Job 27:20

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ¹ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

Job 4:12

Ungodly Complainers Provoke God’s Wrath

4:12 “Now a word was secretly ²  brought ³  to me,

and my ear caught ⁴  a whisper ⁵  of it.

Job 21:18

21:18 How often ⁶  are they like straw before the wind,

and like chaff swept away ⁷  by a whirlwind?

[27:20]  ¹ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[4:12]  ² tn The LXX of this verse offers special problems. It reads, “But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have fallen upon you; shall not my ear receive excellent [information] from him?” The major error involves a dittography from the word for “secret,” yielding “truth.”

[4:12]  ³ tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal.” The Pual form in this verse is probably to be taken as a preterite since it requires a past tense translation: “it was stolen for me” meaning it was brought to me stealthily (see 2 Sam 19:3).

[4:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “received.”

[4:12]  ⁵ tn The word שֵׁמֶץ (shemets, “whisper”) is found only here and in Job 26:14. A cognate form שִׁמְצָה (shimtsah) is found in Exod 32:25 with the sense of “a whisper.” In postbiblical Hebrew the word comes to mean “a little.” The point is that Eliphaz caught just a bit, just a whisper of it, and will recount it to Job.

[21:18]  ³ tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.

[21:18]  ⁴ tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.