Text -- Job 14:8 (NET)

14:8 Although its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump begins to die in the soil,

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 14:8

¹ tn The Hiphil of זָקַן (zaqan, “to be old”) is here an internal causative, “to grow old.”

² tn The Hiphil is here classified as an inchoative Hiphil (see GKC 145 §53.e), for the tree only begins to die. In other words, it appears to be dead, but actually is not completely dead.

³ tn The LXX translates “dust” [soil] with “rock,” probably in light of the earlier illustration of the tree growing in the rocks.

sn Job is thinking here of a tree that dies or decays because of a drought rather than being uprooted, because the next verse will tell how it can revive with water.