Job 15:12

15:12 Why ¹  has your heart carried you away, ² 

and why do your eyes flash, ³ 

Job 23:16

23:16 Indeed, God has made my heart faint; ⁴ 

the Almighty has terrified me.

Job 31:27

31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed,

and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth, ⁵ 

Job 37:1

37:1 At this also my heart pounds

and leaps from its place.

[15:12]  ¹ tn The interrogative מָה (mah) here has the sense of “why?” (see Job 7:21).

[15:12]  ² tn The verb simply means “to take.” The RSV has “carry you away.” E. Dhorme (Job, 212-13) goes further, saying that it implies being unhinged by passion, to be carried away by the passions beyond good sense (pp. 212-13). Pope and Tur-Sinai suggest that the suffix on the verb is datival, and translate it, “What has taken from you your mind?” But the parallelism shows that “your heart” and “your eyes” are subjects.

[15:12]  ³ tn Here is another word that occurs only here, and in the absence of a completely convincing suggestion, probably should be left as it is. The verb is רָזַם (razam, “wink, flash”). Targum Job and the Syriac equate it with a verb found in Aramaic and postbiblical Hebrew with the same letters but metathesized – רָמַז (ramaz). It would mean “to make a sign” or “to wink.” Budde, following the LXX probably, has “Why are your eyes lofty?” Others follow an Arabic root meaning “become weak.”

[23:16]  ⁴ tn The verb הֵרַךְ (kherakh) means “to be tender”; in the Piel it would have the meaning “to soften.” The word is used in parallel constructions with the verbs for “fear.” The implication is that God has made Job fearful.

[31:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my hand kissed my mouth.” The idea should be that of “my mouth kissed my hand.” H. H. Rowley suggests that the hand was important in waving or throwing the kisses of homage to the sun and the moon, and so it receives the focus. This is the only place in the OT that refers to such a custom. Outside the Bible it was known, however.