Job 15:24

15:24 Distress and anguish ¹  terrify him;

they prevail against him

like a king ready to launch an attack, ² 

Job 38:23

38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,

for the day of war and battle? ³ 

Job 41:15

41:15 Its back ⁴  has rows of shields,

shut up closely ⁵  together as with a seal;

[15:24]  ¹ tn If “day and darkness” are added to this line, then this verse is made into a tri-colon – the main reason for transferring it away from the last verse. But the newly proposed reading follows the LXX structure precisely, as if that were the approved construction. The Hebrew of MT has “distress and anguish terrify him.”

[15:24]  ² tn This last colon is deleted by some, moved to v. 26 by others, and the NEB puts it in brackets. The last word (translated here as “launch an attack”) occurs only here. HALOT 472 s.v. כִּידוֹר links it to an Arabic root kadara, “to rush down,” as with a bird of prey. J. Reider defines it as “perturbation” from the same root (“Etymological Studies in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 2 [1952]: 127).

[38:23]  ³ sn The terms translated war and battle are different Hebrew words, but both may be translated “war” or “battle” depending on the context.

[41:15]  ⁵ tc The MT has גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “his pride”), but the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate all read גַּוּוֹ (gavvo, “his back”). Almost all the modern English versions follow the variant reading, speaking about “his [or its] back.”

[41:15]  ⁶ tn Instead of צָר (tsar, “closely”) the LXX has צֹר (tsor, “stone”) to say that the seal was rock hard.