Job 15:20

15:20 All his days ¹  the wicked man suffers torment, ² 

throughout the number of the years

that ³  are stored up for the tyrant. ⁴ 

Job 15:35

15:35 They conceive ⁵  trouble and bring forth evil;

their belly ⁶  prepares deception.”

Isaiah 33:11

33:11 You conceive straw, ⁷ 

you give birth to chaff;

your breath is a fire that destroys you. ⁸ 

Isaiah 59:4-5

59:4 No one is concerned about justice; ⁹ 

no one sets forth his case truthfully.

They depend on false words ¹⁰  and tell lies;

they conceive of oppression ¹¹ 

and give birth to sin.

59:5 They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake

and spin a spider’s web.

Whoever eats their eggs will die,

a poisonous snake is hatched. ¹² 

James 1:15

1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.

[15:20]  ¹ tn Heb “all the days of the wicked, he suffers.” The word “all” is an adverbial accusative of time, stating along with its genitives (“of the days of a wicked man”) how long the individual suffers. When the subject is composed of a noun in construct followed by a genitive, the predicate sometimes agrees with the genitive (see GKC 467 §146.a).

[15:20]  ² tn The Hebrew term מִתְחוֹלֵל (mitkholel) is a Hitpolel participle from חִיל (khil, “to tremble”). It carries the idea of “torment oneself,” or “be tormented.” Some have changed the letter ח (khet) for a letter ה (he), and obtained the meaning “shows himself mad.” Theodotion has “is mad.” Syriac (“behave arrogantly,” apparently confusing Hebrew חול with חלל; Heidi M. Szpek, Translation Technique in the Peshitta to Job [SBLDS], 277), Symmachus, and Vulgate have “boasts himself.” But the reading of the MT is preferable.

[15:20]  ³ tn It is necessary, with Rashi, to understand the relative pronoun before the verb “they are stored up/reserved.”

[15:20]  ⁴ tn This has been translated with the idea of “oppressor” in Job 6:23; 27:13.

[15:35]  ⁵ tn Infinitives absolute are used in this verse in the place of finite verbs. They lend a greater vividness to the description, stressing the basic meaning of the words.

[15:35]  ⁶ tn At the start of the speech Eliphaz said Job’s belly was filled with the wind; now it is there that he prepares deception. This inclusio frames the speech.

[33:11]  ⁷ tn The second person verb and pronominal forms in this verse are plural. The hostile nations are the addressed, as the next verse makes clear.

[33:11]  ⁸ sn The hostile nations’ plans to destroy God’s people will come to nothing; their hostility will end up being self-destructive.

[59:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “no one pleads with justice.”

[59:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “nothing”; NAB “emptiness.”

[59:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “trouble” (NIV), or “harm.”

[59:5]  ¹² tn Heb “that which is pressed in hatches [as] a snake.”