Job 17:6

17:6 He has made me ¹  a byword ²  to people,

I am the one in whose face they spit. ³ 

Job 10:19

10:19 I should have been as though I had never existed; ⁴ 

I should have been carried

right from the womb to the grave!

Job 3:16

3:16 Or why ⁵  was ⁶  I not buried ⁷ 

like a stillborn infant, ⁸ 

like infants ⁹  who have never seen the light? ¹⁰ 

Job 12:4

12:4 I am ¹¹  a laughingstock ¹²  to my friends, ¹³ 

I, who called on God and whom he answered ¹⁴  –

a righteous and blameless ¹⁵  man

is a laughingstock!

[17:6]  ¹ tn The verb is the third person, and so God is likely the subject. The LXX has “you have made me.” So most commentators clarify the verb in some such way. However, without an expressed subject it can also be taken as a passive.

[17:6]  ² tn The word “byword” is related to the word translated “proverb” in the Bible (מָשָׁל, mashal). Job’s case is so well known that he is synonymous with afflictions and with abuse by people.

[17:6]  ³ tn The word תֹפֶת (tofet) is a hapax legomenon. The expression is “and a spitting in/to the face I have become,” i.e., “I have become one in whose face people spit.” Various suggestions have been made, including a link to Tophet, but they are weak. The verse as it exists in the MT is fine, and fits the context well.

[10:19]  ⁴ sn This means “If only I had never come into existence.”

[3:16]  ⁷ tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

[3:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

[3:16]  ¹² tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.

[12:4]  ¹⁰ tn Some are troubled by the disharmony with “I am” and “to his friend.” Even though the difficulty is not insurmountable, some have emended the text. Some simply changed the verb to “he is,” which was not very compelling. C. D. Isbell argued that אֶהְיֶה (’ehyeh, “I am”) is an orthographic variant of יִהְיֶה (yihyeh, “he will”) – “a person who does not know these things would be a laughingstock” (JANESCU 37 [1978]: 227-36). G. R. Driver suggests the meaning of the MT is something like “(One that is) a mockery to his friend I am to be.”

[12:4]  ¹¹ tn The word simply means “laughter”; but it can also mean the object of laughter (see Jer 20:7). The LXX jumps from one “laughter” to the next, eliminating everything in between, presumably due to haplography.

[12:4]  ¹² tn Heb “his friend.” A number of English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) take this collectively, “to my friends.”

[12:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “one calling to God and he answered him.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 92) contends that because Job has been saying that God is not answering him, these words must be part of the derisive words of his friends.

[12:4]  ¹⁴ tn The two words, צַדִּיק תָּמִים (tsadiq tamim), could be understood as a hendiadys (= “blamelessly just”) following W. G. E. Watson (Classical Hebrew Poetry, 327).