3:19 Small and great are 1 there,
and the slave is free 2 from his master. 3
8:7 Your beginning 4 will seem so small,
since your future will flourish. 5
15:11 Are God’s consolations 6 too trivial for you; 7
or a word spoken 8 in gentleness to you?
26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! 9
How faint is the whisper 10 we hear of him!
But who can understand the thunder of his power?”
40:4 “Indeed, I am completely unworthy 11 – how could I reply to you?
I put 12 my hand over my mouth to silence myself. 13
36:27 He draws up drops of water;
they distill 14 the rain into its mist, 15
10:20 Are not my days few? 16
Cease, 17 then, and leave 18 me alone, 19
that I may find a little comfort, 20
14:19 as water wears away stones,
and torrents 21 wash away the soil, 22
so you destroy man’s hope. 23
15:20 All his days 24 the wicked man suffers torment, 25
throughout the number of the years
that 26 are stored up for the tyrant. 27
37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall 28 to earth,’
and to the torrential rains, 29 ‘Pour down.’ 30
1 tn The versions have taken the pronoun in the sense of the verb “to be.” Others give it the sense of “the same thing,” rendering the verse as “small and great, there is no difference there.” GKC 437 §135.a, n. 1, follows this idea with a meaning of “the same.”
2 tn The LXX renders this as “unafraid,” although the negative has disappeared in some
3 tn The plural “masters” could be taken here as a plural of majesty rather than as referring to numerous masters.
4 tn The reference to “your beginning” is a reference to Job’s former estate of wealth and peace. The reference to “latter end” is a reference to conditions still in the future. What Job had before will seem so small in comparison to what lies ahead.
5 tn The verb has the idea of “to grow”; here it must mean “to flourish; to grow considerably” or the like. The statement is not so much a prophecy; rather Bildad is saying that “if Job had recourse to God, then….” This will be fulfilled, of course, at the end of the book.
7 sn The word תַּנְחֻמוֹת (tankhumot) occurs here and only in Job 21:34. The words of comfort and consolation that they have been offering to Job are here said to be “of God.” But Job will call them miserable comforters (16:2).
8 tn The formula “is it too little for you” or “is it too slight a matter for you” is also found in Isa 7:13 (see GKC 430 §133.c).
9 tn The word “spoken” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.
10 tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”
11 tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”
13 tn The word קַלֹּתִי (qalloti) means “to be light; to be of small account; to be unimportant.” From this comes the meaning “contemptible,” which in the causative stem would mean “to treat with contempt; to curse.” Dhorme tries to make the sentence a conditional clause and suggests this meaning: “If I have been thoughtless.” There is really no “if” in Job’s mind.
14 tn The perfect verb here should be classified as an instantaneous perfect; the action is simultaneous with the words.
15 tn The words “to silence myself” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
16 tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”
17 tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.
19 tn Heb “are not my days few; cease/let it cease….” The versions have “the days of my life” (reading יְמֵי חֶלְדִי [yÿme kheldi] instead of יָמַי וַחֲדָל [yamay vakhadal]). Many commentators and the RSV, NAB, and NRSV accept this reading. The Kethib is an imperfect or jussive, “let it cease/ it will cease.” The Qere is more intelligible for some interpreters – “cease” (as in 7:16). For a discussion of the readings, see D. W. Thomas, “Some Observations on the Hebrew Root hadal,” VTSup 4 [1057]: 14). But the text is not impossible as it stands.
20 tn Taking the form as the imperative with the ו (vav), the sentence follows the direct address to God (as in v. 18 as well as 7:16). This requires less changes. See the preceding note regarding the plausibility of the jussive. The point of the verse is clear in either reading – his life is short, and he wants the suffering to stop.
21 tn In the different suggestions for the line, the י (yod) of this word is believed to belong to the preceding word making “my life.” That would here leave an imperative rather than an imperfect. But if the Qere is read, then it would be an imperative anyway, and there would be no reason for the change.
22 tn Heb “put from me,” an expression found nowhere else. The Qere has a ו (vav) and not a י (yod), forming an imperative rather than an imperfect. H. H. Rowley suggests that there is an ellipsis here, “hand” needing to be supplied. Job wanted God to take his hand away from him. That is plausible, but difficult.
23 tn The verb בָּלַג (balag) in the Hiphil means “to have cheer [or joy]” (see 7:27; Ps 39:14). The cohortative following the imperatives shows the purpose or result – “in order that.”
22 tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.
23 tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”
24 sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.
25 tn Heb “all the days of the wicked, he suffers.” The word “all” is an adverbial accusative of time, stating along with its genitives (“of the days of a wicked man”) how long the individual suffers. When the subject is composed of a noun in construct followed by a genitive, the predicate sometimes agrees with the genitive (see GKC 467 §146.a).
26 tn The Hebrew term מִתְחוֹלֵל (mitkholel) is a Hitpolel participle from חִיל (khil, “to tremble”). It carries the idea of “torment oneself,” or “be tormented.” Some have changed the letter ח (khet) for a letter ה (he), and obtained the meaning “shows himself mad.” Theodotion has “is mad.” Syriac (“behave arrogantly,” apparently confusing Hebrew חול with חלל; Heidi M. Szpek, Translation Technique in the Peshitta to Job [SBLDS], 277), Symmachus, and Vulgate have “boasts himself.” But the reading of the MT is preferable.
27 tn It is necessary, with Rashi, to understand the relative pronoun before the verb “they are stored up/reserved.”
28 tn This has been translated with the idea of “oppressor” in Job 6:23; 27:13.
28 tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”
29 tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew
30 tn Heb “Be strong.”