Job 1:11

1:11 But ¹  extend your hand and strike ²  everything he has, and he will no doubt ³  curse you ⁴  to your face!”

Job 3:11

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth ⁵ 

3:11 “Why did I not ⁶  die ⁷  at birth, ⁸ 

and why did I not expire

as ⁹  I came out of the womb?

Job 8:8

8:8 “For inquire now of the former ¹⁰  generation,

and pay attention ¹¹  to the findings ¹² 

of their ancestors; ¹³ 

Job 15:22

15:22 He does not expect ¹⁴  to escape from darkness; ¹⁵ 

he is marked for the sword; ¹⁶ 

Job 24:11

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; ¹⁷ 

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. ¹⁸ 

Job 28:5

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire; ¹⁹ 

Job 29:16

29:16 I was a father ²⁰  to the needy,

and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;

Job 31:8

31:8 then let me sow ²¹  and let another eat,

and let my crops ²²  be uprooted.

Job 39:21

39:21 It ²³  paws the ground in the valley, ²⁴ 

exulting mightily, ²⁵ 

it goes out to meet the weapons.

[1:11]  ¹ tn The particle אוּלָם (’ulam, “but”) serves to restrict the clause in relation to the preceding clause (IBHS 671-73 §39.3.5e, n. 107).

[1:11]  ² tn The force of the imperatives in this sentence are almost conditional – if God were to do this, then surely Job would respond differently.

[1:11]  ³ sn The formula used in the expression is the oath formula: “if not to your face he will curse you” meaning “he will surely curse you to your face.” Satan is so sure that the piety is insincere that he can use an oath formula.

[1:11]  ⁴ tn See the comments on Job 1:5. Here too the idea of “renounce” may fit well enough; but the idea of actually cursing God may not be out of the picture if everything Job has is removed. Satan thinks he will denounce God.

[3:11]  ⁵ sn Job follows his initial cry with a series of rhetorical questions. His argument runs along these lines: since he was born (v. 10), the next chance he had of escaping this life of misery would have been to be still born (vv. 11-12, 16). In vv. 13-19 Job considers death as falling into a peaceful sleep in a place where there is no trouble. The high frequency of rhetorical questions in series is a characteristic of the Book of Job that sets it off from all other portions of the OT. The effect is primarily dramatic, creating a tension that requires resolution. See W. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 340-41.

[3:11]  ⁶ tn The negative only occurs with the first clause, but it extends its influence to the parallel second clause (GKC 483 §152.z).

[3:11]  ⁷ tn The two verbs in this verse are both prefix conjugations; they are clearly referring to the past and should be classified as preterites. E. Dhorme (Job, 32) notes that the verb “I came out” is in the perfect to mark its priority in time in relation to the other verbs.

[3:11]  ⁸ tn The translation “at birth” is very smooth, but catches the meaning and avoids the tautology in the verse. The line literally reads “from the womb.” The second half of the verse has the verb “I came out/forth” which does double duty for both parallel lines. The second half uses “belly” for the womb.

[3:11]  ⁹ tn The two halves of the verse use the prepositional phrases (“from the womb” and “from the belly I went out”) in the temporal sense of “on emerging from the womb.”

[8:8]  ⁹ sn Bildad is not calling for Job to trace through the learning of antiquity, but of the most recent former generation. Hebrews were fond of recalling what the “fathers” had taught, for each generation recalled what their fathers had taught.

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn The verb כוֹנֵן (khonen, from כּוּן, kun) normally would indicate “prepare yourself” or “fix” one’s heart on something, i.e., give attention to it. The verb with the ל (lamed) preposition after it does mean “to think on” or “to meditate” (Isa 51:13). But some commentators wish to change the כּ (kaf) to a בּ (bet) in the verb to get “to consider” (from בִּין, bin). However, M. Dahood shows a connection between כּנן (knn) and שׁאל (sh’l) in Ugaritic (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography,” Bib 46 [1965]: 329).

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew has “the search of their fathers,” but the word is probably intended to mean what that observation or search yielded (so “search” is a metonymy of cause).

[8:8]  ¹² tn Heb “fathers.”

[15:22]  ¹³ tn This is the meaning of the Hiphil imperfect negated: “he does not believe” or “he has no confidence.” It is followed by the infinitive construct functioning as the direct object – he does not expect to return (to escape) from darkness.

[15:22]  ¹⁴ sn In the context of these arguments, “darkness” probably refers to calamity, and so the wicked can expect a calamity that is final.

[15:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he is watched [or waited for] by the sword.” G. R. Driver reads it, “he is marked down for the sword” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 78). Ewald suggested “laid up for the sword.” Ball has “looks for the sword.” The MT has a passive participle from צָפָה (tsafah, “to observe, watch”) which can be retained in the text; the meaning of the form can then be understood as the result of the inspection (E. Dhorme, Job, 217).

[24:11]  ¹⁷ tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.

[24:11]  ¹⁸ tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.

[28:5]  ²¹ sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.

[29:16]  ²⁵ sn The word “father” does not have a wide range of meanings in the OT. But there are places that it is metaphorical, especially in a legal setting like this where the poor need aid.

[31:8]  ²⁹ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ³⁰ tn The word means “what sprouts up” (from יָצָא [yatsa’] with the sense of “sprout forth”). It could refer metaphorically to children (and so Kissane and Pope), as well as in its literal sense of crops. The latter fits here perfectly.

[39:21]  ³³ tc The Hebrew text has a plural verb, “they paw.” For consistency and for stylistic reasons this is translated as a singular.

[39:21]  ³⁴ tn The armies would prepare for battles that were usually fought in the valleys, and so the horse was ready to charge. But in Ugaritic the word `mk means “force” as well as “valley.” The idea of “force” would fit the parallelism here well (see M. Dahood, “Value of Ugaritic for textual criticism,” Bib 40 [1959]: 166).

[39:21]  ³⁵ tn Or “in strength.”