Job 16:10

16:10 People ¹  have opened their mouths against me,

they have struck my cheek in scorn; ² 

they unite ³  together against me.

Job 26:8

26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,

and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

Job 29:19

29:19 My roots reach the water,

and the dew lies on my branches all night long.

Job 31:32

31:32 But ⁴  no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler ⁵  –

[16:10]  ¹ tn “People” is supplied; the Hebrew verb is third plural. The colon reads, “they have opened against me with [the preposition is instrumental] their mouth.” The gestures here follow the animal imagery; they reflect destructive opposition and attack (see Ps 22:13 among others).

[16:10]  ² tn This is an “insult” or a “reproach.”

[16:10]  ³ tn The verb יִתְמַלָּאוּן (yitmalla’un) is taken from מָלֵא (male’), “to be full,” and in this stem, “to pile up; to press together.” The term has a military connotation, such as “to mobilize” (see D. W. Thomas, “ml'w in Jeremiah 4:5 : a military term,” JJS 3 [1952]: 47-52). Job sees himself surrounded by enemies who persecute him and mock him.

[31:32]  ⁴ tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.

[31:32]  ⁵ tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.