Job 10:5

10:5 Are your days like the days of a mortal,

or your years like the years ¹  of a mortal,

Job 16:22

16:22 For the years that lie ahead are few, ² 

and then I will go on the way of no return. ³ 

Job 32:7

32:7 I said to myself, ‘Age ⁴  should speak, ⁵ 

and length of years ⁶  should make wisdom known.’

Job 36:11

36:11 If they obey and serve him,

they live out their days in prosperity

and their years in pleasantness. ⁷ 

[10:5]  ¹ tn The Hebrew has repeated here “like the days of,” but some scholars think that this was an accidental replacement of what should be here, namely, “like the years of.” D. J. A. Clines notes that such repetition is not uncommon in Job, but suggests that the change should be made for English style even if the text is not emended (Job [WBC], 221). This has been followed in the present translation.

[16:22]  ² tn The expression is “years of number,” meaning that they can be counted, and so “the years are few.” The verb simply means “comes” or “lie ahead.”

[16:22]  ³ tn The verbal expression “I will not return” serves here to modify the journey that he will take. It is “the road [of] I will not return.”

[32:7]  ³ tn Heb “days.”

[32:7]  ⁴ tn The imperfect here is to be classified as an obligatory imperfect.

[32:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “abundance of years.”

[36:11]  ⁴ tc Some commentators delete this last line for metrical considerations. But there is no textual evidence for the deletion; it is simply the attempt by some to make the meter rigid.