24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; 1
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. 2
9:8 he alone spreads out the heavens,
and treads 3 on the waves of the sea; 4
22:15 Will you keep to the old path 5
that evil men have walked –
28:8 Proud beasts 6 have not set foot on it,
and no lion has passed along it.
1 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.
2 tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.
3 tn Or “marches forth.”
4 tn The reference is probably to the waves of the sea. This is the reading preserved in NIV and NAB, as well as by J. Crenshaw, “Wÿdorek `al-bamote ‘ares,” CBQ 34 (1972): 39-53. But many see here a reference to Canaanite mythology. The marginal note in the RSV has “the back of the sea dragon.” The view would also see in “sea” the Ugaritic god Yammu.
5 tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.
7 tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.