Job 10:9

10:9 Remember that you have made me as with ¹  the clay;

will ²  you return me to dust?

Job 11:16

11:16 For you ³  will forget your trouble; ⁴ 

you will remember it

like water that ⁵  has flowed away.

Job 28:18

28:18 Of coral and jasper no mention will be made;

the price ⁶  of wisdom is more than pearls. ⁷ 

Job 36:24

36:24 Remember to extol ⁸  his work,

which people have praised in song.

Job 41:8

41:8 If you lay your hand on it,

you will remember ⁹  the fight,

and you will never do it again!

[10:9]  ¹ tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).

[10:9]  ² tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”

[11:16]  ³ tn For a second time (see v. 13) Zophar employs the emphatic personal pronoun. Could he be providing a gentle reminder that Job might have forgotten the sin that has brought this trouble? After all, there will come a time when Job will not remember this time of trial.

[11:16]  ⁴ sn It is interesting to note in the book that the resolution of Job’s trouble did not come in the way that Zophar prescribed it.

[11:16]  ⁵ tn The perfect verb forms an abbreviated relative clause (without the pronoun) modifying “water.”

[28:18]  ⁵ tn The word מֶשֶׁךְ (meshekh) comes from a root meaning “to grasp; to seize; to hold,” and so the derived noun means “grasping; acquiring; taking possession,” and therefore, “price” (see the discussion in R. Gordis, Job, 309). Gray renders it “acquisition” (so A. Cohen, AJSL 40 [1923/24]: 175).

[28:18]  ⁶ tn In Lam 4:7 these are described as red, and so have been identified as rubies (so NIV) or corals.

[36:24]  ⁷ tn The expression is “that you extol,” serving as an object of the verb.

[41:8]  ⁹ tn The verse uses two imperatives which can be interpreted in sequence: do this, and then this will happen.