Job 10:15

10:15 If I am guilty, ¹  woe ²  to me,

and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; ³ 

I am full of shame, ⁴ 

and satiated with my affliction. ⁵ 

Job 21:25

21:25 And another man ⁶  dies in bitterness of soul, ⁷ 

never having tasted ⁸  anything good.

Job 21:1

Job’s Reply to Zophar ⁹ 

21:1 Then Job answered:

Job 1:10

1:10 Have you ¹⁰  not made a hedge ¹¹  around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed ¹²  the work of his hands, and his livestock ¹³  have increased ¹⁴  in the land.

Isaiah 38:15

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ¹⁵ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 38:17

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹⁷ 

You delivered me ¹⁸  from the pit of oblivion. ¹⁹ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ²⁰ 

[10:15]  ¹ sn The verbs “guilty” and “innocent” are actually the verbs “I am wicked,” and “I am righteous.”

[10:15]  ² tn The exclamation occurs only here and in Mic 7:1.

[10:15]  ³ sn The action of lifting up the head is a symbol of pride and honor and self-respect (Judg 8:28) – like “hold your head high.” In 11:15 the one who is at peace with God lifts his head (face).

[10:15]  ⁴ tn The expression שְׂבַע קָלוֹן (sÿva’ qalon) may be translated “full of shame.” The expression literally means “sated of ignominy” (or contempt [קַלַל, qalal]).

[10:15]  ⁵ tn The last clause is difficult to fit into the verse. It translates easily enough: “and see my affliction.” Many commentators follow the suggestion of Geiger to read רְוֶה (rÿveh, “watered with”) instead of רְאֵה (rÿ’eh, “see”). This could then be interpreted adjectivally and parallel to the preceding line: “steeped/saturated with affliction.” This would also delete the final yod as dittography (E. Dhorme, Job, 152). But D. J. A. Clines notes more recent interpretations that suggest the form in the text is an orthographic variant of raweh meaning “satiated.” This makes any emendation unnecessary (and in fact that idea of “steeped” was not helpful any way because it indicated imbibing rather than soaking). The NIV renders it “and drowned in my affliction” although footnoting the other possibility from the MT, “aware of my affliction” (assuming the form could be adjectival). The LXX omits the last line.

[21:25]  ⁶ tn The expression “this (v. 23)…and this” (v. 25) means “one…the other.”

[21:25]  ⁷ tn The text literally has “and this [man] dies in soul of bitterness.” Some simply reverse it and translate “in the bitterness of soul.” The genitive “bitterness” may be an attribute adjective, “with a bitter soul.”

[21:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “eaten what is good.” It means he died without having enjoyed the good life.

[21:1]  ⁹ sn In this chapter Job actually answers the ideas of all three of his friends. Here Job finds the flaw in their argument – he can point to wicked people who prosper. But whereas in the last speech, when he looked on his suffering from the perspective of his innocence, he found great faith and hope, in this chapter when he surveys the divine government of the world, he sinks to despair. The speech can be divided into five parts: he appeals for a hearing (2-6), he points out the prosperity of the wicked (7-16), he wonders exactly when the godless suffer (17-22), he shows how death levels everything (23-26), and he reveals how experience contradicts his friends’ argument (27-34).

[1:10]  ¹⁰ tn The use of the independent personal pronoun here emphasizes the subject of the verb: “Have you not put up a hedge.”

[1:10]  ¹¹ tn The verb שׂוּךְ (sukh) means “to hedge or fence up, about” something (BDB 962 s.v. I שׂוּךְ). The original idea seems to have been to surround with a wall of thorns for the purpose of protection (E. Dhorme, Job, 7). The verb is an implied comparison between making a hedge and protecting someone.

[1:10]  ¹² sn Here the verb “bless” is used in one of its very common meanings. The verb means “to enrich,” often with the sense of enabling or empowering things for growth or fruitfulness. See further C. Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the Life of the Church (OBT).

[1:10]  ¹³ tn Or “substance.” The herds of livestock may be taken by metonymy of part for whole to represent possessions or prosperity in general.

[1:10]  ¹⁴ tn The verb פָּרַץ (parats) means “to break through.” It has the sense of abundant increase, as in breaking out, overflowing (see also Gen 30:30 and Exod 1:12).

[38:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[38:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

[38:17]  ¹⁹ tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”