Job 13:28

13:28 So I ¹  waste away like something rotten, ² 

like a garment eaten by moths.

Job 21:22

21:22 Can anyone teach ³  God knowledge,

since ⁴  he judges those that are on high? ⁵ 

Job 21:32

21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,

and watch is kept ⁶  over the funeral mound, ⁷ 

Job 22:18

22:18 But it was he ⁸  who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked ⁹ 

was far from me. ¹⁰ 

Job 23:13

23:13 But he is unchangeable, ¹¹  and who can change ¹²  him?

Whatever he ¹³  has desired, he does.

Job 28:23

28:23 God understands the way to it,

and he alone knows its place.

Job 31:11

31:11 For I would have committed ¹⁴  a shameful act, ¹⁵ 

an iniquity to be judged. ¹⁶ 

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹⁷  himself ¹⁸  with while he was sitting ¹⁹  among the ashes. ²⁰ 

Job 21:31

21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;

no one repays him for what ²¹  he has done. ²² 

Job 37:12

37:12 The clouds ²³  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ²⁴  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ²⁵  is quiet, who can condemn ²⁶  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ²⁷  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ²⁸ 

[13:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he.” Some of the commentators move the verse and put it after Job 14:2, 3 or 6.

[13:28]  ² tn The word רָקָב (raqav) is used elsewhere in the Bible of dry rot in a house, or rotting bones in a grave. It is used in parallelism with “moth” both here and in Hos 5:12. The LXX has “like a wineskin.” This would be from רֹקֶב (roqev, “wineskin”). This word does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but is attested in Sir 43:20 and in Aramaic. The change is not necessary.

[21:22]  ³ tn The imperfect verb in this question should be given the modal nuance of potential imperfect. The question is rhetorical – it is affirming that no one can teach God.

[21:22]  ⁴ tn The clause begins with the disjunctive vav (ו) and the pronoun, “and he.” This is to be subordinated as a circumstantial clause. See GKC 456 §142.d.

[21:22]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew has רָמִים (ramim), a plural masculine participle of רוּם (rum, “to be high; to be exalted”). This is probably a reference to the angels. But M. Dahood restores an older interpretation that it refers to “the Most High” (“Some Northwest Semitic words in Job,”Bib 38 [1957]: 316-17). He would take the word as a singular form with an enclitic mem (ם). He reads the verse, “will he judge the Most High?”

[21:32]  ⁵ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

[21:32]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

[22:18]  ⁷ tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.

[22:18]  ⁸ tn See Job 10:3.

[22:18]  ⁹ tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).

[23:13]  ⁹ tc The MT has “But he [is] in one.” Many add the word “mind” to capture the point that God is resolute and unchanging. Some commentators find this too difficult, and so change the text from בְאֶחָד (bÿ’ekhad, here “unchangeable”) to בָחָר (bakhar, “he has chosen”). The wording in the text is idiomatic and should be retained. R. Gordis (Job, 262) translates it “he is one, i.e., unchangeable, fixed, determined.” The preposition בּ (bet) is a bet essentiae – “and he [is] as one,” or “he is one” (see GKC 379 §119.i).

[23:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cause him to return.”

[23:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “his soul.”

[31:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for that [would be].” In order to clarify the referent of “that,” which refers to v. 9 rather than v. 10, the words “I have committed” have been supplied in the translation.

[31:11]  ¹² tn The word for “shameful act” is used especially for sexual offenses (cf. Lev 18:27).

[31:11]  ¹³ tc Some have deleted this verse as being short and irrelevant, not to mention problematic. But the difficulties are not insurmountable, and there is no reason to delete it. There is a Kethib-Qere reading in each half verse; in the first the Kethib is masculine for the subject but the Qere is feminine going with “shameless deed.” In the second colon the Kethib is the feminine agreeing with the preceding noun, but the Qere is masculine agreeing with “iniquity.”

[2:8]  ¹³ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ¹⁴ sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ¹⁵ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹⁶ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[21:31]  ¹⁵ tn The expression “and he has done” is taken here to mean “what he has done.”

[21:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Who declares his way to his face? // Who repays him for what he has done?” These rhetorical questions, which expect a negative answer (“No one!”) have been translated as indicative statements to bring out their force clearly.

[37:12]  ¹⁷ tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.

[37:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that it may do.”

[34:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ²⁰ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ²¹ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ²² tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”