Job 15:25-26

15:25 for he stretches out his hand against God, ¹ 

and vaunts himself ²  against the Almighty,

15:26 defiantly charging against him ³ 

with a thick, strong shield! ⁴ 

Proverbs 27:22

27:22 If you should pound ⁵  the fool in the mortar

among the grain ⁶  with the pestle,

his foolishness would not depart from him. ⁷ 

Ecclesiastes 9:3

9:3 This is the unfortunate fact ⁸  about everything that happens on earth: ⁹ 

the same fate awaits ¹⁰  everyone.

In addition to this, the hearts of all people ¹¹  are full of evil,

and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die. ¹² 

Isaiah 1:5

1:5 ¹³ Why do you insist on being battered?

Why do you continue to rebel? ¹⁴ 

Your head has a massive wound, ¹⁵ 

your whole body is weak. ¹⁶ 

[15:25]  ¹ sn The symbol of the outstretched hand is the picture of attempting to strike someone, or shaking a fist at someone; it is a symbol of a challenge or threat (see Isa 5:25; 9:21; 10:4).

[15:25]  ² tn The Hitpael of גָּבַר (gavar) means “to act with might” or “to behave like a hero.” The idea is that the wicked boldly vaunts himself before the Lord.

[15:26]  ³ tn Heb “he runs against [or upon] him with the neck.” The RSV takes this to mean “with a stiff neck.” Several commentators, influenced by the LXX’s “insolently,” have attempted to harmonize with some idiom for neck (“outstretched neck,” for example). Others have made more extensive changes. Pope and Anderson follow Tur-Sinai in accepting “with full battle armor.” But the main idea seems to be that of a headlong assault on God.

[15:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “with the thickness of the bosses of his shield.” The bosses are the convex sides of the bucklers, turned against the foe. This is a defiant attack on God.

[27:22]  ⁵ tn The verb means “to pound” in a mortar with a pestle (cf. NRSV “Crush”; NLT “grind”). The imperfect is in a conditional clause, an unreal, hypothetical condition to make the point.

[27:22]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term רִיפוֹת (rifot) refers to some kind of grain spread out to dry and then pounded. It may refer to barley groats (coarsely ground barley), but others have suggested the term means “cheeses” (BDB 937 s.v.). Most English versions have “grain” without being more specific; NAB “grits.”

[27:22]  ⁷ tn The LXX contains this paraphrase: “If you scourge a fool in the assembly, dishonoring him, you would not remove his folly.” This removes the imagery of mortar and pestle from the verse. Using the analogy of pounding something in a mortar, the proverb is saying even if a fool was pounded or pulverized, meaning severe physical punishment, his folly would not leave him – it is too ingrained in his nature.

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “evil.”

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn The term “awaits” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “also the heart of the sons of man.” Here “heart” is a collective singular.

[9:3]  ¹² tn Heb “and after that [they go] to [the place of] the dead.”

[1:5]  ¹³ sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).