Job 11:20

11:20 But the eyes of the wicked fail, ¹ 

and escape ²  eludes them;

their one hope ³  is to breathe their last.” ⁴ 

Job 12:3

12:3 I also have understanding ⁵  as well as you;

I am not inferior to you. ⁶ 

Who does not know such things as these? ⁷ 

Job 31:7

31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,

if my heart has gone after my eyes, ⁸ 

or if anything ⁹  has defiled my hands,

Job 31:35

Job’s Appeal

31:35 “If only I had ¹⁰  someone to hear me!

Here is my signature – ¹¹ 

let the Almighty answer me!

If only I had an indictment ¹² 

that my accuser had written. ¹³ 

Job 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ¹⁴  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ¹⁵  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ¹⁶ 

Job 34:19

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ¹⁷  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ¹⁸  is quiet, who can condemn ¹⁹  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ²⁰  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ²¹ 

Job 42:3

42:3 you asked, ²² 

‘Who is this who darkens counsel

without knowledge?’

But ²³  I have declared without understanding ²⁴ 

things too wonderful for me to know. ²⁵ 

[11:20]  ¹ tn The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to fail, cease, fade away.” The fading of the eyes, i.e., loss of sight, loss of life’s vitality, indicates imminent death.

[11:20]  ² tn Heb a “place of escape” (with this noun pattern). There is no place to escape to because they all perish.

[11:20]  ³ tn The word is to be interpreted as a metonymy; it represents what is hoped for.

[11:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the breathing out of the soul”; cf. KJV, ASV “the giving up of the ghost.” The line is simply saying that the brightest hope that the wicked have is death.

[12:3]  ⁵ tn The word is literally “heart,” meaning a mind or understanding.

[12:3]  ⁶ tn Because this line is repeated in 13:2, many commentators delete it from this verse (as does the LXX). The Syriac translates נֹפֵל (nofel) as “little,” and the Vulgate “inferior.” Job is saying that he does not fall behind them in understanding.

[12:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “With whom are not such things as these?” The point is that everyone knows the things that these friends have been saying – they are commonplace.

[31:7]  ⁹ sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”

[31:7]  ¹⁰ tc The word מֻאוּם (mu’um) could be taken in one of two ways. One reading is to represent מוּם (mum, “blemish,” see the Masorah); the other is for מְאוּמָה (mÿ’umah, “anything,” see the versions and the Kethib). Either reading fits the passage.

[31:35]  ¹³ tn The optative is again introduced with “who will give to me hearing me? – O that someone would listen to me!”

[31:35]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “here is my ‘tav’” (הֵן תָּוִי, hen tavi). The letter ת (tav) is the last letter of the alphabet in Hebrew. In paleo-Hebrew the letter was in the form of a cross or an “X,” and so used for one making a mark or a signature. In this case Job has signed his statement and delivered it to the court – but he has yet to be charged. Kissane thought that this being the last letter of the alphabet, Job was saying, “This is my last word.” Others take the word to mean “desire” – “this is my desire, that God would answer me” (see E. F. Sutcliffe, “Notes on Job, textual and exegetical,” Bib 30 [1949]: 71-72; G. R. Driver, AJSL 3 [1935/36]: 166; P. P. Saydon, “Philological and Textual Notes to the Maltese Translation of the Old Testament,” CBQ 23 [1961]: 252). R. Gordis (Job, 355) also argues strongly for this view.

[31:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a scroll,” in the context referring to a scroll containing the accusations of Job’s legal adversary (see the next line).

[31:35]  ¹⁶ tn The last line is very difficult; it simply says, “a scroll [that] my [legal] adversary had written.” The simplest way to handle this is to see it as a continuation of the optative (RSV).

[32:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ¹⁹ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.

[34:19]  ²¹ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[34:29]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ²⁶ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ²⁷ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ²⁸ tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”

[42:3]  ²⁹ tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.

[42:3]  ³⁰ tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.

[42:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”

[42:3]  ³² tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.