Job 26:5

A Better Description of God’s Greatness ¹ 

26:5 “The dead ²  tremble ³  –

those beneath the waters

and all that live in them. ⁴ 

Job 38:30

38:30 when the waters become hard ⁵  like stone,

when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?

Job 38:34

38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you? ⁶ 

Job 8:11

8:11 Can the papyrus plant grow tall ⁷  where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish ⁸  without water?

Job 14:9

14:9 at the scent ⁹  of water it will flourish ¹⁰ 

and put forth ¹¹  shoots like a new plant.

Job 14:11

14:11 As ¹²  water disappears from the sea, ¹³ 

or a river drains away and dries up,

Job 22:7

22:7 You gave the weary ¹⁴  no water to drink

and from the hungry you withheld food.

Job 22:11

22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, ¹⁵ 

and why a flood ¹⁶  of water covers you.

Job 26:8

26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,

and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

Job 29:19

29:19 My roots reach the water,

and the dew lies on my branches all night long.

Job 36:27

36:27 He draws up drops of water;

they distill ¹⁷  the rain into its mist, ¹⁸ 

Job 37:10

37:10 The breath of God produces ice,

and the breadth of the waters freeze solid.

Job 5:10

5:10 he gives ¹⁹  rain on the earth, ²⁰ 

and sends ²¹  water on the fields; ²² 

Job 14:19

14:19 as water wears away stones,

and torrents ²³  wash away the soil, ²⁴ 

so you destroy man’s hope. ²⁵ 

Job 24:18

24:18 ²⁶ “You say, ²⁷  ‘He is foam ²⁸  on the face of the waters; ²⁹ 

their portion of the land is cursed

so that no one goes to their vineyard. ³⁰ 

Job 26:10

26:10 He marks out the horizon ³¹  on the surface of the waters

as a boundary between light and darkness.

[26:5]  ¹ sn This is the section, Job 26:5-14, that many conclude makes better sense coming from the friend. But if it is attributed to Job, then he is showing he can surpass them in his treatise of the greatness of God.

[26:5]  ² tn The text has הָרְפָאִים (harÿfa’im, “the shades”), referring to the “dead,” or the elite among the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14; Ps 88:10 [11]). For further discussion, start with A. R. Johnson, The Vitality of the Individual, 88ff.

[26:5]  ³ tn The verb is a Polal from חִיל (khil) which means “to tremble.” It shows that even these spirits cannot escape the terror.

[26:5]  ⁴ tc Most commentators wish to lengthen the verse and make it more parallel, but nothing is gained by doing this.

[38:30]  ⁵ tn Several suggest that the verb is not from חָבָא (khava’, “to hide”) but from a homonym, “to congeal.” This may be too difficult to support, however.

[38:34]  ⁹ tc The LXX has “answer you,” and some editors have adopted this. However, the reading of the MT makes better sense in the verse.

[8:11]  ¹³ sn H. H. Rowley observes the use of the words for plants that grow in Egypt and suspects that Bildad either knew Egypt or knew that much wisdom came from Egypt. The first word refers to papyrus, which grows to a height of six feet (so the verb means “to grow tall; to grow high”). The second word refers to the reed grass that grows on the banks of the river (see Gen 41:2, 18).

[8:11]  ¹⁴ tn The two verbs, גָּאָה (ga’ah) and שָׂגָה (sagah), have almost the same meanings of “flourish, grow, become tall.”

[14:9]  ¹⁷ tn The personification adds to the comparison with people – the tree is credited with the sense of smell to detect the water.

[14:9]  ¹⁸ tn The sense of “flourish” for this verb is found in Ps 92:12,13[13,14], and Prov 14:11. It makes an appropriate parallel with “bring forth boughs” in the second half.

[14:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and will make.”

[14:11]  ²¹ tn The comparative clause may be signaled simply by the context, especially when facts of a moral nature are compared with the physical world (see GKC 499 §161.a).

[14:11]  ²² tn The Hebrew word יָם (yam) can mean “sea” or “lake.”

[22:7]  ²⁵ tn The term עָיֵף (’ayef) can be translated “weary,” “faint,” “exhausted,” or “tired.” Here it may refer to the fainting because of thirst – that would make a good parallel to the second part.

[22:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.

[22:11]  ³⁰ tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.

[36:27]  ³³ tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”

[36:27]  ³⁴ tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.

[5:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “who gives.” The participle continues the doxology here. But the article is necessary because of the distance between this verse and the reference to God.

[5:10]  ³⁸ tn In both halves of the verse the literal rendering would be “upon the face of the earth” and “upon the face of the fields.”

[5:10]  ³⁹ tn The second participle is simply coordinated to the first and therefore does not need the definite article repeated (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[5:10]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew term חוּצוֹת (khutsot) basically means “outside,” or what is outside. It could refer to streets if what is meant is outside the house; but it refers to fields here (parallel to the more general word) because it is outside the village. See Ps 144:13 for the use of the expression for “countryside.” The LXX gives a much wider interpretation: “what is under heaven.”

[14:19]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.

[14:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”

[14:19]  ⁴³ sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.

[24:18]  ⁴⁵ tc Many commentators find vv. 18-24 difficult on the lips of Job, and so identify this unit as a misplaced part of the speech of Zophar. They describe the enormities of the wicked. But a case can also be made for retaining it in this section. Gordis thinks it could be taken as a quotation by Job of his friends’ ideas.

[24:18]  ⁴⁶ tn The verb “say” is not in the text; it is supplied here to indicate that this is a different section.

[24:18]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “is swift.”

[24:18]  ⁴⁸ sn The wicked person is described here as a spray or foam upon the waters, built up in the agitation of the waters but dying away swiftly.

[24:18]  ⁴⁹ tn The text reads, “he does not turn by the way of the vineyards.” This means that since the land is cursed, he/one does not go there. Bickell emended “the way of the vineyards” to “the treader of the vineyard” (see RSV, NRSV). This would mean that “no wine-presser would turn towards” their vineyards.

[26:10]  ⁴⁹ tn The expression חֹק־חָג (khoq-khag) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג (khaq-khug, “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג (khug, “describe a circle”) respectively.