Ayub 21:29-30

21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?

Do you not recognize their accounts ¹  –

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ² 

from the day of God’s wrath?

Amsal 6:6

6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; ³ 

observe its ways and be wise!

Yesaya 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ⁴ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ⁵ 

my people do not understand.”

Yeremia 8:7

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ⁶ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ⁷ 

recognize ⁸  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ⁹  what I, the Lord, require of them. ¹⁰ 

[21:29]  ¹ tc The LXX reads, “Ask those who go by the way, and do not disown their signs.”

[21:29]  tn The idea is that the merchants who travel widely will talk about what they have seen and heard. These travelers give a different account of the wicked; they tell how he is spared. E. Dhorme (Job, 322) interprets “signs” concretely: “Their custom was to write their names and their thoughts somewhere at the main cross-roads. The main roads of Sinai are dotted with these scribblings made by such passers of a day.”

[21:30]  ² tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.

[6:6]  ³ sn The sluggard (עָצֵל, ’atsel) is the lazy or sluggish person (cf. NCV “lazy person”; NRSV, NLT “lazybones”).

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ⁵ tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[8:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ⁷ tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”

[8:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.

[8:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.

[8:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”