Job 10:14

10:14 If I sinned, then you would watch me

and you would not acquit me of my iniquity.

Job 14:4

14:4 Who can make ¹  a clean thing come from an unclean? ² 

No one!

Job 15:32

15:32 Before his time ³  he will be paid in full, ⁴ 

and his branches will not flourish. ⁵ 

Job 16:17

16:17 although ⁶  there is no violence in my hands

and my prayer is pure.

Job 27:15

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ⁷ 

and their ⁸  widows do not mourn for them.

Job 32:9

32:9 It is not the aged ⁹  who are wise,

nor old men who understand what is right.

Job 36:6

36:6 He does not allow the wicked to live, ¹⁰ 

but he gives justice to the poor.

[14:4]  ¹ tn The expression is מִי־יִתֵּן (mi-yitten, “who will give”; see GKC 477 §151.b). Some commentators (H. H. Rowley and A. B. Davidson) wish to take this as the optative formula: “O that a clean might come out of an unclean!” But that does not fit the verse very well, and still requires the addition of a verb. The exclamation here simply implies something impossible – man is unable to attain purity.

[14:4]  ² sn The point being made is that the entire human race is contaminated by sin, and therefore cannot produce something pure. In this context, since man is born of woman, it is saying that the woman and the man who is brought forth from her are impure. See Ps 51:5; Isa 6:5; and Gen 6:5.

[15:32]  ¹ tn Heb “before his day.”

[15:32]  ² tn Those who put the last colon of v. 31 with v. 32 also have to change the verb תִּמָּלֵא (timmale’, “will be fulfilled”). E. Dhorme (Job, 225) says, “a mere glance at the use of yimmal…abundantly proves that the original text had timmal (G, Syr., Vulg), which became timmale’ through the accidental transposition of the ‘alep of bÿsi’o…in verse 31….” This, of course, is possible, if all the other changes up to now are granted. But the meaning of a word elsewhere in no way assures it should be the word here. The LXX has “his harvest shall perish before the time,” which could translate any number of words that might have been in the underlying Hebrew text. A commercial metaphor is not out of place here, since parallelism does not demand that the same metaphor appear in both lines.

[15:32]  ³ tn Now, in the second half of the verse, the metaphor of a tree with branches begins.

[16:17]  ¹ tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.

[27:15]  ¹ tn The text says “will be buried in/by death.” A number of passages in the Bible use “death” to mean the plague that kills (see Jer 15:2; Isa 28:3; and BDB 89 s.v. בְּ 2.a). In this sense it is like the English expression for the plague, “the Black Death.”

[27:15]  ² tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.

[32:9]  ¹ tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.

[36:6]  ¹ tn Or “he does not keep the wicked alive.”