Ayub 7:19

7:19 Will you never ¹  look away from me, ² 

will you not let me alone ³ 

long enough to swallow my spittle?

Ayub 20:15

20:15 The wealth that he consumed ⁴  he vomits up,

God will make him throw it out ⁵  of his stomach.

Ayub 20:18

20:18 He gives back the ill-gotten gain ⁶ 

without assimilating it; ⁷ 

he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce. ⁸ 

Ayub 39:24

39:24 In excitement and impatience it consumes the ground; ⁹ 

it cannot stand still ¹⁰  when the trumpet is blown.

Ayub 24:19

24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away

the melted snow; ¹¹ 

so the grave ¹²  takes away those who have sinned. ¹³ 

Ayub 37:20

37:20 Should he be informed that I want ¹⁴  to speak?

If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!

Ayub 16:14

16:14 He breaks through against me, time and time again; ¹⁵ 

he rushes ¹⁶  against me like a warrior.

Ayub 18:13

18:13 It eats away parts of his skin; ¹⁷ 

the most terrible death ¹⁸  devours his limbs.

Ayub 20:12

20:12 “If ¹⁹  evil is sweet in his mouth

and he hides it under his tongue, ²⁰ 

Ayub 3:5

3:5 Let darkness and the deepest

shadow ²¹  claim it; ²² 

let a cloud settle on it;

let whatever blackens the day ²³  terrify it!

[7:19]  ¹ tn Heb “according to what [= how long] will you not look away from me.”

[7:19]  ² tn The verb שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “to look”) with the preposition מִן (min) means “to look away from; to avert one’s gaze.” Job wonders if God would not look away from him even briefly, for the constant vigilance is killing him.

[7:19]  ³ tn The Hiphil of רָפָה (rafah) means “to leave someone alone.”

[20:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “swallowed.”

[20:15]  ⁵ tn The choice of words is excellent. The verb יָרַשׁ (yarash) means either “to inherit” or “to disinherit; to dispossess.” The context makes the figure clear that God is administering the emetic to make the wicked throw up the wealth (thus, “God will make him throw it out…”); but since wealth is the subject there is a disinheritance meant here.

[20:18]  ⁶ tn The idea is the fruit of his evil work. The word יָגָע (yaga’) occurs only here; it must mean ill-gotten gains. The verb is in 10:3.

[20:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he does not swallow.” In the context this means “consume” for his own pleasure and prosperity. The verbal clause is here taken adverbially.

[20:18]  ⁸ sn The expression is “according to the wealth of his exchange.” This means he cannot enjoy whatever he gained in his business deals. Some mss have בּ (bet) preposition, making the translation easier; but this is evidence of a scribal correction.

[39:24]  ⁹ tn “Swallow the ground” is a metaphor for the horse’s running. Gray renders the line: “quivering and excited he dashes into the fray.”

[39:24]  ¹⁰ tn The use of אָמַן (’aman) in the Hiphil in this place is unique. Such a form would normally mean “to believe.” But its basic etymological meaning comes through here. The verb means “to be firm; to be reliable; to be dependable.” The causative here would mean “to make firm” or “to stand firm.”

[24:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the waters of the snow.”

[24:19]  ¹² tn Or “so Sheol.”

[24:19]  ¹³ tn This is the meaning of the verse, which in Hebrew only has “The grave / they have sinned.”

[37:20]  ¹⁴ tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.

[16:14]  ¹⁵ tn The word פָּרַץ (parats) means “to make a breach” in a wall (Isa 5:5; Ps 80:13). It is used figuratively in the birth and naming of Peres in Gen 38:29. Here the image is now of a military attack that breaks through a wall. The text uses the cognate accusative, and then with the addition of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “in addition”) it repeats the cognate noun. A smooth translation that reflects the three words is difficult. E. Dhorme (Job, 237) has “he batters me down, breach upon breach.”

[16:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “runs.”

[18:13]  ¹⁷ tn The expression “the limbs of his skin” makes no sense, unless a poetic meaning of “parts” (or perhaps “layers”) is taken. The parallelism has “his skin” in the first colon, and “his limbs” in the second. One plausible suggestion is to take בַּדֵּי (badde, “limbs of”) in the first part to be בִּדְוָי (bidvay, “by a disease”; Dhorme, Wright, RSV). The verb has to be made passive, however. The versions have different things: The LXX has “let the branches of his feet be eaten”; the Syriac has “his cities will be swallowed up by force”; the Vulgate reads “let it devour the beauty of his skin”; and Targum Job has “it will devour the linen garments that cover his skin.”

[18:13]  ¹⁸ tn The “firstborn of death” is the strongest child of death (Gen 49:3), or the deadliest death (like the “firstborn of the poor, the poorest). The phrase means the most terrible death (A. B. Davidson, Job, 134).

[20:12]  ¹⁹ tn The conjunction אִם (’im) introduces clauses that are conditional or concessive. With the imperfect verb in the protasis it indicates what is possible in the present or future. See GKC 496 §159.q).

[20:12]  ²⁰ sn The wicked person holds on to evil as long as he can, savoring the taste or the pleasure of it.

[3:5]  ²¹ sn The translation of צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet, “shadow of death”) has been traditionally understood to indicate a dark, death shadow (supported in the LXX), but many scholars think it may not represent the best etymological analysis of the word. The word may be connected to an Arabic word which means “to be dark,” and an Akkadian word meaning “black.” It would then have to be repointed throughout its uses to צַלְמוּת (tsalmut) forming an abstract ending. It would then simply mean “darkness” rather than “shadow of death.” Or the word can be understood as an idiomatic expression meaning “gloom” that is deeper than חֹשֶׁךְ (khoshekh; see HALOT 1029 s.v. צַלְמָוֶת). Since “darkness” has already been used in the line, the two together could possibly form a nominal hendiadys: “Let the deepest darkness….” There is a significant amount of literature on this; one may begin with W. L. Michel, “SLMWT, ‘Deep Darkness’ or ‘Shadow of Death’?” BR 29 (1984): 5-20.

[3:5]  ²² tn The verb is גָּאַל (ga’al, “redeem, claim”). Some have suggested that the verb is actually the homonym “pollute.” This is the reading in the Targum, Syriac, Vulgate, and Rashi, who quotes from Mal 1:7,12. See A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of ga’al,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.

[3:5]  ²³ tn The expression “the blackness of the day” (כִּמְרִירֵי יוֹם, kimrire yom) probably means everything that makes the day black, such as supernatural events like eclipses. Job wishes that all ominous darknesses would terrify that day. It comes from the word כָּמַר (kamar, “to be black”), related to Akkadian kamaru (“to overshadow, darken”). The versions seem to have ignored the first letter and connected the word to מָרַר (marar, “be bitter”).