Job 27:21

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

Job 27:23

27:23 It claps ¹  its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place. ² 

Job 14:18

14:18 But as ³  a mountain falls away and crumbles, ⁴ 

and as a rock will be removed from its place,

[27:23]  ¹ tn If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”

[27:23]  ² tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).

[14:18]  ¹ tn The indication that this is a simile is to be obtained from the conjunction beginning 19c (see GKC 499 §161.a).

[14:18]  ² tn The word יִבּוֹל (yibbol) usually refers to a flower fading and so seems strange here. The LXX and the Syriac translate “and will fall”; most commentators accept this and repoint the preceding word to get “and will surely fall.” Duhm retains the MT and applies the image of the flower to the falling mountain. The verb is used of the earth in Isa 24:4, and so NIV, RSV, and NJPS all have the idea of “crumble away.”