3]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “amounted to,” “totaled.” The preterite of הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) is sometimes employed to introduce a total amount or an inventory (see Exod 1:5; Num 3:43).

[1:3]  ⁵¹ tn The word עֲבֻדָּה (’avuddah, “service of household servants”) indicates that he had a very large body of servants, meaning a very large household.

[1:3]  ⁵² tn Heb “and that man.”

[1:3]  ⁵³ tn The expression is literally “sons of the east.” The use of the genitive after “sons” in this construction may emphasize their nature (like “sons of belial”); it would refer to them as easterners (like “sons of the south” in contemporary American English). BDB 869 s.v. קֶדֶם says “dwellers in the east.”

[1:14]  ⁵⁴ tn The use of the verb “to be” with the participle gives emphasis to the continuing of the action in the past (GKC 360 §116.r).