Job 3:14

3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth

who built for themselves places now desolate, ¹ 

Job 18:15

18:15 Fire resides in his tent; ² 

over his residence burning sulfur is scattered.

Isaiah 5:8-10

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ³ 

those who also accumulate landed property ⁴ 

until there is no land left, ⁵ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁶ 

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁷ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ⁸ 

5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard ⁹  will produce just a few gallons, ¹⁰ 

and enough seed to yield several bushels ¹¹  will produce less than a bushel.” ¹² 

Micah 7:18

7:18 There is no other God like you! ¹³ 

You ¹⁴  forgive sin

and pardon ¹⁵  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ¹⁶ 

You do not remain angry forever, ¹⁷ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

[3:14]  ¹ tn The difficult term חֳרָבוֹת (khoravot) is translated “desolate [places]”. The LXX confused the word and translated it “who gloried in their swords.” One would expect a word for monuments, or tombs (T. K. Cheyne emended it to “everlasting tombs” [“More Critical Gleanings in Job,” ExpTim 10 (1898/99): 380-83]). But this difficult word is of uncertain etymology and therefore cannot simply be made to mean “royal tombs.” The verb means “be desolate, solitary.” In Isa 48:21 there is the clear sense of a desert. That is the meaning of Assyrian huribtu. It may be that like the pyramids of Egypt these tombs would have been built in the desert regions. Or it may describe how they rebuilt ruins for themselves. He would be saying then that instead of lying here in pain and shame if he had died he would be with the great ones of the earth. Otherwise, the word could be interpreted as a metonymy of effect, indicating that the once glorious tomb now is desolate. But this does not fit the context – the verse is talking about the state of the great ones after their death.

[18:15]  ² tn This line is difficult as well. The verb, again a third feminine form, says “it dwells in his tent.” But the next part (מִבְּלִי לוֹ, mibbÿli lo) means something like “things of what are not his.” The best that can be made of the MT is “There shall live in his tent they that are not his” (referring to persons and animals; see J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 279). G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:161) refer “that which is naught of his” to weeds and wild animals. M. Dahood suggested a reading מַבֶּל (mabbel) and a connection to Akkadian nablu, “fire” (cf. Ugaritic nbl). The interchange of m and n is not a problem, and the parallelism with the next line makes good sense (“Some Northwest Semitic words in Job,” Bib 38 [1957]: 312ff.). Others suggest an emendation to get “night-hag” or vampire. This suggestion, as well as Driver’s “mixed herbs,” are linked to the idea of exorcism. But if a change is to be made, Dahood’s is the most compelling.

[5:8]  ³ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[5:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[5:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.

[5:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.

[5:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”

[5:10]  ¹² tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.

[7:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”