Job 22:5

22:5 Is not your wickedness great ¹ 

and is there no end to your iniquity?

Job 31:34

31:34 because I was terrified ²  of the great multitude, ³ 

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so that I remained silent

and would not go outdoors – ⁴ 

Job 1:3

1:3 His possessions ⁵  included ⁶  7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys; in addition he had a very great household. ⁷  Thus he ⁸  was the greatest of all the people in the east. ⁹ 

[22:5]  ¹ tn The adjective רַבָּה (rabbah) normally has the idea of “great” in quantity (“abundant,” ESV) rather than “great” in quality.

[31:34]  ² tn Here too the verb will be the customary imperfect – it explains what he continually did in past time.

[31:34]  ³ tn Heb “the great multitude.” But some commentators take רַבָּה (rabbah) adverbially: “greatly” (see RSV).

[31:34]  ⁴ sn There is no clear apodosis for all these clauses. Some commentators transfer the verses around to make them fit the constructions. But the better view is that there is no apodosis – that Job broke off here, feeling it was useless to go further. Now he will address God and not men. But in vv. 38-40b he does return to a self-imprecation. However, there is not sufficient reason to start rearranging all the verses.

[1:3]  ³ tn The word means “cattle, livestock, possessions” (see also Gen 26:14). Here it includes the livestock, but also the entire substance of his household.

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Or “amounted to,” “totaled.” The preterite of הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) is sometimes employed to introduce a total amount or an inventory (see Exod 1:5; Num 3:43).

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The word עֲבֻדָּה (’avuddah, “service of household servants”) indicates that he had a very large body of servants, meaning a very large household.

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and that man.”

[1:3]  ⁷ tn The expression is literally “sons of the east.” The use of the genitive after “sons” in this construction may emphasize their nature (like “sons of belial”); it would refer to them as easterners (like “sons of the south” in contemporary American English). BDB 869 s.v. קֶדֶם says “dwellers in the east.”