Genesis 47:29

47:29 The time ¹  for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh ²  and show me kindness and faithfulness. ³  Do not bury me in Egypt,

Deuteronomy 31:14

The Commissioning of Joshua

31:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The day of your death is near. Summon Joshua and present yourselves in the tent ⁴  of meeting ⁵  so that I can commission him.” ⁶  So Moses and Joshua presented themselves in the tent of meeting.

Job 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ⁷  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ⁸ 

Job 14:5

14:5 Since man’s days ⁹  are determined, ¹⁰ 

the number of his months is under your control; ¹¹ 

you have set his limit ¹²  and he cannot pass it.

Job 14:14

14:14 If a man dies, will he live again? ¹³ 

All the days of my hard service ¹⁴  I will wait ¹⁵ 

until my release comes. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 37:10

37:10 Evil men will soon disappear; ¹⁷ 

you will stare at the spot where they once were, but they will be gone. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 37:13

37:13 The Lord laughs in disgust ¹⁹  at them,

for he knows that their day is coming. ²⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 3:2

3:2 A time to be born, ²¹  and a time to die; ²² 

a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted;

Hebrews 9:27

9:27 And just as people ²³  are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, ²⁴ 

[47:29]  ¹ tn Heb “days.”

[47:29]  ² sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.

[47:29]  ³ tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”

[31:14]  ⁴ tc The LXX reads “by the door of the tent” in line with v. 10 but also, perhaps, as a reflection of its tendency to avoid over-familiarity with Yahweh and his transcendence.

[31:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “tent of assembly” (מוֹעֵד אֹהֶל, ’ohel mo’ed); this is not always the same as the tabernacle, which is usually called מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, “dwelling-place”), a reference to its being invested with God’s presence. The “tent of meeting” was erected earlier than the tabernacle and was the place where Yahweh occasionally appeared, especially to Moses (cf. Exod 18:7-16; 33:7-11; Num 11:16, 24, 26; 12:4).

[31:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will command him.”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ⁸ tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[14:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “his days.”

[14:5]  ¹⁰ tn The passive participle is from חָרַץ (kharats), which means “determined.” The word literally means “cut” (Lev 22:22, “mutilated”). E. Dhorme, (Job, 197) takes it to mean “engraved” as on stone; from a custom of inscribing decrees on tablets of stone he derives the meaning here of “decreed.” This, he argues, is parallel to the way חָקַק (khaqaq, “engrave”) is used. The word חֹק (khoq) is an “ordinance” or “statute”; the idea is connected to the verb “to engrave.” The LXX has “if his life should be but one day on the earth, and his months are numbered by him, you have appointed him for a time and he shall by no means exceed it.”

[14:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[is] with you.” This clearly means under God’s control.

[14:5]  ¹² tn The word חֹק (khoq) has the meanings of “decree, decision, and limit” (cf. Job 28:26; 38:10).

[14:14]  ¹³ tc The LXX removes the interrogative and makes the statement affirmative, i.e., that man will live again. This reading is taken by D. H. Gard (“The Concept of the Future Life according to the Greek Translator of the Book of Job,” JBL 73 [1954]: 137-38). D. J. A. Clines follows this, putting both of the expressions in the wish clause: “if a man dies and could live again…” (Job [WBC], 332). If that is the way it is translated, then the verbs in the second half of the verse and in the next verse would all be part of the apodosis, and should be translated “would.” The interpretation would not greatly differ; it would be saying that if there was life after death, Job would long for his release – his death. If the traditional view is taken and the question was raised whether there was life after death (the implication of the question being that there is), then Job would still be longing for his death. The point the line is making is that if there is life after death, that would be all the more reason for Job to eagerly expect, to hope for, his death.

[14:14]  ¹⁴ tn See Job 7:1.

[14:14]  ¹⁵ tn The verb אֲיַחֵל (’ayakhel) may be rendered “I will/would wait” or “I will/would hope.” The word describes eager expectation and longing hope.

[14:14]  ¹⁶ tn The construction is the same as that found in the last verse: a temporal preposition עַד (’ad) followed by the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive “release/relief.” Due, in part, to the same verb (חָלַף, khalaf) having the meaning “sprout again” in v. 7, some take “renewal” as the meaning here (J. E. Hartley, Alden, NIV, ESV).

[37:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and yet, a little, there will be no wicked [one].”

[37:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and you will carefully look upon his place, but he will not be [there].” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer is in view.

[37:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “laughs.” As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter (see 2:4). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes the action from the perspective of an eye-witness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

[37:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for he sees that his day is coming.” As the following context makes clear (vv. 15, 17, 19-20), “his day” refers to the time when God will destroy evildoers.

[3:2]  ²¹ tn The verb יָלָד (yalad, “to bear”) is used in the active sense of a mother giving birth to a child (HALOT 413 s.v. ילד; BDB 408 s.v. יָלָד). However, in light of its parallelism with “a time to die,” it should be taken as a metonymy of cause (i.e., to give birth to a child) for effect (i.e., to be born).

[3:2]  ²² sn In 3:2-8, Qoheleth uses fourteen sets of merisms (a figure using polar opposites to encompass everything in between, that is, totality), e.g., Deut 6:6-9; Ps 139:2-3 (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 435).

[9:27]  ²³ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[9:27]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and after this – judgment.”