Job 2:5

2:5 But extend your hand and strike his bone and his flesh, ¹  and he will no doubt ²  curse you to your face!”

Job 31:31

31:31 if ³  the members of my household ⁴  have never said, ⁵ 

‘If only there were ⁶  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ⁷  meat!’ –

Isaiah 51:23

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ⁸ 

who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’

You made your back like the ground,

and like the street for those who walked over you.”

Micah 3:3

3:3 You ⁹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ¹⁰  –

like meat in a kettle.

[2:5]  ¹ sn The “bones and flesh” are idiomatic for the whole person, his physical and his psychical/spiritual being (see further H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 26-28).

[2:5]  ² sn This is the same oath formula found in 1:11; see the note there.

[31:31]  ³ tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

[31:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

[31:31]  ⁵ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

[31:31]  ⁶ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

[31:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[51:23]  ⁸ tn That is, to make them drink it.

[3:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).