Job 1:13

Job’s Integrity in Adversity ¹ 

1:13 Now the day ²  came when Job’s ³  sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

Job 4:19

4:19 how much more to those who live in houses of clay, ⁴ 

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed ⁵  like ⁶  a moth?

Job 8:15

8:15 He leans against his house but it does not hold up, ⁷ 

he takes hold ⁸  of it but it does not stand.

Job 15:28

15:28 he lived in ruined towns ⁹ 

and in houses where ¹⁰  no one lives,

where they are ready to crumble into heaps. ¹¹ 

Job 21:28

21:28 For you say,

‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, ¹² 

and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ ¹³ 

Job 24:16

24:16 In the dark the robber ¹⁴  breaks into houses, ¹⁵ 

but by day they shut themselves in; ¹⁶ 

they do not know the light. ¹⁷ 

[1:13]  ¹ sn The series of catastrophes and the piety of Job is displayed now in comprehensive terms. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and yet Job, the pious servant of Yahweh, continues to worship him in the midst of the rubble. This section, and the next, will lay the foundation for the great dialogues in the book.

[1:13]  ² tn The Targum to Job clarifies that it was the first day of the week. The fact that it was in the house of the firstborn is the reason.

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:19]  ⁴ sn Those who live in houses of clay are human beings, for the human body was made of clay (Job 10:9; 33:6; and Isa 64:7). In 2 Cor 4:7 the body is an “earthen vessel” – a clay pot. The verse continues the analogy: houses have foundations, and the house of clay is founded on dust, and will return to dust (Gen 3:19; Ps 103:14). The reasoning is that if God finds defects in angels, he will surely find them in humans who are inferior to the angels because they are but dust. In fact, they are easily crushed like the moth.

[4:19]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verb is in the plural, suggesting “they crush.” But since there is no subject expressed, the verb may be given an impersonal subject, or more simply, treated as a passive (see GKC 460 §144.g).

[4:19]  ⁶ tn The prepositional compound לִפְנֵי (lifne) normally has the sense of “before,” but it has been used already in 3:24 in the sense of “like.” That is the most natural meaning of this line. Otherwise, the interpretation must offer some explanation of a comparison between how quickly a moth and a human can be crushed. There are suggestions for different readings here; see for example G. R. Driver, “Linguistic and Textual Problems: Jeremiah,” JQR 28 (1937/38): 97-129 for a change to “bird’s nest”; and J. A. Rimbach, “‘Crushed before the Moth’ (Job 4:19),” JBL 100 (1981): 244-46, for a change of the verb to “they are pure before their Maker.” However, these are unnecessary emendations.

[8:15]  ⁷ tn The verb עָמַד (’amad, “to stand”) is almost synonymous with the parallel קוּם (qum, “to rise; to stand”). The distinction is that the former means “to remain standing” (so it is translated here “hold up”), and the latter “rise, stand up.”

[8:15]  ⁸ sn The idea is that he grabs hold of the house, not to hold it up, but to hold himself up or support himself. But it cannot support him. This idea applies to both the spider’s web and the false security of the pagan.

[15:28]  ¹⁰ sn K&D 11:266 rightly explains that these are not cities that he, the wicked, has destroyed, but that were destroyed by a judgment on wickedness. Accordingly, Eliphaz is saying that the wicked man is willing to risk such a curse in his confidence in his prosperity (see further H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 113).

[15:28]  ¹¹ tn The verbal idea serves here to modify “houses” as a relative clause; so a relative pronoun is added.

[15:28]  ¹² tn The Hebrew has simply “they are made ready for heaps.” The LXX translates it, “what they have prepared, let others carry away.” This would involve a complete change of the last word.

[21:28]  ¹³ sn The question implies the answer will be “vanished” or “gone.”

[21:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And where is the tent, the dwellings of the wicked.” The word “dwellings of the wicked” is in apposition to “tent.” A relative pronoun must be supplied in the translation.

[24:16]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.

[24:16]  ¹⁷ tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.

[24:16]  ¹⁸ tc The verb חִתְּמוּ (khittÿmu) is the Piel from the verb חָתַם (khatam, “to seal”). The verb is now in the plural, covering all the groups mentioned that work under the cover of darkness. The suggestion that they “seal,” i.e., “mark” the house they will rob, goes against the meaning of the word “seal.”

[24:16]  ¹⁹ tc Some commentators join this very short colon to the beginning of v. 17: “they do not know the light. For together…” becomes “for together they have not known the light.”