Discovery BoxJob 3:23
Context3:23 Why is light given 1 to a man 2
whose way is hidden, 3
and whom God has hedged in? 4
Psalms 88:8
Context88:8 You cause those who know me to keep their distance;
you make me an appalling sight to them.
I am trapped and cannot get free. 5
Lamentations 3:7
Contextג (Gimel)
3:7 He has walled me in 6 so that I cannot get out;
he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. 7
Lamentations 3:9
Context3:9 He has blocked 8 every road I take 9 with a wall of hewn stones;
he has made every path impassable. 10
Hosea 2:6
Context2:6 Therefore, I will soon 11 fence her in 12 with thorns;
I will wall her in 13 so that 14 she cannot find her way. 15
[3:23] 1 tn This first part of the verse, “Why is light given,” is supplied from the context. In the Hebrew text the verse simply begins with “to a man….” It is also in apposition to the construction in v. 20. But after so many qualifying clauses and phrases, a restatement of the subject (light, from v. 20) is required.
[3:23] 2 sn After speaking of people in general (in the plural in vv. 21 and 22), Job returns to himself specifically (in the singular, using the same word גֶּבֶר [gever, “a man”] that he employed of himself in v. 3). He is the man whose way is hidden. The clear path of his former life has been broken off, or as the next clause says, hedged in so that he is confined to a life of suffering. The statement includes the spiritual perplexities that this involves. It is like saying that God is leading him in darkness and he can no longer see where he is going.
[3:23] 3 tn The LXX translated “to a man whose way is hidden” with the vague paraphrase “death is rest to [such] a man.” The translators apparently combined the reference to “the grave” in the previous verse with “hidden”
[3:23] 4 tn The verb is the Hiphil of סָכַךְ (sakhakh,“to hedge in”). The key parallel passage is Job 19:8, which says, “He has blocked [גָּדַר, gadar] my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness over my paths.” To be hedged in is an implied metaphor, indicating that the pathway is concealed and enclosed. There is an irony in Job’s choice of words in light of Satan’s accusation in 1:10. It is heightened further when the same verb is employed by God in 38:8 (see F. I. Andersen, Job [TOTC], 109).
[88:8] 5 tn Heb “[I am] confined and I cannot go out.”
[3:7] 6 tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The imagery depicts the
[3:7] 7 tn Heb “he has made heavy my chains.”
[3:9] 8 tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The collocated terms דְּרָכַי (dÿrakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.
[3:9] 10 tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.
[2:6] 11 tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hinni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).
[2:6] 12 tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; NIV “block her path.”
[2:6] 13 tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vÿgadarti ’et-gÿderah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The 3rd person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means “I will build a wall to bar her way.” Cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in.”
[2:6] 14 tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause which can be understood as either purpose or result.
