Job 13:27

13:27 And you put my feet in the stocks ¹ 

and you watch all my movements; ² 

you put marks ³  on the soles of my feet.

Job 33:11

33:11 ⁴ He puts my feet in shackles;

he watches closely all my paths.’

Job 23:11

23:11 My feet ⁵  have followed ⁶  his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside. ⁷ 

Job 31:5

31:5 If ⁸  I have walked in falsehood,

and if ⁹  my foot has hastened ¹⁰  to deceit –

Job 30:12

30:12 On my right the young rabble ¹¹  rise up;

they drive me from place to place, ¹² 

and build up siege ramps ¹³  against me. ¹⁴ 

[13:27]  ¹ tn The word occurs here and in Job 33:11. It could be taken as “stocks,” in which the feet were held fast; or it could be “shackles,” which allowed the prisoner to move about. The parallelism favors the latter, if the two lines are meant to be referring to the same thing.

[13:27]  ² tn The word means “ways; roads; paths,” but it is used here in the sense of the “way” in which one goes about his activities.

[13:27]  ³ tn The verb תִּתְחַקֶּה (titkhaqqeh) is a Hitpael from the root חָקָה (khaqah, parallel to חָקַק, khaqaq). The word means “to engrave” or “to carve out.” This Hitpael would mean “to imprint something on oneself” (E. Dhorme [Job, 192] says on one’s mind, and so derives the meaning “examine.”). The object of this is the expression “on the roots of my feet,” which would refer to where the feet hit the ground. Since the passage has more to do with God’s restricting Job’s movement, the translation “you set a boundary to the soles of my feet” would be better than Dhorme’s view. The image of inscribing or putting marks on the feet is not found elsewhere. It may be, as Pope suggests, a reference to marking the slaves to make tracking them easier. The LXX has “you have penetrated to my heels.”

[33:11]  ⁴ sn See Job 13:27.

[23:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “my foot.”

[23:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “held fast.”

[23:11]  ⁹ tn The last clause, “and I have not turned aside,” functions adverbially in the sentence. The form אָט (’at) is a pausal form of אַתֶּה (’atteh), the Hiphil of נָטָה (natah, “stretch out”).

[31:5]  ¹⁰ tn The normal approach is to take this as the protasis, and then have it resumed in v. 7 after a parenthesis in v. 6. But some take v. 6 as the apodosis and a new protasis in v. 7.

[31:5]  ¹¹ tn The “if” is understood by the use of the consecutive verb.

[31:5]  ¹² sn The verbs “walk” and “hasten” (referring in the verse to the foot) are used metaphorically for the manner of life Job lived.

[30:12]  ¹³ tn This Hebrew word occurs only here. The word פִּרְחַח (pirkhakh, “young rabble”) is a quadriliteral, from פָּרַח (parakh, “to bud”) The derivative אֶפְרֹחַ (’efroakh) in the Bible refers to a young bird. In Arabic farhun means both “young bird” and “base man.” Perhaps “young rabble” is the best meaning here (see R. Gordis, Job, 333).

[30:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they cast off my feet” or “they send my feet away.” Many delete the line as troubling and superfluous. E. Dhorme (Job, 438) forces the lines to say “they draw my feet into a net.”

[30:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”

[30:12]  ¹⁶ sn See Job 19:12.