Job 29:6

29:6 when my steps ¹  were bathed ²  with butter ³ 

and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil! ⁴ 

Psalms 81:16

81:16 “I would feed Israel the best wheat, ⁵ 

and would satisfy your appetite ⁶  with honey from the rocky cliffs.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 48:21

48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;

he makes water flow out of a rock for them;

he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ ⁸ 

Ezekiel 21:17

21:17 I too will clap my hands together,

I will exhaust my rage;

I the Lord have spoken.”

[29:6]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Again, as in Job 21:17, “curds.”

[29:6]  ⁴ 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).

[81:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he fed him from the best of the wheat.” The Hebrew text has a third person form of the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive attached. However, it is preferable, in light of the use of the first person in v. 14 and in the next line, to emend the verb to a first person form and understand the vav as conjunctive, continuing the apodosis of the conditional sentence of vv. 13-14. The third masculine singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in v. 6.

[81:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “you.” The second person singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in vv. 7-10.

[81:16]  ⁷ sn The language in this verse, particularly the references to wheat and honey, is reminiscent of Deut 32:13-14.

[48:21]  ⁸ sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).