Job 21:12

21:12 They sing ¹  to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,

and make merry to the sound of the flute.

Job 22:19

22:19 The righteous see their destruction ²  and rejoice;

the innocent mock them scornfully, ³  saying,

Job 3:22

3:22 who rejoice ⁴  even to jubilation, ⁵ 

and are exultant ⁶  when ⁷  they find the grave? ⁸ 

Job 31:29

31:29 If ⁹  I have rejoiced over the misfortune of my enemy ¹⁰ 

or exulted ¹¹  because calamity ¹²  found him –

Job 31:25

31:25 if I have rejoiced because of the extent of my wealth,

or because of the great wealth my hand had gained,

[21:12]  ¹ tn The verb is simply “they take up [or lift up],” but the understood object is “their voices,” and so it means “they sing.”

[22:19]  ² tn The line is talking about the rejoicing of the righteous when judgment falls on the wicked. An object (“destruction”) has to be supplied here to clarify this (see Pss 52:6 [8]; 69:32 [33]; 107:42).

[22:19]  ³ sn In Ps 2:4 it was God who mocked the wicked by judging them.

[3:22]  ³ tn Here too the form is the participle in apposition “to him who is in misery” in v. 20. It continues the description of those who are destitute and would be delighted to die.

[3:22]  ⁴ tn The Syriac has “and gather themselves together,” possibly reading גִּיל (gil, “rejoicing”) as גַּל (gal, “heap”). Some have tried to emend the text to make the word mean “heap” or “mound,” as in a funerary mound. While one could argue for a heap of stones as a funerary mound, the passage has already spoken of digging a grave, which would be quite different. And while such a change would make a neater parallelism in the verse, there is no reason to force such; the idea of “jubilation” fits the tenor of the whole verse easily enough and there is no reason to change it. A similar expression is found in Hos 9:1, which says, “rejoice not, O Israel, with jubilation.” Here the idea then is that these sufferers would rejoice “to the point of jubilation” at death.

[3:22]  ⁵ tn This sentence also parallels an imperfect verb with the substantival participle of the first colon. It is translated as an English present tense.

[3:22]  ⁶ tn The particle could be “when” or “because” in this verse.

[3:22]  ⁷ sn The expression “when they find a grave” means when they finally die. The verse describes the relief and rest that the sufferer will obtain when the long-awaited death is reached.

[31:29]  ⁴ tn The problem with taking this as “if,” introducing a conditional clause, is finding the apodosis, if there is one. It may be that the apodosis is understood, or summed up at the end. This is the view taken here. But R. Gordis (Job, 352) wishes to take this word as the indication of the interrogative, forming the rhetorical question to affirm he has never done this. However, in that case the parenthetical verses inserted become redundant.

[31:29]  ⁵ sn The law required people to help their enemies if they could (Exod 23:4; also Prov 20:22). But often in the difficulties that ensued, they did exult over their enemies’ misfortune (Pss 54:7; 59:10 [11], etc.). But Job lived on a level of purity that few ever reach. Duhm said, “If chapter 31 is the crown of all ethical developments of the O.T., verse 29 is the jewel in that crown.”

[31:29]  ⁶ tn The Hitpael of עוּר (’ur) has the idea of “exult.”

[31:29]  ⁷ tn The word is רָע (ra’, “evil”) in the sense of anything that harms, interrupts, or destroys life.