Job 24:11

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; ¹ 

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. ² 

Job 30:7

30:7 They brayed ³  like animals among the bushes

and were huddled together ⁴  under the nettles.

Job 9:33

9:33 Nor is there an arbiter ⁵  between us,

who ⁶  might lay ⁷  his hand on us both, ⁸ 

Job 34:4

34:4 Let us evaluate ⁹  for ourselves what is right; ¹⁰ 

let us come to know among ourselves what is good.

Job 41:6

41:6 Will partners ¹¹  bargain ¹²  for it?

Will they divide it up ¹³  among the merchants?

Job 41:16

41:16 each one is so close to the next ¹⁴ 

that no air can come between them.

Job 34:37

34:37 For he adds transgression ¹⁵  to his sin;

in our midst he claps his hands, ¹⁶ 

and multiplies his words against God.”

[24:11]  ¹ tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.

[24:11]  ² tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.

[30:7]  ³ tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.

[30:7]  ⁴ tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people – “they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).

[9:33]  ⁵ tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).

[9:33]  ⁶ tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.

[9:33]  ⁷ tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).

[9:33]  ⁸ sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.

[34:4]  ⁷ sn Elihu means “choose after careful examination.”

[34:4]  ⁸ tn The word is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) again, with the sense of what is right or just.

[41:6]  ⁹ tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore – which involves bargaining.

[41:6]  ¹⁰ tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”

[41:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb means “to cut up; to divide up” in the sense of selling the dead body (see Exod 21:35). This will be between them and the merchants (כְּנַעֲנִים, kÿna’anim).

[41:16]  ¹¹ tn The expression “each one…to the next” is literally “one with one.”

[34:37]  ¹³ tn Although frequently translated “rebellion,” the basic meaning of this Hebrew term is “transgression.”

[34:37]  ¹⁴ tc If this reading stands, it would mean that Job shows contempt, meaning that he mocks them and accuses God. It is a bold touch, but workable. Of the many suggested emendations, Dhorme alters some of the vowels and obtains a reading “and casts doubt among us,” and then takes “transgression” from the first colon for the complement. Some commentators simply delete the line.