Job 17:12

17:12 These men ¹  change ²  night into day;

they say, ³  ‘The light is near

in the face of darkness.’ ⁴ 

Job 23:17

23:17 Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness,

because of the thick darkness

that covered my face. ⁵ 

Job 30:11

30:11 Because God has untied ⁶  my tent cord and afflicted me,

people throw off all restraint in my presence. ⁷ 

Job 35:12

35:12 Then ⁸  they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

Job 37:19

37:19 Tell us what we should ⁹  say to him.

We cannot prepare a case ¹⁰ 

because of the darkness.

Job 39:22

39:22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

it does not shy away from the sword.

Job 19:29

19:29 Fear the sword yourselves,

for wrath ¹¹  brings the punishment ¹²  by the sword,

so that you may know

that there is judgment.” ¹³ 

[17:12]  ¹ tn The verse simply has the plural, “they change.” But since this verse seems to be a description of his friends, a clarification of the referent in the translation is helpful.

[17:12]  ² tn The same verb שִׂים (sim, “set”) is used this way in Isa 5:20: “…who change darkness into light.”

[17:12]  ³ tn The rest of the verse makes better sense if it is interpreted as what his friends say.

[17:12]  ⁴ tn This expression is open to alternative translations: (1) It could mean that they say in the face of darkness, “Light is near.” (2) It could also mean “The light is near the darkness” or “The light is nearer than the darkness.”

[23:17]  ⁵ tn This is a very difficult verse. The Hebrew text literally says: “for I have not been destroyed because of darkness, and because of my face [which] gloom has covered.” Most commentators omit the negative adverb, which gives the meaning that Job is enveloped in darkness and reduced to terror. The verb נִצְמַתִּי (nitsmatti) means “I have been silent” (as in Arabic and Aramaic), and so obviously the negative must be retained – he has not been silent.

[30:11]  ⁹ tn The verb פָּתַח (patakh) means “to untie [or undo]” a rope or bonds. In this verse יִתְרוֹ (yitro, the Kethib, LXX, and Vulgate) would mean “his rope” (see יֶתֶר [yeter] in Judg 16:7-9). The Qere would be יִתְרִי (yitri, “my rope [or cord]”), meaning “me.” The word could mean “rope,” “cord,” or “bowstring.” If the reading “my cord” is accepted, the cord would be something like “my tent cord” (as in Job 29:20), more than K&D 12:147 “cord of life.” This has been followed in the present translation. If it were “my bowstring,” it would give the sense of disablement. If “his cord” is taken, it would signify that the restraint that God had in afflicting Job was loosened – nothing was held back.

[30:11]  ¹⁰ sn People throw off all restraint in my presence means that when people saw how God afflicted Job, robbing him of his influence and power, then they turned on him with unrestrained insolence (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 193).

[35:12]  ¹³ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) connects this verse to v. 11. “There” can be locative or temporal – and here it is temporal (= “then”).

[37:19]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verb here carries the obligatory nuance, “what we should say?”

[37:19]  ¹⁸ tn The verb means “to arrange; to set in order.” From the context the idea of a legal case is included.

[19:29]  ²¹ tn The word “wrath” probably refers to divine wrath for the wicked. Many commentators change this word to read “they,” or more precisely, “these things.”

[19:29]  ²² tn The word is “iniquities”; but here as elsewhere it should receive the classification of the punishment for iniquity (a category of meaning that developed from a metonymy of effect).

[19:29]  ²³ tc The last word is problematic because of the textual variants in the Hebrew. In place of שַׁדִּין (shaddin, “judgment”) some have proposed שַׁדַּי (shadday, “Almighty”) and read it “that you may know the Almighty” (Ewald, Wright). Some have read it יֵשׁ דַּיָּן (yesh dayyan, “there is a judge,” Gray, Fohrer). Others defend the traditional view, arguing that the שׁ (shin) is the abbreviated relative particle on the word דִּין (din, “judgment”).