Job 17:15

17:15 where then ¹  is my hope?

And my hope, ²  who sees it?

Job 7:8

7:8 The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; ³ 

your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. ⁴ 

Job 20:9

20:9 People ⁵  who had seen him will not see him again,

and the place where he was

will recognize him no longer.

Job 33:14

Elihu Disagrees With Job’s View of God

33:14 “For God speaks, the first time in one way,

the second time in another,

though a person does not perceive ⁶  it.

Job 35:5

35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you! ⁷ 

Job 35:13

35:13 Surely it is an empty cry ⁸  – God does not hear it;

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

Job 24:15

24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,

thinking, ⁹  ‘No eye can see me,’

and covers his face with a mask.

Job 33:27

33:27 That person sings ¹⁰  to others, ¹¹  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ¹² 

Job 35:14

35:14 How much less, then,

when you say that you do not perceive him,

that the case is before him

and you are waiting for him! ¹³ 

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ¹⁴  is quiet, who can condemn ¹⁵  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ¹⁶  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ¹⁷ 

[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.

[7:8]  ³ sn The meaning of the verse is that God will relent, but it will be too late. God now sees him with a hostile eye; when he looks for him, or looks upon him in friendliness, it will be too late.

[7:8]  ⁴ tn This verse is omitted in the LXX and so by several commentators. But the verb שׁוּר (shur, “turn, return”) is so characteristic of Job (10 times) that the verse seems appropriate here.

[20:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the eye that had seen him.” Here a part of the person (the eye, the instrument of vision) is put by metonymy for the entire person.

[33:14]  ⁷ tn The Syriac and the Vulgate have “and he does not repeat it,” a reading of the text as it is, according to E. Dhorme (Job, 403). But his argument is based on another root with this meaning – a root which does not exist (see L. Dennefeld, RB 48 [1939]: 175). The verse is saying that God does speak to man.

[35:5]  ⁹ tn The preposition is taken here as a comparative min (מִן). The line could also read “that are high above you.” This idea has appeared in the speech of Eliphaz (22:12), Zophar (11:7ff.), and even Job (9:8ff.).

[35:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “surely – vanity, he does not hear.” The cry is an empty cry, not a prayer to God. Dhorme translates it, “It is a pure waste of words.”

[24:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “saying.”

[33:27]  ¹⁵ tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).

[33:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ¹⁷ tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”

[35:14]  ¹⁷ sn The point is that if God does not listen to those who do not turn to him, how much less likely is he to turn to one who complains against him.

[34:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ²⁰ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ²¹ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ²² tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”