Ayub 18:17

18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,

he has no name in the land. ¹ 

Mazmur 9:6

9:6 The enemy’s cities have been reduced to permanent ruins; ² 

you destroyed their cities; ³ 

all memory of the enemies has perished. ⁴ 

Amsal 10:7

10:7 The memory ⁵  of the righteous is a blessing,

but the reputation ⁶  of the wicked will rot. ⁷ 

[18:17]  ¹ tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.

[9:6]  ² tn Heb “the enemy – they have come to an end [in] ruins permanently.” The singular form אוֹיֵב (’oyev, “enemy”) is collective. It is placed at the beginning of the verse to heighten the contrast with יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) in v. 7.

[9:6]  ³ tn Heb “you uprooted cities.”

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “it has perished, their remembrance, they.” The independent pronoun at the end of the line is in apposition to the preceding pronominal suffix and lends emphasis (see IBHS 299 §16.3.4). The referent of the masculine pronoun is the nations/enemies (cf. v. 5), not the cities (the Hebrew noun עָרִים [’arim, “cities”] is grammatically feminine). This has been specified in the present translation for clarity; many modern translations retain the pronoun “them,” resulting in ambiguity (cf. NRSV “their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished”).

[10:7]  ⁵ sn “Memory” (זֵכֶר, zekher) and “name” are often paired as synonyms. “Memory” in this sense has to do with reputation, fame. One’s reputation will be good or bad by righteousness or wickedness respectively.

[10:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “name.” The term “name” often functions as a metonymy of association for reputation (BDB 1028 s.v. שֵׁם 2.b).

[10:7]  ⁷ tn The editors of BHS suggest a reading “will be cursed” to make a better parallelism, but the reading of the MT is more striking as a metaphor.

[10:7]  sn To say the wicked’s name will rot means that the name will be obliterated from memory (Exod 17:14; Deut 25:19), leaving only a bad memory for a while.