Job 2:4

2:4 But ¹  Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for ²  skin! ³  Indeed, a man will give up ⁴  all that he has to save his life! ⁵ 

Job 15:2

15:2 “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, ⁶ 

or fill his belly ⁷  with the east wind? ⁸ 

Job 15:7

15:7 “Were you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

Job 17:10

Anticipation of Death

17:10 “But turn, all of you, ⁹  and come ¹⁰  now! ¹¹ 

I will not find a wise man among you.

Job 38:3

38:3 Get ready for a difficult task ¹²  like a man;

I will question you

and you will inform me!

Job 38:26

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ¹³ 

a desert where there are no human beings, ¹⁴ 

Job 40:7

40:7 “Get ready for a difficult task ¹⁵  like a man.

I will question you and you will inform me!

Job 42:17

42:17 And so Job died, old and full of days.

[2:4]  ¹ tn The form is the simply preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive. However, the speech of Satan is in contrast to what God said, even though in narrative sequence.

[2:4]  ² tn The preposition בְּעַד (bÿ’ad) designates interest or advantage arising from the idea of protection for (“for the benefit of”); see IBHS 201-2 §11.2.7a.

[2:4]  ³ sn The meaning of the expression is obscure. It may come from the idea of sacrificing an animal or another person in order to go free, suggesting the expression that one type of skin that was worth less was surrendered to save the more important life. Satan would then be saying that Job was willing for others to die for him to go free, but not himself. “Skin” would be a synecdoche of the part for the whole (like the idiomatic use of skin today for a person in a narrow escape). The second clause indicates that God has not even scratched the surface because Job has been protected. His “skin” might have been scratched, but not his flesh and bone! But if his life had been put in danger, he would have responded differently.

[2:4]  ⁴ tc The LXX has “make full payment, pay a full price” (LSJ 522 s.v. ἐκτίνω).

[2:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Indeed, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

[15:2]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew is דַעַת־רוּחַ (da’at-ruakh). This means knowledge without any content, vain knowledge.

[15:2]  ⁷ tn The image is rather graphic. It is saying that he puffs himself up with the wind and then brings out of his mouth blasts of this wind.

[15:2]  ⁸ tn The word for “east wind,” קָדִים (qadim), is parallel to “spirit/wind” also in Hos 12:2. The east wind is maleficent, but here in the parallelism it is so much hot air.

[17:10]  ¹¹ tn The form says “all of them.” Several editors would change it to “all of you,” but the lack of concord is not surprising; the vocative elsewhere uses the third person (see Mic 1:2; see also GKC 441 §135.r).

[17:10]  ¹² tn The first verb, the jussive, means “to return”; the second verb, the imperative, means “to come.” The two could be taken as a hendiadys, the first verb becoming adverbial: “to come again.”

[17:10]  ¹³ tn Instead of the exact correspondence between coordinate verbs, other combinations occur – here we have a jussive and an imperative (see GKC 386 §120.e).

[38:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Gird up your loins.” This idiom basically describes taking the hem of the long garment or robe and pulling it up between the legs and tucking it into the front of the belt, allowing easier and freer movement of the legs. “Girding the loins” meant the preparation for some difficult task (Jer 1:17), or for battle (Isa 5:27), or for running (1 Kgs 18:46). C. Gordon suggests that it includes belt-wrestling, a form of hand-to-hand mortal combat (“Belt-wrestling in the Bible World,” HUCA 23 [1950/51]: 136).

[38:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ²² tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[40:7]  ²⁶ tn See note on “task” in 38:3.