6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait? 1
and what is my end, 2
that I should prolong my life?
17:15 where then 3 is my hope?
And my hope, 4 who sees it?
14:32 The wicked will be thrown down in his trouble, 5
but the righteous have refuge 6 even in the threat of death. 7
2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out
and your throats become dry. 8
But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me
because I love those foreign gods 9 and want to pursue them!’
2:1 And although you were 12 dead 13 in your transgressions and sins,
1 sn Now, in vv. 11-13, Job proceeds to describe his hopeless condition. In so doing, he is continuing his defense of his despair and lament. The section begins with these rhetorical questions in which Job affirms that he does not have the strength to wait for the blessings that Eliphaz is talking about.
2 tn The word translated “my end” is קִצִּי (qitsi). It refers to the termination of his life. In Ps 39:5 it is parallel to “the measure of my days.” In a sense, Job is asking what future he has. To him, the “end” of his affliction can only be death.
3 tn The adverb אֵפוֹ (’efo, “then”) plays an enclitic role here (see Job 4:7).
4 tn The repetition of “my hope” in the verse has thrown the versions off, and their translations have led commentators also to change the second one to something like “goodness,” on the assumption that a word cannot be repeated in the same verse. The word actually carries two different senses here. The first would be the basic meaning “hope,” but the second a metonymy of cause, namely, what hope produces, what will be seen.
5 tn The prepositional phrase must be “in his time of trouble” (i.e., when catastrophe comes). Cf. CEV “In times of trouble the wicked are destroyed.” A wicked person has nothing to fall back on in such times.
6 sn The righteous have hope in a just retribution – they have a place of safety even in death.
7 tc The LXX reads this as “in his integrity,” as if it were בְּתוּמּוֹ (bÿtumo) instead of “in his death” (בְּמוֹתוֹ, bÿmoto). The LXX is followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB “in his honesty,” NRSV “in their integrity,” and TEV “by their integrity”).
8 tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”
9 tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”
10 tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”
11 tn Or “covenants of the promise.”
12 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
13 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
14 tn Grk “in whom you also, when…” (continuing the sentence from v. 12).
15 tn Grk “in whom also having believed.” The relative pronoun “whom” has been replaced in the translation with its antecedent (“Christ”) to improve the clarity.
16 tn Or “you were sealed.”
17 tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.