Job 11:4

11:4 For you have said, ‘My teaching ¹  is flawless,

and I am pure in your sight.’

Job 29:15

29:15 I was eyes for the blind

and feet for the lame;

Job 30:9

Job’s Indignities

30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;

I have become a byword ²  among them.

Job 30:29

30:29 I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches. ³ 

Job 10:19

10:19 I should have been as though I had never existed; ⁴ 

I should have been carried

right from the womb to the grave!

Job 19:15

19:15 My guests ⁵  and my servant girls

consider ⁶  me a stranger;

I am a foreigner ⁷  in their eyes.

Job 29:4

29:4 just as I was in my most productive time, ⁸ 

when God’s intimate friendship ⁹  was experienced in my tent,

Job 16:12

16:12 I was in peace, and he has shattered me. ¹⁰ 

He has seized me by the neck and crushed me. ¹¹ 

He has made me his target;

[11:4]  ¹ tn The word translated “teaching” is related etymologically to the Hebrew word “receive,” but that does not restrict the teaching to what is received.

[30:9]  ² tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”

[30:29]  ³ sn The point of this figure is that Job’s cries of lament are like the howls and screeches of these animals, not that he lives with them. In Job 39:13 the female ostrich is called “the wailer.”

[10:19]  ⁴ sn This means “If only I had never come into existence.”

[19:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew גָּרֵי בֵיתִי (gare beti, “the guests of my house”) refers to those who sojourned in my house – not residents, but guests.

[19:15]  ⁶ tn The form of the verb is a feminine plural, which would seem to lend support to the proposed change of the lines (see last note to v. 14). But the form may be feminine primarily because of the immediate reference. On the other side, the suffix of “their eyes” is a masculine plural. So the evidence lies on both sides.

[19:15]  ⁷ tn This word נָכְרִי (nokhri) is the person from another race, from a strange land, the foreigner. The previous word, גֵּר (ger), is a more general word for someone who is staying in the land but is not a citizen, a sojourner.

[29:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the days of my ripeness.” The word חֹרֶף (khoref) denotes the time when the harvest is gathered in because the fruit is ripe. Since this is the autumn, many translate that way here – but “autumn” has a different connotation now. The text is pointing to a time when the righteous reaps what he has sown, and can enjoy the benefits. The translation “most productive time” seems to capture the point better than “autumn” or even “prime.”

[29:4]  ⁷ tc The word סוֹד (sod) in this verse is an infinitive construct, prefixed with the temporal preposition and followed by a subjective genitive. It forms a temporal clause. There is some disagreement about the form and its meaning. The confusion in the versions shows that they were paraphrasing to get the general sense. In the Bible the derived noun (from יָסַד, yasad) means (a) a circle of close friends; (b) intimacy. Others follow the LXX and the Syriac with a meaning of “protect,” based on a change from ד (dalet) to כּ (kaf), and assuming the root was סָכַךְ (sakhakh). This would mean, “when God protected my tent” (cf. NAB). D. W. Thomas tries to justify this meaning without changing the text (“The Interpretation of BSOÝD in Job 29:4,” JBL 65 [1946]: 63-66).

[16:12]  ⁷ tn The verb פָּרַר (parar) means “to shake.” In the Hiphil it means “to break; to shatter” (5:12; 15:4). The Pilpel means “to break in pieces,” and in the Poel in Jer 23:29 “to smash up.” So Job was living at ease, and God shattered his life.

[16:12]  ⁸ tn Here is another Pilpel, now from פָּצַץ (patsats) with a similar meaning to the other verb. It means “to dash into pieces” and even scatter the pieces. The LXX translates this line, “he took me by the hair of the head and plucked it out.”