Job 10:12

10:12 You gave me ¹  life and favor, ² 

and your intervention ³  watched over my spirit.

Job 14:16

The Present Condition ⁴ 

14:16 “Surely now you count my steps; ⁵ 

then you would not mark ⁶  my sin. ⁷ 

Job 22:15

22:15 Will you keep to the old path ⁸ 

that evil men have walked –

Job 23:11

23:11 My feet ⁹  have followed ¹⁰  his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside. ¹¹ 

Job 29:2

29:2 “O that I could be ¹²  as ¹³  I was

in the months now gone, ¹⁴ 

in the days ¹⁵  when God watched ¹⁶  over me,

Job 39:1

39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way ¹⁷ 

the mountain goats ¹⁸  give birth?

Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “you made with me.”

[10:12]  ² tn E. Dhorme (Job, 150) suggests that the relation between these two words is like a hendiadys. In other words, “life,” which he says is made prominent by the shift of the copula, specifies the nature of the grace. He renders it “the favor of life.” D. J. A. Clines at least acknowledges that the expression “you showed loyal love with me” is primary. There are many other attempts to improve the translation of this unusual combination.

[10:12]  ³ tn The noun פְּקָָֻדּה (pÿquddah), originally translated “visitation,” actually refers to any divine intervention for blessing on the life. Here it would include the care and overseeing of the life of Job. “Providence” may be too general for the translation, but it is not far from the meaning of this line. The LXX has “your oversight.”

[14:16]  ⁴ sn The hope for life after death is supported now by a description of the severity with which God deals with people in this life.

[14:16]  ⁵ tn If v. 16a continues the previous series, the translation here would be “then” (as in RSV). Others take it as a new beginning to express God’s present watch over Job, and interpret the second half of the verse as a question, or emend it to say God does not pass over his sins.

[14:16]  ⁶ sn Compare Ps 130:3-4, which says, “If you should mark iniquity O Lord, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, in order that you might be feared.”

[14:16]  ⁷ tn The second colon of the verse can be contrasted with the first, the first being the present reality and the second the hope looked for in the future. This seems to fit the context well without making any changes at all.

[22:15]  ⁷ tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.

[23:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my foot.”

[23:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “held fast.”

[23:11]  ¹² tn The last clause, “and I have not turned aside,” functions adverbially in the sentence. The form אָט (’at) is a pausal form of אַתֶּה (’atteh), the Hiphil of נָטָה (natah, “stretch out”).

[29:2]  ¹³ tn The optative is here expressed with מִי־יִתְּנֵנִי (mi-yittÿneni, “who will give me”), meaning, “O that I [could be]…” (see GKC 477 §151.b).

[29:2]  ¹⁴ tn The preposition כּ (kaf) is used here in an expression describing the state desired, especially in the former time (see GKC 376 §118.u).

[29:2]  ¹⁵ tn The expression is literally “months of before [or of old; or past].” The word קֶדֶם (qedem) is intended here to be temporal and not spatial; it means days that preceded the present.

[29:2]  ¹⁶ tn The construct state (“days of”) governs the independent sentence that follows (see GKC 422 §130.d): “as the days of […] God used to watch over me.”

[29:2]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verb here has a customary nuance – “when God would watch over me” (back then), or “when God used to watch over me.”

[39:1]  ¹⁶ tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”

[39:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “ibex.”