Job 15:17

15:17 “I will explain to you;

listen to me,

and what ¹  I have seen, I will declare, ² 

Job 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken, ³ 

my days have faded out, ⁴ 

the grave ⁵  awaits me.

Job 29:21

Job’s Reputation

29:21 “People ⁶  listened to me and waited silently; ⁷ 

they kept silent for my advice.

Job 29:23

29:23 They waited for me as people wait ⁸  for the rain,

and they opened their mouths ⁹ 

as for ¹⁰  the spring rains.

Job 30:21

30:21 You have become cruel to me; ¹¹ 

with the strength of your hand you attack me. ¹² 

Job 32:20

32:20 I will speak, ¹³  so that I may find relief;

I will open my lips, so that I may answer.

Job 34:2

34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;

hear ¹⁴  me, you learned men. ¹⁵ 

[15:17]  ¹ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here as a nominative, to introduce an independent relative clause (see GKC 447 §138.h).

[15:17]  ² tn Here the vav (ו) apodosis follows with the cohortative (see GKC 458 §143.d).

[17:1]  ³ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval, “to act badly”) in the Piel means “to ruin.” The Pual translation with “my spirit” as the subject means “broken” in the sense of finished (not in the sense of humbled as in Ps 51).

[17:1]  ⁴ tn The verb זָעַךְ (za’aq, equivalent of Aramaic דָעַק [da’aq]) means “to be extinguished.” It only occurs here in the Hebrew.

[17:1]  ⁵ tn The plural “graves” could be simply an intensification, a plural of extension (see GKC 397 §124.c), or a reference to the graveyard. Coverdale had: “I am harde at deathes dore.” The Hebrew expression simply reads “graves for me.” It probably means that graves await him.

[29:21]  ⁵ tn “People” is supplied; the verb is plural.

[29:21]  ⁶ tc The last verb of the first half, “wait, hope,” and the first verb in the second colon, “be silent,” are usually reversed by the commentators (see G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 86). But if “wait” has the idea of being silent as they wait for him to speak, then the second line would say they were silent for the reason of his advice. The reading of the MT is not impossible.

[29:23]  ⁷ tn The phrase “people wait for” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[29:23]  ⁸ sn The analogy is that they received his words eagerly as the dry ground opens to receive the rains.

[29:23]  ⁹ tn The כּ (kaf) preposition is to be supplied by analogy with the preceding phrase. This leaves a double proposition, “as for” (but see Job 29:2).

[30:21]  ⁹ tn The idiom uses the Niphal verb “you are turned” with “to cruelty.” See Job 41:20b, as well as Isa 63:10.

[30:21]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX reads this verb as “you scourged/whipped me.” But there is no reason to adopt this change.

[32:20]  ¹¹ tn The cohortative expresses Elihu’s resolve to speak.

[34:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “give ear to me.”

[34:2]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”