Job 28:2

28:2 Iron is taken from the ground, ¹ 

and rock is poured out ²  as copper.

Job 29:6

29:6 when my steps ³  were bathed ⁴  with butter ⁵ 

and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil! ⁶ 

Job 41:23-24

41:23 The folds ⁷  of its flesh are tightly joined;

they are firm on it, immovable. ⁸ 

41:24 Its heart ⁹  is hard as rock,

hard as a lower millstone.

[28:2]  ¹ tn Heb “from dust.”

[28:2]  ² tn The verb יָצוּק (yatsuq) is usually translated as a passive participle “is smelted” (from יָצַק [yatsaq, “to melt”]): “copper is smelted from the ore” (ESV) or “from the stone, copper is poured out” (as an imperfect from צוּק [tsuq]). But the rock becomes the metal in the process. So according to R. Gordis (Job, 304) the translation should be: “the rock is poured out as copper.” E. Dhorme (Job, 400), however, defines the form in the text as “hard,” and simply has it “hard stone becomes copper.”

[29:6]  ³ tn The word is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is clear enough. It refers to the walking, the steps, or even the paths where one walks. It is figurative of his course of life.

[29:6]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word means “to wash; to bathe”; here it is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, “my steps” being the genitive: “in the washing of my steps in butter.”

[29:6]  ⁵ tn Again, as in Job 21:17, “curds.”

[29:6]  ⁶ tn The MT reads literally, “and the rock was poured out [passive participle] for me as streams of oil.” There are some who delete the word “rock” to shorten the line because it seems out of place. But olive trees thrive in rocky soil, and the oil presses are cut into the rock; it is possible that by metonymy all this is intended here (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 186).

[41:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “fallings.”

[41:23]  ⁶ tn The last clause says “it cannot be moved.” But this part will function adverbially in the sentence.

[41:24]  ⁷ tn The description of his heart being “hard” means that he is cruel and fearless. The word for “hard” is the word encountered before for molten or cast metal.