11:14 if 1 iniquity is in your hand – put it far away, 2
and do not let evil reside in your tents.
12:6 But 3 the tents of robbers are peaceful,
and those who provoke God are confident 4 –
who carry their god in their hands. 5
22:5 Is not your wickedness great 6
and is there no end to your iniquity?
22:6 “For you took pledges 7 from your brothers
for no reason,
and you stripped the clothing from the naked. 8
22:7 You gave the weary 9 no water to drink
and from the hungry you withheld food.
22:8 Although you were a powerful man, 10 owning land, 11
an honored man 12 living on it, 13
22:9 you sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms 14 of the orphans you crushed. 15
29:12 for I rescued the poor who cried out for help,
and the orphan who 16 had no one to assist him;
29:13 the blessing of the dying man descended on me, 17
and I made the widow’s heart rejoice; 18
29:14 I put on righteousness and it clothed me, 19
my just dealing 20 was like a robe and a turban;
29:15 I was eyes for the blind
and feet for the lame;
29:16 I was a father 21 to the needy,
and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;
29:17 I broke the fangs 22 of the wicked,
and made him drop 23 his prey from his teeth.
IV. Job’s Concluding Soliloquy (29:1-31:40)
Job Recalls His Former Condition 2429:1 Then Job continued 25 his speech:
8:3 Does God pervert 26 justice? 27
Or does the Almighty pervert 28 what is right?
12:3 I also have understanding 29 as well as you;
I am not inferior to you. 30
Who does not know such things as these? 31
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 32 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 33
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 34
they hunt their own brother with a net. 35
5:11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops 36
and exact a grain tax from them,
you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,
nor will you drink the wine from the fine 37 vineyards you planted. 38
5:12 Certainly 39 I am aware of 40 your many rebellious acts 41
and your numerous sins.
You 42 torment the innocent, you take bribes,
and you deny justice to 43 the needy at the city gate. 44
1 tn Verse 14 should be taken as a parenthesis and not a continuation of the protasis, because it does not fit with v. 13 in that way (D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 256).
2 tn Many commentators follow the Vulgate and read the line “if you put away the sin that is in your hand.” They do this because the imperative comes between the protasis (v. 13) and the apodosis (v. 15) and does not appear to be clearly part of the protasis. The idea is close to the MT, but the MT is much more forceful – if you find sin in your hand, get rid of it.
3 tn The verse gives the other side of the coin now, the fact that the wicked prosper.
4 tn The plural is used to suggest the supreme degree of arrogant confidence (E. Dhorme, Job, 171).
5 sn The line is perhaps best understood as describing one who thinks he is invested with the power of God.
6 tn The adjective רַבָּה (rabbah) normally has the idea of “great” in quantity (“abundant,” ESV) rather than “great” in quality.
7 tn The verb חָבַל (khaval) means “to take pledges.” In this verse Eliphaz says that Job not only took as pledge things the poor need, like clothing, but he did it for no reason.
8 tn The “naked” here refers to people who are poorly clothed. Otherwise, a reading like the NIV would be necessary: “you stripped the clothes…[leaving them] naked.” So either he made them naked by stripping their garments off, or they were already in rags.
9 tn The term עָיֵף (’ayef) can be translated “weary,” “faint,” “exhausted,” or “tired.” Here it may refer to the fainting because of thirst – that would make a good parallel to the second part.
10 tn The idiom is “a man of arm” (= “powerful”; see Ps 10:15). This is in comparison to the next line, “man of face” (= “dignity; high rank”; see Isa 3:5).
11 tn Heb “and a man of arm, to whom [was] land.” The line is in contrast to the preceding one, and so the vav here introduces a concessive clause.
12 tn The expression is unusual: “the one lifted up of face.” This is the “honored one,” the one to whom the dignity will be given.
13 tn Many commentators simply delete the verse or move it elsewhere. Most take it as a general reference to Job, perhaps in apposition to the preceding verse.
14 tn The “arms of the orphans” are their helps or rights on which they depended for support.
15 tn The verb in the text is Pual: יְדֻכָּא (yÿdukka’, “was [were] crushed”). GKC 388 §121.b would explain “arms” as the complement of a passive imperfect. But if that is too difficult, then a change to Piel imperfect, second person, will solve the difficulty. In its favor is the parallelism, the use of the second person all throughout the section, and the reading in all the versions. The versions may have simply assumed the easier reading, however.
16 tn The negative introduces a clause that serves as a negative attribute; literally the following clause says, “and had no helper” (see GKC 482 §152.u).
17 tn The verb is simply בּוֹא (bo’, “to come; to enter”). With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it could mean “came to me,” or “came upon me,” i.e., descended (see R. Gordis, Job, 320).
18 tn The verb אַרְנִן (’arnin) is from רָנַן (ranan, “to give a ringing cry”) but here “cause to give a ringing cry,” i.e., shout of joy. The rejoicing envisioned in this word is far greater than what the words “sing” or “rejoice” suggest.
19 tn Both verbs in this first half-verse are from לָבַשׁ (lavash, “to clothe; to put on clothing”). P. Joüon changed the vowels to get a verb “it adorned me” instead of “it clothed me” (Bib 11 [1930]: 324). The figure of clothing is used for the character of the person: to wear righteousness is to be righteous.
20 tn The word מִשְׁפָּטִי (mishpati) is simply “my justice” or “my judgment.” It refers to the decisions he made in settling issues, how he dealt with other people justly.
21 sn The word “father” does not have a wide range of meanings in the OT. But there are places that it is metaphorical, especially in a legal setting like this where the poor need aid.
22 tn The word rendered “fangs” actually means “teeth,” i.e., the molars probably; it is used frequently of the teeth of wild beasts. Of course, the language is here figurative, comparing the oppressing enemy to a preying animal.
23 tn “I made [him] drop.” The verb means “to throw; to cast,” throw in the sense of “to throw away.” But in the context with the figure of the beast with prey in its mouth, “drop” or “cast away” is the idea. Driver finds another cognate meaning “rescue” (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).
24 sn Now that the debate with his friends is over, Job concludes with a soliloquy, just as he had begun with one. Here he does not take into account his friends or their arguments. The speech has three main sections: Job’s review of his former circumstances (29:1-25); Job’s present misery (30:1-31); and Job’s vindication of his life (31:1-40).
25 tn The verse uses a verbal hendiadys: “and he added (וַיֹּסֶף, vayyosef)…to raise (שְׂאֵת, sÿ’et) his speech.” The expression means that he continued, or he spoke again.
26 tn The Piel verb יְעַוֵּת (yÿ’avvet) means “to bend; to cause to swerve from the norm; to deviate; to pervert.” The LXX renders the first colon as “will the Lord be unjust when he judges?”
27 tn The first word is מִשְׁפָּת (mishpat, “justice”). It can mean an act of judgment, place of judgment, or what is just, that is, the outcome of the decision. It basically describes an umpire’s decision. The parallel word is צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “righteousness,” or “what is right”). The basic idea here is that which conforms to the standard, what is right. See S. H. Scholnick, “The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job,” JBL 101 (1982): 521-29.
28 tn Some commentators think that the second verb should be changed in order to avoid the repetition of the same word and to reflect the different words in the versions. The suggestion is to read יְעַוֵּה (yÿ’avveh) instead; this would mean “to cause someone to deviate,” for the root means “to bend.” The change is completely unwarranted; the LXX probably chose different words for stylistic reasons (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 198). The repetition in the Hebrew text is a common type; it strengthens the enormity of the charge Job seems to be making.
29 tn The word is literally “heart,” meaning a mind or understanding.
30 tn Because this line is repeated in 13:2, many commentators delete it from this verse (as does the LXX). The Syriac translates נֹפֵל (nofel) as “little,” and the Vulgate “inferior.” Job is saying that he does not fall behind them in understanding.
31 tn Heb “With whom are not such things as these?” The point is that everyone knows the things that these friends have been saying – they are commonplace.
32 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
33 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
34 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
35 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.
36 tn Traditionally, “because you trample on the poor” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The traditional view derives the verb from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”; cf. Isa. 14:25), but more likely it is cognate to an Akkadian verb meaning “to exact an agricultural tax” (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 172-73).
37 tn Or “lovely”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “pleasant”; NAB “choice”; NIV “lush.”
38 tn Heb “Houses of chiseled stone you built, but you will not live in them. Fine vineyards you planted, but you will not drink their wine.”
39 tn Or “for.”
40 tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).
41 tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.
42 tn Heb “Those who.”
43 tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).
44 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.