Job 12:6

12:6 But ¹  the tents of robbers are peaceful,

and those who provoke God are confident ²  –

who carry their god in their hands. ³ 

Job 12:16

12:16 With him are strength and prudence; ⁴ 

both the one who goes astray ⁵ 

and the one who misleads are his.

Job 21:16

21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. ⁶ 

The counsel of the wicked is far from me! ⁷ 

Job 30:18

30:18 With great power God ⁸  grasps my clothing; ⁹ 

he binds me like the collar ¹⁰  of my tunic.

Job 36:5

36:5 Indeed, God is mighty; and he does not despise people, ¹¹ 

he ¹²  is mighty, and firm ¹³  in his intent. ¹⁴ 

Job 37:7

37:7 He causes everyone to stop working, ¹⁵ 

so that all people ¹⁶  may know ¹⁷  his work.

[12:6]  ¹ tn The verse gives the other side of the coin now, the fact that the wicked prosper.

[12:6]  ² tn The plural is used to suggest the supreme degree of arrogant confidence (E. Dhorme, Job, 171).

[12:6]  ³ sn The line is perhaps best understood as describing one who thinks he is invested with the power of God.

[12:16]  ⁴ tn The word תּוּשִׁיָּה (tushiyyah) is here rendered “prudence.” Some object that God’s power is intended here, and so a word for power and not wisdom should be included. But v. 13 mentioned wisdom. The point is that it is God’s efficient wisdom that leads to success. One could interpret this as a metonymy of cause, the intended meaning being victory or success.

[12:16]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses a wordplay here: שֹׁגֵג (shogeg) is “the one going astray,” i.e., the one who is unable to guard and guide his life. The second word is מַשְׁגֶּה (mashgeh), from a different but historically related root שָׁגָה (shagah), which here in the Hiphil means “the one who misleads, causes to go astray.” These two words are designed to include everybody – all are under the wisdom of God.

[21:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “is not in their hand.”

[21:16]  ⁸ sn Even though their life seems so good in contrast to his own plight, Job cannot and will not embrace their principles – “far be from me their counsel.”

[30:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:18]  ¹¹ tc This whole verse is difficult. The first problem is that this verb in the MT means “is disguised [or disfigured],” indicating that Job’s clothes hang loose on him. But many take the view that the verb is a phonetic variant of חָבַשׁ (khavash, “to bind; to seize”) and that the Hitpael form is a conflation of the third and second person because of the interchange between them in the passage (R. Gordis, Job, 335). The commentaries list a number of conjectural emendations, but the image in the verse is probably that God seizes Job by the garment and throws him down.

[30:18]  ¹² tn The phrase “like the collar” is difficult, primarily because their tunics did not have collars. A translation of “neck” would suit better. Some change the preposition to בּ (bet), getting a translation “by the neck of my tunic.”

[36:5]  ¹³ tn The object “people” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.

[36:5]  ¹⁴ tn The text simply repeats “mighty.”

[36:5]  ¹⁵ tn The last two words are simply כֹּחַ לֵב (koakh lev, “strong in heart”), meaning something like “strong; firm in his decisions.”

[36:5]  ¹⁶ tc There are several problems in this verse: the repetition of “mighty,” the lack of an object for “despise,” and the meaning of “strength of heart.” Many commentators reduce the verse to a single line, reading something like “Lo, God does not reject the pure in heart” (Kissane). Dhorme and Pope follow Nichols with: “Lo, God is mighty in strength, and rejects not the pure in heart.” This reading moved “mighty” to the first line and took the second to be בַּר (bar, “pure”).

[37:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.

[37:7]  ¹⁷ tc This reading involves a change in the text, for in MT “men” is in the construct. It would be translated, “all men whom he made” (i.e., all men of his making”). This is the translation followed by the NIV and NRSV. Olshausen suggested that the word should have been אֲנָשִׁים (’anashim) with the final ם (mem) being lost to haplography.

[37:7]  ¹⁸ tn D. W. Thomas suggested a meaning of “rest” for the verb, based on Arabic. He then reads אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) for man, and supplies a ם (mem) to “his work” to get “that every man might rest from his work [in the fields].”