Job 33:20

33:20 so that his life loathes food,

and his soul rejects appetizing fare. ¹ 

Job 22:7

22:7 You gave the weary ²  no water to drink

and from the hungry you withheld food.

Job 28:5

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire; ³ 

Job 24:5

24:5 Like ⁴  wild donkeys in the desert

they ⁵  go out to their labor, ⁶ 

seeking diligently for food;

the wasteland provides ⁷  food for them

and for their children.

Job 27:14

27:14 If his children increase – it is for the sword! ⁸ 

His offspring never have enough to eat. ⁹ 

Job 42:11

42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined ¹⁰  with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver ¹¹  and a gold ring. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “food of desire.” The word “rejects” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn The term עָיֵף (’ayef) can be translated “weary,” “faint,” “exhausted,” or “tired.” Here it may refer to the fainting because of thirst – that would make a good parallel to the second part.

³ sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.

⁴ tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen); but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.

⁵ tn That is, “the poor.”

⁶ tc The MT has “in the working/labor of them,” or “when they labor.” Some commentators simply omit these words. Dhorme retains them and moves them to go with עֲרָבָה (’aravah), which he takes to mean “evening”; this gives a clause, “although they work until the evening.” Then, with many others, he takes לוֹ (lo) to be a negative and finishes the verse with “no food for the children.” Others make fewer changes in the text, and as a result do not come out with such a hopeless picture – there is some food found. The point is that they spend their time foraging for food, and they find just enough to survive, but it is a day-long activity. For Job, this shows how unrighteous the administration of the world actually is.

⁷ tn The verb is not included in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation.

⁵ tn R. Gordis (Job, 294) identifies this as a breviloquence. Compare Ps 92:8 where the last two words also constitute the apodosis.

⁶ tn Heb “will not be satisfied with bread/food.”

⁶ tn Heb “ate bread.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.

⁸ sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.