10:16 If I lift myself up, 6
you hunt me as a fierce lion, 7
and again 8 you display your power 9 against me.
140:11 A slanderer 10 will not endure on 11 the earth;
calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. 12
צ (Tsade)
4:18 Our enemies 13 hunted us down at every step 14
so that we could not walk about in our streets.
Our end drew near, our days were numbered, 15
for our end had come!
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 20 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 21
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 22
they hunt their own brother with a net. 23
1 tn Heb “all the days.”
2 tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “established.”
4 tn Heb “I will search him out.”
5 tn Heb “the calling [one],” which apparently refers to a partridge.
6 tn The MT has the 3rd person of the verb, “and he lifts himself up.” One might assume that the subject is “my head” – but that is rather far removed from the verb. It appears that Job is talking about himself in some way. Some commentators simply emend the text to make it first person. This has the support of Targum Job, which would be expected since it would be interpreting the passage in its context (see D. M. Stec, “The Targum Rendering of WYG’H in Job X 16,” VT 34 [1984]: 367-8). Pope and Gordis make the word adjectival, modifying the subject: “proudly you hunt me,” but support is lacking. E. Dhorme thinks the line should be parallel to the two preceding it, and so suggests יָגֵּעַ (yagea’, “exhausted”) for יִגְאֶה (yig’eh, “lift up”). The contextual argument is that Job has said that he cannot raise his head, but if he were to do so, God would hunt him down. God could be taken as the subject of the verb if the text is using enallage (shifting of grammatical persons within a discourse) for dramatic effect. Perhaps the initial 3rd person was intended with respect within a legal context of witnesses and a complaint, but was switched to 2nd person for direct accusation.
7 sn There is some ambiguity here: Job could be the lion being hunted by God, or God could be hunting Job like a lion hunts its prey. The point of the line is clear in either case.
8 tn The text uses two verbs without a coordinating conjunction: “then you return, you display your power.” This should be explained as a verbal hendiadys, the first verb serving adverbially in the clause (see further GKC 386-87 §120.g).
9 tn The form is the Hitpael of פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be surpassing; to be extraordinary”). Here in this stem it has the sense of “make oneself admirable, surpassing” or “render oneself powerful, glorious.” The text is ironic; the word that described God’s marvelous creation of Job is here used to describe God’s awesome destruction of Job.
10 tn Heb “a man of a tongue.”
11 tn Heb “be established in.”
12 tn Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה (madkhefoh, “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.
13 tn Heb “they”; this has been specified in the translation as “our enemies” for clarity.
14 tn Heb “they hunted our steps.”
15 tn Heb “our days were full.”
16 sn The wristbands mentioned here probably represented magic bands or charms. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:413.
17 tn Heb “joints of the hands.” This may include the elbow and shoulder joints.
18 tn The Hebrew term occurs in the Bible only here and in v. 21. It has also been understood as a veil or type of head covering. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:414) suggests that given the context of magical devices, the expected parallel to the magical arm bands, and the meaning of this Hebrew root (סָפַח [safakh, “to attach” or “join”]), it may refer to headbands or necklaces on which magical amulets were worn.
19 tn Heb “human lives” or “souls” (three times in v. 18 and twice in v. 19).
20 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
21 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
22 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
23 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.