Deuteronomy 31:17-18

31:17 At that time ¹  my anger will erupt against them ²  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ³  them ⁴  so that they ⁵  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ⁶  overcome us ⁷  because our ⁸  God is not among us ⁹ ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly ¹⁰  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ¹¹  will have done by turning to other gods.

Job 13:24

13:24 Why do you hide your face ¹² 

and regard me as your enemy?

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ¹³  is quiet, who can condemn ¹⁴  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ¹⁵  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 64:7

64:7 No one invokes ¹⁷  your name,

or makes an effort ¹⁸  to take hold of you.

For you have rejected us ¹⁹ 

and handed us over to our own sins. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 18:17

18:17 I will scatter them before their enemies

like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.

I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them ²¹ 

when disaster strikes them.”

Hosea 9:12

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. ²² 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

[31:17]  ¹ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ² tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ³ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:18]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[31:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[13:24]  ¹² sn The anthropomorphism of “hide the face” indicates a withdrawal of favor and an outpouring of wrath (see Ps 30:7 [8]; Isa 54:8; Ps 27:9). Sometimes God “hides his face” to make himself invisible or aloof (see 34:29). In either case, if God covers his face it is because he considers Job an enemy – at least this is what Job thinks.

[34:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ¹⁴ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ¹⁵ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ¹⁶ tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”

[64:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”

[64:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”

[64:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”

[64:7]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.

[18:17]  ²¹ tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”

[9:12]  ²² tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”