Job 3:14

3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth

who built for themselves places now desolate, ¹ 

Job 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ²  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ³ 

Job 10:21

10:21 before I depart, never to return, ⁴ 

to the land of darkness

and the deepest shadow, ⁵ 

Job 12:15

12:15 If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; ⁶ 

if he releases them, ⁷  they destroy ⁸  the land.

Job 16:18

An Appeal to God as Witness

16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, ⁹ 

nor let there be a secret ¹⁰  place for my cry.

Job 24:4

24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,

and the poor of the land hide themselves together. ¹¹ 

Job 28:5

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire; ¹² 

Job 38:4

God’s questions to Job

38:4 “Where were you

when I laid the foundation ¹³  of the earth?

Tell me, ¹⁴  if you possess understanding!

Job 38:18

38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know it all!

[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.

[7:1]  ² tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ³ tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[10:21]  ³ sn The verbs are simple, “I go” and “I return”; but Job clearly means before he dies. A translation of “depart” comes closer to communicating this. The second verb may be given a potential imperfect translation to capture the point. The NIV offered more of an interpretive paraphrase: “before I go to the place of no return.”

[10:21]  ⁴ tn See Job 3:5.

[12:15]  ⁴ tc The LXX has a clarification: “he will dry the earth.”

[12:15]  ⁵ sn The verse is focusing on the two extremes of drought and flood. Both are described as being under the power of God.

[12:15]  ⁶ tn The verb הָפַךְ (hafakh) means “to overthrow; to destroy; to overwhelm.” It was used in Job 9:5 for “overturning” mountains. The word is used in Genesis for the destruction of Sodom.

[16:18]  ⁵ sn Job knows that he will die, and that his death, signified here by blood on the ground, will cry out for vindication.

[16:18]  ⁶ tn The word is simply “a place,” but in the context it surely means a hidden place, a secret place that would never be discovered (see 18:21).

[24:4]  ⁶ sn Because of the violence and oppression of the wicked, the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, all are deprived of their rights and forced out of the ways and into hiding just to survive.

[28:5]  ⁷ sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.

[38:4]  ⁸ tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.

[38:4]  ⁹ tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.