Job 13:7

13:7 Will you speak wickedly ¹  on God’s behalf? ² 

Will you speak deceitfully for him?

Job 15:8

15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council? ³ 

Do you limit ⁴  wisdom to yourself?

Job 36:14

36:14 They die ⁵  in their youth,

and their life ends among the male cultic prostitutes. ⁶ 

Job 38:7

38:7 when the morning stars ⁷  sang ⁸  in chorus, ⁹ 

and all the sons of God ¹⁰  shouted for joy?

Job 40:9

40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, ¹¹ 

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Job 41:25

41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,

at its thrashing about they withdraw. ¹² 

[13:7]  ¹ tn The construction literally reads “speak iniquity.” The form functions adverbially. The noun עַוְלָה (’avlah) means “perversion; injustice; iniquity; falsehood.” Here it is parallel to רְמִיָּה (rÿmiyyah, “fraud; deceit; treachery”).

[13:7]  ² tn The expression “for God” means “in favor of God” or “on God’s behalf.” Job is amazed that they will say false things on God’s behalf.

[15:8]  ³ tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the Lord God (see Jer 23:18). It is a question of confidence on the part of God, that only wisdom can know (see Prov 8:30,31). Job seemed to them to claim to have access to the mind of God.

[15:8]  ⁴ tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”

[36:14]  ⁵ tn The text expresses this with “their soul dies.”

[36:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “among the male prostitutes” who were at the temple – the “holy ones,” with “holy” being used in that sense of “separated to that form of temple service.” So uncleanness and shame are some of the connotations of the reference. Some modern translations give the general sense only: “their life ends in shame” (NRSV); “and perish among the reprobate” (NAB); “die…after wasting their lives in immoral living” (NLT).

[38:7]  ⁷ sn The expression “morning stars” (Heb “stars of the morning”) is here placed in parallelism to the angels, “the sons of God.” It may refer to the angels under the imagery of the stars, or, as some prefer, it may poetically include all creation. There is a parallel also with the foundation of the temple which was accompanied by song (see Ezra 3:10,11). But then the account of the building of the original tabernacle was designed to mirror creation (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

[38:7]  ⁸ tn The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן (ranan), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav (ו) consecutive preterite.

[38:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

[38:7]  ¹⁰ tn See Job 1:6.

[40:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[41:25]  ¹¹ tc This verse has created all kinds of problems for the commentators. The first part is workable: “when he raises himself up, the mighty [the gods] are terrified.” The mythological approach would render אֵלִים (’elim) as “gods.” But the last two words, which could be rendered “at the breaking [crashing, or breakers] they fail,” receive much attention. E. Dhorme (Job, 639) suggests “majesty” for “raising up” and “billows” (גַּלִּים, gallim) for אֵלִים (’elim), and gets a better parallelism: “the billows are afraid of his majesty, and the waves draw back.” But H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 263) does not think this is relevant to the context, which is talking about the creature’s defense against attack. The RSV works well for the first part, but the second part need some change; so Rowley adopts “in their dire consternation they are beside themselves.”