Job 15:17

15:17 “I will explain to you;

listen to me,

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

Job 28:27

28:27 then he looked at wisdom ³  and assessed its value; ⁴ 

he established ⁵  it and examined it closely. ⁶ 

Job 39:2

39:2 Do you count the months they must fulfill,

and do you know the time they give birth? ⁷ 

Job 12:8

12:8 Or speak ⁸  to the earth ⁹  and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea declare to you.

Job 14:16

The Present Condition ¹⁰ 

14:16 “Surely now you count my steps; ¹¹ 

then you would not mark ¹²  my sin. ¹³ 

Job 31:4

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

Job 38:37

38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,

and who can tip over ¹⁴  the water jars of heaven,

Job 37:20

37:20 Should he be informed that I want ¹⁵  to speak?

If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!

[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).

[28:27]  ³ tn Heb “it”; the referent (wisdom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:27]  ⁴ tn The verb סָפַר (safar) in the Piel basically means “to tell; to declare; to show” or “to count; to number.” Many commentators offer different suggestions for the translation. “Declared” (as in the RSV, NASB, and NRSV) would be the simplest – but to whom did God declare it? Besides “appraised” which is the view of Pope, Dhorme and others (cf. NAB, NIV), J. Reider has suggested “probed” (“Etymological studies in biblical Hebrew,” VT 2 [1952]: 127), Strahan has “studied,” and Kissane has “reckoned.” The difficulty is that the line has a series of verbs, which seem to build to a climax; but without more details it is hard to know how to translate them when they have such a range of meaning.

[28:27]  ⁵ tc The verb כּוּן (kun) means “to establish; to prepare” in this stem. There are several mss that have the form from בִּין (bin, “discern”), giving “he discerned it,” making more of a parallel with the first colon. But the weight of the evidence supports the traditional MT reading.

[28:27]  ⁶ tn The verb חָקַר (khaqar) means “to examine; to search out.” Some of the language used here is anthropomorphic, for the sovereign Lord did not have to research or investigate wisdom. The point is that it is as if he did this human activity, meaning that as in the results of such a search God knows everything about wisdom.

[39:2]  ⁵ tn Here the infinitive is again a substantive: “the time of their giving birth.”

[12:8]  ⁷ tn The word in the MT means “to complain,” not simply “to speak,” and one would expect animals as the object here in parallel to the last verse. So several commentators have replaced the word with words for animals or reptiles – totally different words (cf. NAB, “reptiles”). The RSV and NRSV have here the word “plants” (see 30:4, 7; and Gen 21:15).

[12:8]  ⁸ tn A. B. Davidson (Job, 90) offers a solution by taking “earth” to mean all the lower forms of life that teem in the earth (a metonymy of subject).

[14:16]  ⁹ sn The hope for life after death is supported now by a description of the severity with which God deals with people in this life.

[14:16]  ¹⁰ tn If v. 16a continues the previous series, the translation here would be “then” (as in RSV). Others take it as a new beginning to express God’s present watch over Job, and interpret the second half of the verse as a question, or emend it to say God does not pass over his sins.

[14:16]  ¹¹ sn Compare Ps 130:3-4, which says, “If you should mark iniquity O Lord, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, in order that you might be feared.”

[14:16]  ¹² tn The second colon of the verse can be contrasted with the first, the first being the present reality and the second the hope looked for in the future. This seems to fit the context well without making any changes at all.

[38:37]  ¹¹ tn The word actually means “to cause to lie down.”

[37:20]  ¹³ tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.