Job 3:19

3:19 Small and great are ¹  there,

and the slave is free ²  from his master. ³ 

Job 4:18

4:18 If ⁴  God ⁵  puts no trust in ⁶  his servants ⁷ 

and attributes ⁸  folly ⁹  to his angels,

Job 19:16

19:16 I summon ¹⁰  my servant, but he does not respond,

even though I implore ¹¹  him with my own mouth.

Job 31:13

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ¹²  with me,

Job 41:4

41:4 Will it make a pact ¹³  with you,

so you could take it ¹⁴  as your slave for life?

[3:19]  ¹ tn The versions have taken the pronoun in the sense of the verb “to be.” Others give it the sense of “the same thing,” rendering the verse as “small and great, there is no difference there.” GKC 437 §135.a, n. 1, follows this idea with a meaning of “the same.”

[3:19]  ² tn The LXX renders this as “unafraid,” although the negative has disappeared in some mss to give the reading “and the servant that feared his master.” See I. Mendelsohn, “The Canaanite Term for ‘Free Proletarian’,” BASOR 83 (1941): 36-39; idem, “New Light on hupsu,” BASOR 139 (1955): 9-11.

[3:19]  ³ tn The plural “masters” could be taken here as a plural of majesty rather than as referring to numerous masters.

[4:18]  ⁴ tn The particle הֵן (hen) introduces a conditional clause here, although the older translations used “behold.” The clause forms the foundation for the point made in the next verse, an argument by analogy – if this be true, then how much more/less the other.

[4:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ⁶ tn The verb יַאֲמִין (ya’amin), a Hiphil imperfect from אָמַן (’aman) followed by the preposition בּ (bet), means “trust in.”

[4:18]  ⁷ sn The servants here must be angels in view of the parallelism. The Targum to Job interpreted them to be the prophets. In the book we have already read about the “sons of God” who take their stand as servants before the Lord (1:6; 2:1). And Ps 104:4 identifies the angels as servants (using שָׁרַת, sharat).

[4:18]  ⁸ tn The verb שִׂים (sim, “set”) with the preposition בּ (bet) has the sense of “impute” or “attribute something to someone.”

[4:18]  ⁹ tn The word תָּהֳלָה (toholah) is a hapax legomenon, and so has created some confusion in the various translations. It seems to mean “error; folly.” The word is translated “perverseness” in the LXX; but Symmachus connects it with the word for “madness.” “Some commentators have repointed the word to תְּהִלָּה (tÿhillah, “praise”) making the line read: “he finds no [cause for] praise in his angels.” Others suggest תִּפְלָה (tiflah, “offensiveness, silliness”) a bigger change; this matches the idiom in Job 24:12. But if the etymology of the word is הָלַל (halal, “to be mad”) then that change is not necessary. The feminine noun “madness” still leaves the meaning of the line a little uncertain: “[if] he does not impute madness to his angels.” The point of the verse is that God finds flaws in his angels and does not put his trust in them.

[19:16]  ⁷ tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the ל (lamed) preposition means “to summon.” Contrast Ps 123:2.

[19:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “plead for grace” or “plead for mercy” (ESV).

[31:13]  ¹⁰ tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[41:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”

[41:4]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verb serves to express what the covenant pact would cover, namely, “that you take.”