Job 24:11

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.


tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.

tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.