Job 3:18

3:18 There ¹  the prisoners ²  relax ³  together; ⁴ 

they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. ⁵ 

Job 4:10

4:10 There is ⁶  the roaring of the lion ⁷ 

and the growling ⁸  of the young lion,

but the teeth of the young lions are broken. ⁹ 

Job 9:16

9:16 If I summoned him, and he answered me, ¹⁰ 

I would not believe ¹¹ 

that he would be listening to my voice –

Job 34:16

God Is Impartial and Omniscient

34:16 “If you have ¹²  understanding, listen to this,

hear what I have to say. ¹³ 

Job 37:2

37:2 Listen carefully ¹⁴  to the thunder of his voice,

to the rumbling ¹⁵  that proceeds from his mouth.

Job 37:5

37:5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; ¹⁶ 

he does great things beyond our understanding. ¹⁷ 

Job 38:25

38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,

and a path for the rumble of thunder,

Job 40:9

40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, ¹⁸ 

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

[3:18]  ¹ tn “There” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from the context.

[3:18]  ² tn The LXX omits the verb and translates the noun not as prisoners but as “old men” or “men of old time.”

[3:18]  ³ tn The verb שַׁאֲנָנוּ (sha’ananu) is the Pilpel of שָׁאַן (sha’an) which means “to rest.” It refers to the normal rest or refreshment of individuals; here it is contrasted with the harsh treatment normally put on prisoners.

[3:18]  ⁴ sn See further J. C. de Moor, “Lexical Remarks Concerning yahad and yahdaw,” VT 7 (1957): 350-55.

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Or “taskmaster.” The same Hebrew word is used for the taskmasters in Exod 3:7.

[4:10]  ⁶ tn “There is” has been supplied to make a smoother translation out of the clauses.

[4:10]  ⁷ sn Eliphaz takes up a new image here to make the point that the wicked are destroyed – the breaking up and scattering of a den of lions. There are several words for “lion” used in this section. D. J. A. Clines observes that it is probably impossible to distinguish them (Job [WBC], 109, 110, which records some bibliography of those who have tried to work on the etymologies and meanings). The first is אַרְיֵה (’aryeh) the generic term for “lion.” It is followed by שַׁחַל (shakhal) which, like כְּפִיר (kÿfir), is a “young lion.” Some have thought that the שַׁחַל (shakhal) is a lion-like animal, perhaps a panther or leopard. KBL takes it by metathesis from Arabic “young one.” The LXX for this verse has “the strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.”

[4:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “voice.”

[4:10]  ⁹ tn The verb belongs to the subject “teeth” in this last colon; but it is used by zeugma (a figure of speech in which one word is made to refer to two or more other words, but has to be understood differently in the different contexts) of the three subjects (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 46-47).

[9:16]  ¹¹ sn The idea of “answer” in this line is that of responding to the summons, i.e., appearing in court. This preterite and the perfect before it have the nuance of hypothetical perfects since they are in conditional clauses (GKC 330 §111.x). D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 219) translates literally, “If I should call and he should answer.”

[9:16]  ¹² tn The Hiphil imperfect in the apodosis of this conditional sentence expresses what would (not) happen if God answered the summons.

[34:16]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “you have” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[34:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the sound of my words.”

[37:2]  ²¹ tn The imperative is followed by the infinitive absolute from the same root to express the intensity of the verb.

[37:2]  ²² tn The word is the usual word for “to meditate; to murmur; to groan”; here it refers to the low building of the thunder as it rumbles in the sky. The thunder is the voice of God (see Ps 29).

[37:5]  ²⁶ tn The form is the Niphal participle, “wonders,” from the verb פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary”). Some commentators suppress the repeated verb “thunders,” and supply other verbs like “shows” or “works,” enabling them to make “wonders” the object of the verb rather than leaving it in an adverbial role. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 236) notes, no change is needed, for one is not surprised to find repetition in Elihu’s words.

[37:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and we do not know.”

[40:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.