Job 17:15

17:15 where then ¹  is my hope?

And my hope, ²  who sees it?

Job 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken, ³ 

my days have faded out, ⁴ 

the grave ⁵  awaits me.

Job 1:13

Job’s Integrity in Adversity ⁶ 

1:13 Now the day ⁷  came when Job’s ⁸  sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

Job 1:17

1:17 While this one was still speaking another messenger arrived and said, “The Chaldeans ⁹  formed three bands and made a raid ¹⁰  on the camels and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! ¹¹  And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

[17:15]  ¹ tn The adverb אֵפוֹ (’efo, “then”) plays an enclitic role here (see Job 4:7).

[17:15]  ² tn The repetition of “my hope” in the verse has thrown the versions off, and their translations have led commentators also to change the second one to something like “goodness,” on the assumption that a word cannot be repeated in the same verse. The word actually carries two different senses here. The first would be the basic meaning “hope,” but the second a metonymy of cause, namely, what hope produces, what will be seen.

[17:1]  ³ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval, “to act badly”) in the Piel means “to ruin.” The Pual translation with “my spirit” as the subject means “broken” in the sense of finished (not in the sense of humbled as in Ps 51).

[17:1]  ⁴ tn The verb זָעַךְ (za’aq, equivalent of Aramaic דָעַק [da’aq]) means “to be extinguished.” It only occurs here in the Hebrew.

[17:1]  ⁵ tn The plural “graves” could be simply an intensification, a plural of extension (see GKC 397 §124.c), or a reference to the graveyard. Coverdale had: “I am harde at deathes dore.” The Hebrew expression simply reads “graves for me.” It probably means that graves await him.

[1:13]  ⁶ sn The series of catastrophes and the piety of Job is displayed now in comprehensive terms. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and yet Job, the pious servant of Yahweh, continues to worship him in the midst of the rubble. This section, and the next, will lay the foundation for the great dialogues in the book.

[1:13]  ⁷ tn The Targum to Job clarifies that it was the first day of the week. The fact that it was in the house of the firstborn is the reason.

[1:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ⁹ sn The name may have been given to the tribes that roamed between the Euphrates and the lands east of the Jordan. These are possibly the nomadic Kaldu who are part of the ethnic Aramaeans. The LXX simply has “horsemen.”

[1:17]  ¹⁰ tn The verb פָּשַׁט (pashat) means “to hurl themselves” upon something (see Judg 9:33, 41). It was a quick, plundering raid to carry off the camels.

[1:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with the edge/mouth of the sword.”