Job 14:13

The Possibility of Another Life

14:13 “O that ¹  you would hide me in Sheol, ² 

and conceal me till your anger has passed! ³ 

O that you would set me a time ⁴ 

and then remember me! ⁵ 

Job 16:9

16:9 His ⁶  anger has torn me ⁷  and persecuted ⁸  me;

he has gnashed at me with his teeth;

my adversary locks ⁹  his eyes on me.

Job 18:4

18:4 You who tear yourself ¹⁰  to pieces in your anger,

will the earth be abandoned ¹¹  for your sake?

Or will a rock be moved from its place? ¹² 

Job 20:23

20:23 “While he is ¹³  filling his belly,

God ¹⁴  sends his burning anger ¹⁵  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ¹⁶ 

Job 21:17

How Often Do the Wicked Suffer?

21:17 “How often ¹⁷  is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?

How often does their ¹⁸  misfortune come upon them?

How often does God apportion pain ¹⁹  to them ²⁰  in his anger?

Job 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ²¹  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ²²  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ²³ 

Job 32:5

32:5 But when Elihu saw ²⁴  that the three men had no further reply, ²⁵  he became very angry.

Job 35:15

35:15 And further, ²⁶  when you say

that his anger does not punish, ²⁷ 

and that he does not know transgression! ²⁸ 

[14:13]  ¹ tn The optative mood is introduced here again with מִי יִתֵּן (mi yitten), literally, “who will give?”

[14:13]  ² sn Sheol in the Bible refers to the place where the dead go. But it can have different categories of meaning: death in general, the grave, or the realm of the departed spirits [hell]. A. Heidel shows that in the Bible when hell is in view the righteous are not there – it is the realm of the departed spirits of the wicked. When the righteous go to Sheol, the meaning is usually the grave or death. See chapter 3 in A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels.

[14:13]  ³ tn The construction used here is the preposition followed by the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive, forming an adverbial clause of time.

[14:13]  ⁴ tn This is the same word used in v. 5 for “limit.”

[14:13]  ⁵ tn The verb זָכַר (zakhar) means more than simply “to remember.” In many cases, including this one, it means “to act on what is remembered,” i.e., deliver or rescue (see Gen 8:1, “and God remembered Noah”). In this sense, a prayer “remember me” is a prayer for God to act upon his covenant promises.

[16:9]  ⁶ tn The referent of these pronouns in v. 9 (“his anger…he has gnashed…his teeth…his eyes”) is best taken as God.

[16:9]  ⁷ sn The figure used now is that of a wild beast. God’s affliction of Job is compared to the attack of such an animal. Cf. Amos 1:11.

[16:9]  ⁸ tn The verb שָׂטַם (satam) is translated “hate” in the RSV, but this is not accepted by very many. Many emend it to שָׁמט (shamat), reading “and he dropped me” (from his mouth). But that suggests escape. D. J. A. Clines notes that usage shows it reflects ongoing hatred represented by an action such as persecution or attack (Job [WBC], 370).

[16:9]  ⁹ tn The verb is used of sharpening a sword in Ps 7:12; here it means “to look intently” as an animal looks for prey. The verse describes God’s relentless pursuit of Job.

[18:4]  ¹¹ tn The construction uses the participle and then 3rd person suffixes: “O tearer of himself in his anger.” But it is clearly referring to Job, and so the direct second person pronouns should be used to make that clear. The LXX is an approximation or paraphrase here: “Anger has possessed you, for what if you should die – would under heaven be desolate, or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations?”

[18:4]  ¹² tn There is a good deal of study on this word in this passage, and in Job in general. M. Dahood suggested a root עָזַב (’azav) meaning “to arrange; to rearrange” (“The Root ’zb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 303-9). But this is refuted by H. G. M. Williamson, “A Reconsideration of ’zb II in Biblical Hebrew,” ZAW 97 (1985): 74-85.

[18:4]  ¹³ sn Bildad is asking if Job thinks the whole moral order of the world should be interrupted for his sake, that he may escape the punishment for wickedness.

[20:23]  ¹⁶ tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.

[20:23]  ¹⁷ tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”

[21:17]  ²¹ tn The interrogative “How often” occurs only with the first colon; it is supplied for smoother reading in the next two.

[21:17]  ²² tn The pronominal suffix is objective; it re-enforces the object of the preposition, “upon them.” The verb in the clause is בּוֹא (bo’) followed by עַל (’al), “come upon [or against],” may be interpreted as meaning attack or strike.

[21:17]  ²³ tn חֲבָלִים (khavalim) can mean “ropes” or “cords,” but that would not go with the verb “apportion” in this line. The meaning of “pangs (as in “birth-pangs”) seems to fit best here. The wider meaning would be “physical agony.”

[21:17]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “to them” is understood and thus is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[32:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ²⁷ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ²⁸ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.

[32:5]  ³¹ tn The first clause beginning with a vav (ו) consecutive and the preterite can be subordinated to the next similar verb as a temporal clause.

[32:5]  ³² tn Heb “that there was no reply in the mouth of the three men.”

[35:15]  ³⁶ tn The expression “and now” introduces a new complaint of Elihu – in addition to the preceding. Here the verb of v. 14, “you say,” is understood after the temporal ki (כִּי).

[35:15]  ³⁷ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit” (also “to appoint; to muster; to number”). When God visits, it means that he intervenes in one’s life for blessing or cursing (punishing, destroying).

[35:15]  ³⁸ tn The word פַּשׁ (pash) is a hapax legomenon. K&D 12:275 derived it from an Arabic word meaning “belch,” leading to the idea of “overflow.” BDB 832 s.v. defines it as “folly.” Several define it as “transgression” on the basis of the versions (Theodotion, Symmachus, Vulgate). The RSV took it as “greatly heed,” but that is not exactly “greatly know,” when the text beyond that requires “not know at all.” The NIV has “he does not take the least notice of wickedness.”