Job 12:14

12:14 If ¹  he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt;

if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. ² 

Job 19:8

19:8 He has blocked ³  my way so I cannot pass,

and has set darkness ⁴  over my paths.

Lamentations 3:7-9

ג (Gimel)

3:7 He has walled me in ⁵  so that I cannot get out;

he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. ⁶ 

3:8 Also, when I cry out desperately ⁷  for help, ⁸ 

he has shut out my prayer. ⁹ 

3:9 He has blocked ¹⁰  every road I take ¹¹  with a wall of hewn stones;

he has made every path impassable. ¹² 

[12:14]  ¹ tn The use of הֵן (hen, equivalent to הִנֵּה, hinneh, “behold”) introduces a hypothetical condition.

[12:14]  ² tn The verse employs antithetical ideas: “tear down” and “build up,” “imprison” and “escape.” The Niphal verbs in the sentences are potential imperfects. All of this is to say that humans cannot reverse the will of God.

[19:8]  ³ tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) means “to wall up; to fence up; to block.” God has blocked Job’s way so that he cannot get through. See the note on 3:23. Cf. Lam 3:7.

[19:8]  ⁴ tn Some commentators take the word to be חָשַׁךְ (hasak), related to an Arabic word for “thorn hedge.”

[3:7]  ⁵ tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The imagery depicts the Lord building a wall to seal off personified Jerusalem with no way of escape out of the city, or the Lord blocking the road of escape. Siege imagery prevails in 3:4-6, but 3:7-9 pictures an unsuccessful escape that is thwarted due to blocked roads in 3:7 and 3:9.

[3:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “he has made heavy my chains.”

[3:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “I call and I cry out.” The verbs אֶזְעַק וַאֲשַׁוֵּעַ (’ez’aq va’asha’vvea’, “I call and I cry out”) form a verbal hendiadys: the second retains its full verbal sense, while the first functions adverbially: “I cry out desperately.”

[3:8]  ⁸ tn The verb שׁוע (“to cry out”) usually refers to calling out to God for help or deliverance from a lamentable plight (e.g., Job 30:20; 36:13; 38:41; Pss 5:3; 18:7, 42; 22:25; 28:2; 30:3; 31:23; 88:14; 119:147; Isa 58:9; Lam 3:8; Jon 2:3; Hab 1:2).

[3:8]  ⁹ tn The verb שָׂתַם (satam) is a hapax legomenon (term that appears in the Hebrew scriptures only once) that means “to stop up” or “shut out.” It functions as an idiom here, meaning “he has shut his ears to my prayer” (BDB 979 s.v.).

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The collocated terms דְּרָכַי (dÿrakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.

[3:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my roads.”

[3:9]  ¹² tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.