Job 15:18

15:18 what wise men declare,

hiding nothing,

from the tradition of ¹  their ancestors, ² 

Job 8:8

8:8 “For inquire now of the former ³  generation,

and pay attention ⁴  to the findings ⁵ 

of their ancestors; ⁶ 

Job 15:10

15:10 The gray-haired ⁷  and the aged are on our side, ⁸ 

men far older than your father. ⁹ 

Job 17:14

17:14 If I cry ¹⁰  to corruption, ¹¹  ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My Mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

Job 29:16

29:16 I was a father ¹²  to the needy,

and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;

Job 31:18

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan ¹³  like a father,

and from my mother’s womb ¹⁴ 

I guided the widow! ¹⁵ 

Job 38:28

38:28 Does the rain have a father,

or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

Job 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹⁶  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ¹⁷ 

to put with my sheep dogs. ¹⁸ 

Job 42:15

42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.

[15:18]  ¹ tn The word “tradition” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:18]  ² tn Heb “their fathers.” Some commentators change one letter and follow the reading of the LXX: “and their fathers have not hidden.” Pope tries to get the same reading by classifying the מ (mem) as an enclitic mem. The MT on first glance would read “and did not hide from their fathers.” Some take the clause “and they did not hide” as adverbial and belonging to the first part of the verse: “what wise men declare, hiding nothing, according to the tradition of their fathers.”

[8:8]  ³ sn Bildad is not calling for Job to trace through the learning of antiquity, but of the most recent former generation. Hebrews were fond of recalling what the “fathers” had taught, for each generation recalled what their fathers had taught.

[8:8]  ⁴ tn The verb כוֹנֵן (khonen, from כּוּן, kun) normally would indicate “prepare yourself” or “fix” one’s heart on something, i.e., give attention to it. The verb with the ל (lamed) preposition after it does mean “to think on” or “to meditate” (Isa 51:13). But some commentators wish to change the כּ (kaf) to a בּ (bet) in the verb to get “to consider” (from בִּין, bin). However, M. Dahood shows a connection between כּנן (knn) and שׁאל (sh’l) in Ugaritic (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography,” Bib 46 [1965]: 329).

[8:8]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew has “the search of their fathers,” but the word is probably intended to mean what that observation or search yielded (so “search” is a metonymy of cause).

[8:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers.”

[15:10]  ⁵ tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.

[15:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “with us.”

[15:10]  ⁷ tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age – they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.

[17:14]  ⁷ tn This is understood because the conditional clauses seem to run to the apodosis in v. 15.

[17:14]  ⁸ tn The word שַׁחַת (shakhat) may be the word “corruption” from a root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) or a word “pit” from שׁוּחַ (shuakh, “to sink down”). The same problem surfaces in Ps 16:10, where it is parallel to “Sheol.” E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life, 76ff., defends the meaning “corruption.” But many commentators here take it to mean “the grave” in harmony with “Sheol.” But in this verse “worms” would suggest “corruption” is better.

[29:16]  ⁹ sn The word “father” does not have a wide range of meanings in the OT. But there are places that it is metaphorical, especially in a legal setting like this where the poor need aid.

[31:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.

[31:18]  ¹² tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”

[31:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.

[30:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ¹⁵ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.