Job 20:26

20:26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; ¹ 

a fire which has not been kindled ² 

will consume him

and devour what is left in his tent.

Job 31:12

31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, ³ 

and it would uproot ⁴  all my harvest.

[20:26]  ¹ tn Heb “all darkness is hidden for his laid up things.” “All darkness” refers to the misfortunes and afflictions that await. The verb “hidden” means “is destined for.”

[20:26]  ² tn Heb “not blown upon,” i.e., not kindled by man. But G. R. Driver reads “unquenched” (“Hebrew notes on the ‘Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach’,” JBL 53 [1934]: 289).

[31:12]  ³ tn Heb “to Abaddon.”

[31:12]  ⁴ tn The verb means “to root out,” but this does not fit the parallelism with fire. Wright changed two letters and the vowels in the verb to get the root צָרַף (tsaraf, “to burn”). The NRSV has “burn to the root.”