Job 27:15

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ¹ 

and their ²  widows do not mourn for them.

Job 28:11

28:11 He has searched ³  the sources ⁴  of the rivers

and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

Job 31:18

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan ⁵  like a father,

and from my mother’s womb ⁶ 

I guided the widow! ⁷ 

[27:15]  ¹ tn The text says “will be buried in/by death.” A number of passages in the Bible use “death” to mean the plague that kills (see Jer 15:2; Isa 28:3; and BDB 89 s.v. בְּ 2.a). In this sense it is like the English expression for the plague, “the Black Death.”

[27:15]  ² tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.

[28:11]  ³ tc The translation “searched” follows the LXX and Vulgate; the MT reads “binds up” or “dams up.” This latter translation might refer to the damming of water that might seep into a mine (HALOT 289 s.v. חבשׁ; cf. ESV, NJPS, NASB, REB, NLT).

[28:11]  ⁴ tc The older translations had “he binds the streams from weeping,” i.e., from trickling (מִבְּכִי, mibbÿkhi). But the Ugaritic parallel has changed the understanding, reading “toward the spring of the rivers” (`m mbk nhrm). Earlier than that discovery, the versions had taken the word as a noun as well. Some commentators had suggested repointing the Hebrew. Some chose מַבְּכֵי (mabbÿkhe, “sources”). Now there is much Ugaritic support for the reading (see G. M. Landes, BASOR 144 [1956]: 32f.; and H. L. Ginsberg, “The Ugaritic texts and textual criticism,” JBL 62 [1943]: 111).

[31:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.

[31:18]  ⁶ tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”

[31:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.