34:22 The Lord rescues his servants; 1
all who take shelter in him escape punishment. 2
56:13 when you deliver 3 my life from death.
You keep my feet from stumbling, 4
so that I might serve 5 God as I enjoy life. 6
71:23 My lips will shout for joy! Yes, 7 I will sing your praises!
I will praise you when you rescue me! 8
48:16 the Angel 9 who has protected me 10
from all harm –
bless these boys.
May my name be named in them, 11
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.
May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”
33:19 Or a person is chastened 12 by pain on his bed,
and with the continual strife of his bones, 13
33:20 so that his life loathes food,
and his soul rejects appetizing fare. 14
33:21 His flesh wastes away from sight,
and his bones, which were not seen,
are easily visible. 15
33:22 He 16 draws near to the place of corruption,
and his life to the messengers of death. 17
33:23 If there is an angel beside him,
one mediator 18 out of a thousand,
to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness; 19
33:24 and if 20 God 21 is gracious to him and says,
‘Spare 22 him from going down
to the place of corruption,
I have found a ransom for him,’ 23
33:25 then his flesh is restored 24 like a youth’s;
he returns to the days of his youthful vigor. 25
33:26 He entreats God, and God 26 delights in him,
he sees God’s face 27 with rejoicing,
and God 28 restores to him his righteousness. 29
33:27 That person sings 30 to others, 31 saying:
‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,
but I was not punished according to what I deserved. 32
33:28 He redeemed my life 33
from going down to the place of corruption,
and my life sees the light!’
33:29 “Indeed, God does all these things,
twice, three times, in his dealings 35 with a person,
33:30 to turn back his life from the place of corruption,
that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals
because you were killed, 37
and at the cost of your own blood 38 you have purchased 39 for God
persons 40 from every tribe, language, 41 people, and nation.
1 tn Heb “redeems the life of his servants.” The Hebrew participial form suggests such deliverance is characteristic.
2 tn “Taking shelter” in the
3 tn The perfect verbal form is probably future perfect; the psalmist promises to make good on his vows once God has delivered him (see Pss 13:5; 52:9). (2) Another option is to understand the final two verses as being added later, after the
4 tn Heb “are not my feet [kept] from stumbling?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course they are!” The question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarification of meaning.
5 tn Heb “walk before.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254; cf. the same idiom in 2 Kgs 20:3; Isa 38:3.
6 tn Heb “in the light of life.” The phrase is used here and in Job 33:30.
7 tn Or “when.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) has an emphasizing (asseverative) function here.
8 tn Heb “and my life [or “soul”] which you will have redeemed.” The perfect verbal form functions here as a future perfect. The psalmist anticipates praising God, for God will have rescued him by that time.
9 sn The Samaritan Pentateuch reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.
10 tn The verb גָּאַל (ga’al) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of √גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).
11 tn Or “be recalled through them.”
12 tc The MT has the passive form, and so a subject has to be added: “[a man] is chastened.” The LXX has the active form, indicating “[God] chastens,” but the object “a man” has to be added. It is understandable why the LXX thought this was active, within this sequence of verbs; and that is why it is the inferior reading.
13 tc The Kethib “the strife of his bones is continual,” whereas the Qere has “the multitude of his bones are firm.” The former is the better reading in this passage. It indicates that the pain is caused by the ongoing strife.
14 tn Heb “food of desire.” The word “rejects” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
15 tc Heb “are laid bare.” This is the Qere reading; the Kethib means “bare height.” Gordis reverses the word order: “his bones are bare [i.e., crushed] so that they cannot be looked upon.” But the sense of that is not clear.
16 tn Heb “his soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, “life”] draws near.”
17 tn The MT uses the Hiphil participle, “to those who cause death.” This seems to be a reference to the belief in demons that brought about death, an idea not mentioned in the Bible itself. Thus many proposals have been made for this expression. Hoffmann and Budde divide the word into לְמוֹ מֵתִּים (lÿmo metim) and simply read “to the dead.” Dhorme adds a couple of letters to get לִמְקוֹם מֵתִּים (limqom metim, “to the place [or abode] of the dead”).
18 sn The verse is describing the way God can preserve someone from dying by sending a messenger (translated here as “angel”), who could be human or angelic. This messenger will interpret/mediate God’s will. By “one … out of a thousand” Elihu could have meant either that one of the thousands of messengers at God’s disposal might be sent or that the messenger would be unique (see Eccl 7:28; and cp. Job 9:3).
19 tn This is a smoother reading. The MT has “to tell to a man his uprightness,” to reveal what is right for him. The LXX translated this word “duty”; the choice is adopted by some commentaries. However, that is too far from the text, which indicates that the angel/messenger is to call the person to uprightness.
20 tn This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.
21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tc The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (pada’, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (para’, “to let loose,” so Wright).
23 sn This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7-9, 15 (8-10, 16 HT) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.
24 tc The word רֻטֲפַשׁ (rutafash) is found nowhere else. One suggestion is that it should be יִרְטַב (yirtav, “to become fresh”), connected to רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered [or moist]”). It is also possible that it was a combination of רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered”) and טָפַשׁ (tafash, “to grow fat”). But these are all guesses in the commentaries.
25 tn The word describes the period when the man is healthy and vigorous, ripe for what life brings his way.
26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Heb “his face”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 tc Many commentators think this line is superfluous and so delete it. The RSV changed the verb to “he recounts,” making the idea that the man publishes the news of his victory or salvation (taking “righteousness” as a metonymy of cause).
30 tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).
31 tn Heb “to men.”
32 tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”
33 sn See note on “him” in v. 24.
34 sn Elihu will repeat these instructions for Job to listen, over and over in painful repetition. See note on the heading to 32:1.
35 tn The phrase “in his dealings” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
36 tn The redundant participle λέγοντες (legontes) has not been translated here.
37 tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.”
38 tn The preposition ἐν (en) is taken to indicate price here, like the Hebrew preposition ב (bet) does at times. BDAG 329 s.v. ἐν 5.b states, “The ἐν which takes the place of the gen. of price is also instrumental ἠγόρασας ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου Rv 5:9 (cp. 1 Ch 21:24 ἀγοράζω ἐν ἀργυρίῳ).”
39 tc The Greek text as it stands above (i.e., the reading τῷ θεῷ [tw qew] alone) is found in codex A. א 2050 2344 Ï sy add the term “us” (ἡμᾶς, Jhmas), either before or after τῷ θεῷ, as an attempt to clarify the object of “purchased” (ἠγόρασας, hgorasa"). A few
40 tn The word “persons” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
41 tn Grk “and language,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.