Job 26:6

26:6 The underworld ¹  is naked before God; ² 

the place of destruction lies uncovered. ³ 

Job 34:21-22

34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of an individual,

he observes all a person’s ⁴  steps.

34:22 There is no darkness, and no deep darkness,

where evildoers can hide themselves. ⁵ 

Proverbs 15:11

15:11 Death and Destruction ⁶  are before the Lord –

how much more ⁷  the hearts of humans! ⁸ 

Jonah 2:2

2:2 and said,

“I ⁹  called out to the Lord from my distress,

and he answered me; ¹⁰ 

from the belly of Sheol ¹¹  I cried out for help,

and you heard my prayer. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “Sheol.”

² tn Heb “before him.”

³ tn The line has “and there is no covering for destruction.” “Destruction” here is another name for Sheol: אֲבַדּוֹן (’avaddon, “Abaddon”).

⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (a person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn The construction of this colon uses the Niphal infinitive construct from סָתַר (satar, “to be hidden; to hide”). The resumptive adverb makes this a relative clause in its usage: “where the evildoers can hide themselves.”

⁶ tn Heb “Sheol and Abaddon” (שְׁאוֹל וַאֲבַדּוֹן (shÿ’ol va’adon); so ASV, NASB, NRSV; cf. KJV “Hell and destruction”; NAB “the nether world and the abyss.” These terms represent the remote underworld and all the mighty powers that reside there (e.g., Prov 27:20; Job 26:6; Ps 139:8; Amos 9:2; Rev 9:11). The Lord knows everything about this remote region.

⁷ tn The construction אַף כִּי (’af ki, “how much more!”) introduces an argument from the lesser to the greater: If all this is open before the Lord, how much more so human hearts. “Hearts” here is a metonymy of subject, meaning the motives and thoughts (cf. NCV “the thoughts of the living”).

⁸ tn Heb “the hearts of the sons of man,” although here “sons of man” simply means “men” or “human beings.”

⁹ sn The eight verses of Jonah’s prayer in Hebrew contain twenty-seven first-person pronominal references to himself. There are fifteen second- or third-person references to the Lord.

¹⁰ tn Tg. Jonah 2:2 renders this interpretively: “and he heard my prayer.”

¹¹ sn Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld (see Job 7:9-10; Isa 38:17-18). Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center – in other words he is as good as dead.

¹² tn Heb “voice” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “my cry.” The term קוֹל (qol, “voice”) functions as a metonymy for the content of what is uttered: cry for help in prayer.