Job 18:16

18:16 Below his roots dry up,

and his branches wither above.

Job 28:9

28:9 On the flinty rock man has set to work ¹  with his hand;

he has overturned mountains at their bases. ² 

Job 8:17

8:17 It wraps its roots around a heap ³  of stones ⁴ 

and it looks ⁵  for a place among stones. ⁶ 

Job 14:8

14:8 Although its roots may grow old ⁷  in the ground

and its stump begins to die ⁸  in the soil, ⁹ 

Job 29:19

29:19 My roots reach the water,

and the dew lies on my branches all night long.

Job 30:4

30:4 By the brush ¹⁰  they would gather ¹¹  herbs from the salt marshes, ¹² 

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

Job 36:30

36:30 See how he scattered ¹³  his lightning ¹⁴  about him;

he has covered the depths ¹⁵  of the sea.

Job 13:27

13:27 And you put my feet in the stocks ¹⁶ 

and you watch all my movements; ¹⁷ 

you put marks ¹⁸  on the soles of my feet.

Job 19:28

19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,

since the root of the trouble is found in him!’ ¹⁹ 

[28:9]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “to stretch out; to send” (שָׁלח, shalakh). With יָדוֹ (yado, “his hand”) the idea is that of laying one’s hand on the rock, i.e., getting to work on the hardest of rocks.

[28:9]  ² tn The Hebrew מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ (mishoresh) means “from/at [their] root [or base].” In mining, people have gone below ground, under the mountains, and overturned rock and dirt. It is also interesting that here in a small way humans do what God does – overturn mountains (cf. 9:5).

[8:17]  ¹ tn Cheyne reads “spring” or “well” rather than “heap.” However, this does not fit the parallelism very well, and so he emends the second half as well. Nevertheless the Hebrew text needs no emending here.

[8:17]  ² tn The expression “of stones” is added for clarification of what the heap would be. It refers to the object around which the roots would grow. The parallelism with “house of stones” makes this reading highly probable.

[8:17]  ³ tn The idea is that the plant grows, looking for a place to grow among the stones. Some trees grow so tightly around the rocks and stones that they are impossible to uproot. The rocky ground where it grows forms “a house of stones.” The LXX supports an emendation from יְחֱזֶה (yÿkhezeh, “it looks”) to יִחְיֶה (yikhyeh, “it lives”). Others have tried to emend the text in a variety of ways: “pushes” (Budde), “cleave” (Gordis), “was opposite” (Driver), or “run against” (NEB, probably based on G. R. Driver). If one were to make a change, the reading with the LXX would be the easiest to defend, but there is no substantial reason to do that. The meaning is about the same without such a change.

[8:17]  ⁴ sn The idea seems to be that the stones around which the roots of the tree wrap themselves suggest strength and security for the tree, but uprooting comes to it nevertheless (v. 18). The point is that the wicked may appear to be living in security and flourishing, yet can be quickly destroyed (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 74).

[14:8]  ¹ tn The Hiphil of זָקַן (zaqan, “to be old”) is here an internal causative, “to grow old.”

[14:8]  ² tn The Hiphil is here classified as an inchoative Hiphil (see GKC 145 §53.e), for the tree only begins to die. In other words, it appears to be dead, but actually is not completely dead.

[14:8]  ³ tn The LXX translates “dust” [soil] with “rock,” probably in light of the earlier illustration of the tree growing in the rocks.

[30:4]  ¹ tn Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:209) in their philological notes.

[30:4]  ² tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.

[30:4]  ³ tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.

[36:30]  ¹ tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.

[36:30]  ² tn The word is “light,” but taken to mean “lightning.” Theodotion had “mist” here, and so most commentators follow that because it is more appropriate to the verb and the context.

[36:30]  ³ tn Heb “roots.”

[13:27]  ¹ tn The word occurs here and in Job 33:11. It could be taken as “stocks,” in which the feet were held fast; or it could be “shackles,” which allowed the prisoner to move about. The parallelism favors the latter, if the two lines are meant to be referring to the same thing.

[13:27]  ² tn The word means “ways; roads; paths,” but it is used here in the sense of the “way” in which one goes about his activities.

[13:27]  ³ tn The verb תִּתְחַקֶּה (titkhaqqeh) is a Hitpael from the root חָקָה (khaqah, parallel to חָקַק, khaqaq). The word means “to engrave” or “to carve out.” This Hitpael would mean “to imprint something on oneself” (E. Dhorme [Job, 192] says on one’s mind, and so derives the meaning “examine.”). The object of this is the expression “on the roots of my feet,” which would refer to where the feet hit the ground. Since the passage has more to do with God’s restricting Job’s movement, the translation “you set a boundary to the soles of my feet” would be better than Dhorme’s view. The image of inscribing or putting marks on the feet is not found elsewhere. It may be, as Pope suggests, a reference to marking the slaves to make tracking them easier. The LXX has “you have penetrated to my heels.”

[19:28]  ¹ tc The MT reads “in me.” If that is retained, then the question would be in the first colon, and the reasoning of the second colon would be Job’s. But over 100 mss have “in him,” and so this reading is accepted by most editors. The verse is a little difficult, but it seems to form a warning by Job that God’s appearance which will vindicate Job will bring judgment on those who persecute him and charge him falsely.