Job 29:17

29:17 I broke the fangs ¹  of the wicked,

and made him drop ²  his prey from his teeth.

Job 38:39

38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,

and satisfy the appetite ³  of the lions,

Job 4:11

4:11 The mighty lion ⁴  perishes ⁵  for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness ⁶  are scattered.

Job 24:5

24:5 Like ⁷  wild donkeys in the desert

they ⁸  go out to their labor, ⁹ 

seeking diligently for food;

the wasteland provides ¹⁰  food for them

and for their children.

[29:17]  ¹ 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]  ² 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).

[38:39]  ³ tn Heb “fill up the life of.”

[4:11]  ⁵ tn The word לַיִשׁ (layish) traditionally rendered “strong lion,” occurs only here and in Prov 30:30 and Isa 30:6. It has cognates in several of the Semitic languages, and so seems to indicate lion as king of the beasts.

[4:11]  ⁶ tn The form of the verb is the Qal active participle; it stresses the characteristic action of the verb as if a standard universal truth.

[4:11]  ⁷ tn The text literally has “sons of the lioness.”

[24:5]  ⁷ tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen); but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.

[24:5]  ⁸ tn That is, “the poor.”

[24:5]  ⁹ tc The MT has “in the working/labor of them,” or “when they labor.” Some commentators simply omit these words. Dhorme retains them and moves them to go with עֲרָבָה (’aravah), which he takes to mean “evening”; this gives a clause, “although they work until the evening.” Then, with many others, he takes לוֹ (lo) to be a negative and finishes the verse with “no food for the children.” Others make fewer changes in the text, and as a result do not come out with such a hopeless picture – there is some food found. The point is that they spend their time foraging for food, and they find just enough to survive, but it is a day-long activity. For Job, this shows how unrighteous the administration of the world actually is.

[24:5]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is not included in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation.