20:16 He sucks the poison 1 of serpents; 2
the fangs 3 of a viper 4 kill him.
22:12 “Is not God on high in heaven? 5
And see 6 the lofty stars, 7 how high they are!
29:25 I chose 8 the way for them 9
and sat as their chief; 10
I lived like a king among his troops;
I was like one who comforts mourners. 11
1 tn The word is a homonym for the word for “head,” which has led to some confusion in the early versions.
2 sn To take the possessions of another person is hereby compared to sucking poison from a serpent – it will kill eventually.
3 tn Heb “tongue.”
4 tn Some have thought this verse is a gloss on v. 14 and should be deleted. But the word for “viper” (אֶפְעֶה, ’ef’eh) is a rare word, occurring only here and in Isa 30:6 and 59:5. It is unlikely that a rarer word would be used in a gloss. But the point is similar to v. 14 – the wealth that was greedily sucked in by the wicked proves to be their undoing. Either this is totally irrelevant to Job’s case, a general discussion, or the man is raising questions about how Job got his wealth.
5 tn This reading preserves the text as it is. The nouns “high” and “heavens” would then be taken as adverbial accusatives of place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).
6 tn The parallel passage in Isa 40:26-27, as well as the context here, shows that the imperative is to be retained here. The LXX has “he sees.”
7 tn Heb “head of the stars.”
9 tn All of these imperfects describe what Job used to do, and so they all fit the category of customary imperfect.
10 tn Heb “their way.”
11 tn The text simply has “and I sat [as their] head.” The adverbial accusative explains his role, especially under the image of being seated. He directed the deliberations as a king directs an army.
12 tc Most commentators think this last phrase is odd here, and so they either delete it altogether, or emend it to fit the idea of the verse. Ewald, however, thought it appropriate as a transition to the next section, reminding his friends that unlike him, they were miserable comforters. Herz made the few changes in the text to get the reading “where I led them, they were willing to go” (ZAW 20 [1900]: 163). The two key words in the MT are אֲבֵלִים יְנַחֵם (’avelim yÿnakhem, “he [one who] comforts mourners”). Following Herz, E. Dhorme (Job, 422) has these changed to אוֹבִילֵם יִנַּחוּ (’ovilem yinnakhu). R. Gordis has “like one leading a camel train” (Job, 324). But Kissane also retains the line as a summary of the chapter, noting its presence in the versions.