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 

Job 3:6

3:6 That night – let darkness seize ⁸  it;

let it not be included ⁹  among the days of the year;

let it not enter among the number of the months! ¹⁰ 

Job 15:20

15:20 All his days ¹¹  the wicked man suffers torment, ¹² 

throughout the number of the years

that ¹³  are stored up for the tyrant. ¹⁴ 

Job 36:26

The Work and Wisdom of God

36:26 “Yes, God is great – beyond our knowledge! ¹⁵ 

The number of his years is unsearchable.

Job 42:16

42:16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

[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.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn The verb is simply לָקַח (laqakh, “to take”). Here it conveys a strong sense of seizing something and not letting it go.

[3:6]  ⁶ tn The pointing of the verb is meant to connect it with the root חָדָה (khadah, “rejoice”). But the letters in the text were correctly understood by the versions to be from יָחַד (yakhad, “to be combined, added”). See G. Rendsburg, “Double Polysemy in Genesis 49:6 and Job 3:6,” CBQ 44 (1982): 48-51.

[3:6]  ⁷ sn The choice of this word for “moons,” יְרָחִים (yÿrakhim) instead of חֳדָשִׁים (khodashim) is due to the fact that “month” here is not a reference for which an exact calendar date is essential (in which case חֹדֶשׁ [khodesh] would have been preferred). See J. Segal, “‘yrh’ in the Gezer ‘Calendar,’” JSS 7 (1962): 220, n. 4. Twelve times in the OT יֶרַח (yerakh) means “month” (Exod 2:2; Deut 21:13; 33:14; 1 Kgs 6:37, 38; 8:2; 2 Kgs 15:13; Zech 11:8; Job 3:6; 7:3; 29:2; 39:2).

[15:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the days of the wicked, he suffers.” The word “all” is an adverbial accusative of time, stating along with its genitives (“of the days of a wicked man”) how long the individual suffers. When the subject is composed of a noun in construct followed by a genitive, the predicate sometimes agrees with the genitive (see GKC 467 §146.a).

[15:20]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term מִתְחוֹלֵל (mitkholel) is a Hitpolel participle from חִיל (khil, “to tremble”). It carries the idea of “torment oneself,” or “be tormented.” Some have changed the letter ח (khet) for a letter ה (he), and obtained the meaning “shows himself mad.” Theodotion has “is mad.” Syriac (“behave arrogantly,” apparently confusing Hebrew חול with חלל; Heidi M. Szpek, Translation Technique in the Peshitta to Job [SBLDS], 277), Symmachus, and Vulgate have “boasts himself.” But the reading of the MT is preferable.

[15:20]  ⁸ tn It is necessary, with Rashi, to understand the relative pronoun before the verb “they are stored up/reserved.”

[15:20]  ⁹ tn This has been translated with the idea of “oppressor” in Job 6:23; 27:13.

[36:26]  ⁷ tn The last part has the verbal construction, “and we do not know.” This clause is to be used adverbially: “beyond our understanding.”