Discovery BoxJob 2:7
Context2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he afflicted 1 Job with a malignant ulcer 2 from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. 3
Job 7:5
Context7:5 My body 4 is clothed 5 with worms 6 and dirty scabs; 7
my skin is broken 8 and festering.
Job 19:20
Context19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; 9
I have escaped 10 alive 11 with only the skin of my teeth.
Psalms 38:5
Context38:5 My wounds 12 are infected and starting to smell, 13
because of my foolish sins. 14
Isaiah 1:5-6
Context1:5 15 Why do you insist on being battered?
Why do you continue to rebel? 16
Your head has a massive wound, 17
your whole body is weak. 18
1:6 From the soles of your feet to your head,
there is no spot that is unharmed. 19
There are only bruises, cuts,
and open wounds.
They have not been cleansed 20 or bandaged,
[2:7] 1 tn The verb is נָכָה (nakhah, “struck, smote”); it can be rendered in this context as “afflicted.”
[2:7] 2 sn The general consensus is that Job was afflicted with a leprosy known as elephantiasis, named because the rough skin and the swollen limbs are animal-like. The Hebrew word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin, “boil”) can indicate an ulcer as well. Leprosy begins with such, but so do other diseases. Leprosy normally begins in the limbs and spreads, but Job was afflicted everywhere at once. It may be some other disease also characterized by such a malignant ulcer. D. J. A. Clines has a thorough bibliography on all the possible diseases linked to this description (Job [WBC], 48). See also HALOT 1460 s.v. שְׁחִין.
[7:5] 5 tn The implied comparison is vivid: the dirty scabs cover his entire body like a garment – so he is clothed with them.
[7:5] 6 sn The word for “worms” (רִמָּה, rimmah, a collective noun), is usually connected with rotten food (Exod 16:24), or the grave (Isa 14:11). Job’s disease is a malignant ulcer of some kind that causes the rotting of the flesh. One may recall that both Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Macc 9:9) and Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:23) were devoured by such worms in their diseases.
[7:5] 7 tn The text has “clods of dust.” The word גִּישׁ (gish, “dirty scabs”) is a hapax legomenon from גּוּשׁ (gush, “clod”). Driver suggests the word has a medical sense, like “pustules” (G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 73) or “scabs” (JB, NEB, NAB, NIV). Driver thinks “clods of dust” is wrong; he repoints “dust” to make a new verb “to cover,” cognate to Arabic, and reads “my flesh is clothed with worms, and scab covers my skin.” This refers to the dirty scabs that crusted over the sores all over his body. The LXX links this with the second half of the verse: “And my body has been covered with loathsome worms, and I waste away, scraping off clods of dirt from my eruption.”
[7:5] 8 tn The meaning of רָגַע (raga’) is also debated here. D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 163) does not think the word can mean “cracked” because scabs show evidence of the sores healing. But E. Dhorme (Job, 100) argues that the usage of the word shows the idea of “splitting, separating, making a break,” or the like. Here then it would mean “my skin splits” and as a result festers. This need not be a reference to the scabs, but to new places. Or it could mean that the scabbing never heals, but is always splitting open.
[19:20] 9 tn The meaning would be “I am nothing but skin and bones” in current English idiom. Both lines of this verse need attention. The first half seems to say, “My skin and my flesh sticks to my bones.” Some think that this is too long, and that the bones can stick to the skin, or the flesh, but not both. Dhorme proposes “in my skin my flesh has rotted away” (רָקַב, raqav). This involves several changes in the line, however. He then changes the second line to read “and I have gnawed my bone with my teeth” (transferring “bone” from the first half and omitting “skin”). There are numerous other renderings of this; some of the more notable are: “I escape, my bones in my teeth” (Merx); “my teeth fall out” (Duhm); “my teeth fall from my gums” (Pope); “my bones protrude in sharp points” (Kissane). A. B. Davidson retains “the skin of my teeth,” meaning “gums. This is about the last thing that Job has, or he would not be able to speak. For a detailed study of this verse, D. J. A. Clines devotes two full pages of textual notes (Job [WBC], 430-31). He concludes with “My bones hang from my skin and my flesh, I am left with only the skin of my teeth.”
[19:20] 11 tn The word “alive” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
[38:5] 12 sn The reference to wounds may be an extension of the metaphorical language of v. 2. The psalmist pictures himself as one whose flesh is ripped and torn by arrows.
[38:5] 13 tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).
[38:5] 14 tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”
[1:5] 15 sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).
[1:5] 16 tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”
[1:5] 17 tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”
[1:5] 18 tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).
[1:6] 19 tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”
[1:6] 20 tn Heb “pressed out.”
[1:6] 21 tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”
[1:6] 22 sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.
