Job 18:4

18:4 You who tear yourself ¹  to pieces in your anger,

will the earth be abandoned ²  for your sake?

Or will a rock be moved from its place? ³ 

Job 18:21

18:21 ‘Surely such is the residence ⁴  of an evil man;

and this is the place of one who has not known God.’” ⁵ 

Job 38:19

38:19 “In what direction ⁶  does light reside,

and darkness, where is its place,

[18:4]  ¹ tn The construction uses the participle and then 3rd person suffixes: “O tearer of himself in his anger.” But it is clearly referring to Job, and so the direct second person pronouns should be used to make that clear. The LXX is an approximation or paraphrase here: “Anger has possessed you, for what if you should die – would under heaven be desolate, or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations?”

[18:4]  ² tn There is a good deal of study on this word in this passage, and in Job in general. M. Dahood suggested a root עָזַב (’azav) meaning “to arrange; to rearrange” (“The Root ’zb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 303-9). But this is refuted by H. G. M. Williamson, “A Reconsideration of ’zb II in Biblical Hebrew,” ZAW 97 (1985): 74-85.

[18:4]  ³ sn Bildad is asking if Job thinks the whole moral order of the world should be interrupted for his sake, that he may escape the punishment for wickedness.

[18:21]  ⁴ tn The term is in the plural, “the tabernacles”; it should be taken as a plural of local extension (see GKC 397 §124.b).

[18:21]  ⁵ tn The word “place” is in construct; the clause following it replaces the genitive: “this is the place of – he has not known God.”

[38:19]  ⁷ tn The interrogative with דֶרֶךְ (derekh) means “in what road” or “in what direction.”