9:1 Now Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal went to Shechem to see his mother’s relatives. 3 He said to them and to his mother’s entire extended family, 4
1:22 When the men 9 of Joseph attacked 10 Bethel, 11 the Lord was with them. 1:23 When the men of Joseph spied out Bethel (it used to be called Luz), 1:24 the spies spotted 12 a man leaving the city. They said to him, “If you show us a secret entrance into the city, we will reward you.”
30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger 13 than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much 14
to put with my sheep dogs. 15
30:2 Moreover, the strength of their 16 hands –
what use was it to me?
Men whose strength 17 had perished;
30:3 gaunt 18 with want and hunger,
they would gnaw 19 the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste. 20
30:4 By the brush 21 they would gather 22 herbs from the salt marshes, 23
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community 24 –
people 25 shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves 26 –
30:6 so that they had to live 27
in the dry stream beds, 28
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed 29 like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together 30 under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, 31
they were driven out of the land with whips. 32
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword 33 among them.
30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; 34
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
1 tn Heb “empty and reckless.”
2 tn Heb “and they followed him.”
3 tn Heb “brothers.”
4 tn Heb “to all the extended family of the house of the father of his mother.”
5 tn Heb “Judah should go up.”
6 tn The Hebrew exclamation הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally, “Behold”), translated “Be sure of this,” draws attention to the following statement. The verb form in the following statement (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the
7 tn Heb “Judah should go up.”
8 tn The Hebrew exclamation הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally, “Behold”), translated “Be sure of this,” draws attention to the following statement. The verb form in the following statement (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the
9 tn Heb “house.” This is a metonymy for the warriors from the tribe.
10 tn Heb “went up.”
11 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
12 tn Heb “saw.”
13 tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”
14 tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.
15 sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.
16 tn The reference is to the fathers of the scorners, who are here regarded as weak and worthless.
17 tn The word כֶּלַח (kelakh) only occurs in Job 5:26; but the Arabic cognate gives this meaning “strength.” Others suggest כָּלַח (kalakh, “old age”), ֹכּל־חַיִל (kol-khayil, “all vigor”), כֹּל־לֵחַ (kol-leakh, “all freshness”), and the like. But there is no reason for such emendation.
18 tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
19 tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).
20 tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”
21 tn Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:209) in their philological notes.
22 tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.
23 tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.
24 tn The word גֵּו (gev) is an Aramaic term meaning “midst,” indicating “midst [of society].” But there is also a Phoenician word that means “community” (DISO 48).
25 tn The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.
26 tn The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.
27 tn This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see GKC 348-49 §114.h, k).
28 tn The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see GKC 431 §133.h).
29 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.
30 tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people – “they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).
31 tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
32 tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”
33 tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”
34 tn Heb “they are far from me.”
35 tn Grk “becoming jealous.” The participle ζηλώσαντες (zhlwsante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. So elsewhere in Acts (5:17; 7:9; 13:45).
36 tn Literally ἀγοραῖος (agoraio") refers to the crowd in the marketplace, although BDAG 14-15 s.v. ἀγοραῖος 1 gives the meaning, by extension, as “rabble.” Such a description is certainly appropriate in this context. L&N 15.127 translates the phrase “worthless men from the streets.”
37 tn On this term, which is a NT hapax legomenon, see BDAG 745 s.v. ὀχλοποιέω.
38 tn BDAG 458 s.v. θορυβέω 1 has “set the city in an uproar, start a riot in the city” for the meaning of ἐθορύβουν (eqoruboun) in this verse.
39 sn The attack took place at Jason’s house because this was probably the location of the new house church.
40 tn Grk “them”; the referents (Paul and Silas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
41 tn BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος 2 has “in a Hellenistic city, a convocation of citizens called together for the purpose of transacting official business, popular assembly προάγειν εἰς τὸν δ. Ac 17:5.”