11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea.
28:25 When he made 1 the force of the wind
and measured 2 the waters with a gauge.
8:27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he marked out the horizon 3 over the face of the deep,
40:12 Who has measured out the waters 4 in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully 5 measured the sky, 6
or carefully weighed 7 the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales? 8
40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; 9
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. 10
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, 11
and spreads it out 12 like a pitched tent. 13
1 tn Heb “he gave weight to the wind.” The form is the infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition. Some have emended it to change the preposition to the temporal בּ (bet) on the basis of some of the versions (e.g., Latin and Syriac) that have “who made.” This is workable, for the infinitive would then take on the finite tense of the previous verbs. An infinitive of purpose does not work well, for that would be saying God looked everywhere in order to give wind its proper weight (see R. Gordis, Job, 310).
2 tn The verb is the Piel perfect, meaning “to estimate the measure” of something. In the verse, the perfect verb continues the function of the infinitive preceding it, as if it had a ו (vav) prefixed to it. Whatever usage that infinitive had, this verb is to continue it (see GKC 352 §114.r).
3 sn The infinitive construct בְּחוּקוֹ (bÿkhuqo, “to cut; to engrave; to mark”) and the noun חוּג (khug, “horizon; circle”) form a paronomasia in the line.
4 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
5 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
6 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
7 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
8 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.
9 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
10 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
11 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
12 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
13 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”