Job 13:22

13:22 Then call, ¹  and I will answer,

or I will speak, and you respond to me.

Job 3:15

3:15 or with princes who possessed gold, ² 

who filled their palaces ³  with silver.

Job 12:8

12:8 Or speak ⁴  to the earth ⁵  and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea declare to you.

Job 16:3

16:3 Will ⁶  there be an end to your ⁷  windy words? ⁸ 

Or what provokes ⁹  you that you answer? ¹⁰ 

Job 22:11

22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, ¹¹ 

and why a flood ¹²  of water covers you.

Job 38:28

38:28 Does the rain have a father,

or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

Job 38:31

38:31 Can you tie the bands ¹³  of the Pleiades,

or release the cords of Orion?

Job 3:16

3:16 Or why ¹⁴  was ¹⁵  I not buried ¹⁶ 

like a stillborn infant, ¹⁷ 

like infants ¹⁸  who have never seen the light? ¹⁹ 

Job 35:7

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

Job 38:5-6

38:5 Who set its measurements – if ²⁰  you know –

or who stretched a measuring line across it?

38:6 On what ²¹  were its bases ²²  set,

or who laid its cornerstone –

Job 38:36

38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart, ²³ 

or has imparted understanding to the mind?

[13:22]  ¹ tn The imperatives in the verse function like the future tense in view of their use for instruction or advice. The chiastic arrangement of the verb forms is interesting: imperative + imperfect, imperfect + imperative. The imperative is used for God, but the imperfect is used when Job is the subject. Job is calling for the court to convene – he will be either the defendant or the prosecutor.

[3:15]  ² tn The expression simply has “or with princes gold to them.” The noun is defined by the noun clause serving as a relative clause (GKC 486 §155.e).

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “filled their houses.” There is no reason here to take “houses” to mean tombs; the “houses” refer to the places the princes lived (i.e., palaces). The reference is not to the practice of burying treasures with the dead. It is simply saying that if Job had died he would have been with the rich and famous in death.

[12:8]  ³ tn The word in the MT means “to complain,” not simply “to speak,” and one would expect animals as the object here in parallel to the last verse. So several commentators have replaced the word with words for animals or reptiles – totally different words (cf. NAB, “reptiles”). The RSV and NRSV have here the word “plants” (see 30:4, 7; and Gen 21:15).

[12:8]  ⁴ tn A. B. Davidson (Job, 90) offers a solution by taking “earth” to mean all the lower forms of life that teem in the earth (a metonymy of subject).

[16:3]  ⁴ tn Disjunctive questions are introduced with the sign of the interrogative; the second part is introduced with אוֹ (’o, see GKC 475 §150.g).

[16:3]  ⁵ tn In v. 3 the second person singular is employed rather than the plural as in vv. 2 and 4. The singular might be an indication that the words of v. 3 were directed at Eliphaz specifically.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “words of wind.”

[16:3]  ⁷ tn The Hiphil of מָרַץ (marats) does not occur anywhere else. The word means “to compel; to force” (see 6:25).

[16:3]  ⁸ tn The LXX seems to have gone a different way: “What, is there any reason in vain words, or what will hinder you from answering?”

[22:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.

[22:11]  ⁶ tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.

[38:31]  ⁶ tn This word is found here and in 1 Sam 15:32. Dhorme suggests, with others, that there has been a metathesis (a reversal of consonants), and it is the same word found in Job 31:36 (“bind”). G. R. Driver takes it as “cluster” without changing the text (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 7 [1956] :3).

[3:16]  ⁷ tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

[3:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

[3:16]  ¹² tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.

[38:5]  ⁸ tn The particle כּ (ki) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159.dd). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.

[38:6]  ⁹ tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

[38:6]  ¹⁰ sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).

[38:36]  ¹⁰ tn This verse is difficult because of the two words, טֻחוֹת (tukhot, rendered here “heart”) and שֶׂכְוִי (sekhvi, here “mind”). They have been translated a number of ways: “meteor” and “celestial appearance”; the stars “Procyon” and “Sirius”; “inward part” and “mind”; even as birds, “ibis” and “cock.” One expects them to have something to do with nature – clouds and the like. The RSV accordingly took them to mean “meteor” (from a verb “to wander”) and “a celestial appearance.” But these meanings are not well-attested.