Job 27:7

The Condition of the Wicked

27:7 “May my enemy be like the wicked, ¹ 

my adversary ²  like the unrighteous. ³ 

Job 29:17

29:17 I broke the fangs ⁴  of the wicked,

and made him drop ⁵  his prey from his teeth.

Job 31:3

31:3 Is it not misfortune for the unjust,

and disaster for those who work iniquity?

Job 18:21

18:21 ‘Surely such is the residence ⁶  of an evil man;

and this is the place of one who has not known God.’” ⁷ 

[27:7]  ¹ sn Of course, he means like his enemy when he is judged, not when he is thriving in prosperity and luxury.

[27:7]  ² tn The form is the Hitpolel participle from קוּם (qum): “those who are rising up against me,” or “my adversary.”

[27:7]  ³ tc The LXX made a free paraphrase: “No, but let my enemies be as the overthrow of the ungodly, and they that rise up against me as the destruction of transgressors.”

[29:17]  ⁴ tn The word rendered “fangs” actually means “teeth,” i.e., the molars probably; it is used frequently of the teeth of wild beasts. Of course, the language is here figurative, comparing the oppressing enemy to a preying animal.

[29:17]  ⁵ tn “I made [him] drop.” The verb means “to throw; to cast,” throw in the sense of “to throw away.” But in the context with the figure of the beast with prey in its mouth, “drop” or “cast away” is the idea. Driver finds another cognate meaning “rescue” (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).

[18:21]  ⁷ tn The term is in the plural, “the tabernacles”; it should be taken as a plural of local extension (see GKC 397 §124.b).

[18:21]  ⁸ tn The word “place” is in construct; the clause following it replaces the genitive: “this is the place of – he has not known God.”