21:10 Their bulls 1 breed 2 without fail; 3
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 4 know your ways. 5
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 6 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 7 to him?’ 8
1 tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.
2 tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”).
3 tn The use of the verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) in this place is interesting. It means “to rebuke; to abhor; to loathe.” In the causative stem it means “to occasion impurity” or “to reject as loathsome.” The rabbinic interpretation is that it does not emit semen in vain, and so the meaning is it does not fail to breed (see E. Dhorme, Job, 311; R. Gordis, Job, 229).
4 tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”
5 sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.
6 tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”
7 tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.
8 tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.