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
Job 19:8
Context19:8 He has blocked 5 my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness 6 over my paths.
Lamentations 3:7-9
Contextג (Gimel)
3:7 He has walled me in 7 so that I cannot get out;
he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. 8
3:8 Also, when I cry out desperately 9 for help, 10
he has shut out my prayer. 11
3:9 He has blocked 12 every road I take 13 with a wall of hewn stones;
he has made every path impassable. 14
Luke 15:14-16
Context15:14 Then 15 after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. 15:15 So he went and worked for 16 one of the citizens of that country, who 17 sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 18 15:16 He 19 was longing to eat 20 the carob pods 21 the pigs were eating, but 22 no one gave him anything.
Luke 19:43
Context19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build 23 an embankment 24 against you and surround you and close in on you from every side.
[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).
[19:8] 5 tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) means “to wall up; to fence up; to block.” God has blocked Job’s way so that he cannot get through. See the note on 3:23. Cf. Lam 3:7.
[19:8] 6 tn Some commentators take the word to be חָשַׁךְ (hasak), related to an Arabic word for “thorn hedge.”
[3:7] 7 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] 8 tn Heb “he has made heavy my chains.”
[3:8] 9 tn Heb “I call and I cry out.” The verbs אֶזְעַק וַאֲשַׁוֵּעַ (’ez’aq va’asha’vvea’, “I call and I cry out”) form a verbal hendiadys: the second retains its full verbal sense, while the first functions adverbially: “I cry out desperately.”
[3:8] 10 tn The verb שׁוע (“to cry out”) usually refers to calling out to God for help or deliverance from a lamentable plight (e.g., Job 30:20; 36:13; 38:41; Pss 5:3; 18:7, 42; 22:25; 28:2; 30:3; 31:23; 88:14; 119:147; Isa 58:9; Lam 3:8; Jon 2:3; Hab 1:2).
[3:8] 11 tn The verb שָׂתַם (satam) is a hapax legomenon (term that appears in the Hebrew scriptures only once) that means “to stop up” or “shut out.” It functions as an idiom here, meaning “he has shut his ears to my prayer” (BDB 979 s.v.).
[3:9] 12 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] 14 tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.
[15:14] 15 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the sequence of events in the parable. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.
[15:15] 16 tn Grk “joined himself to” (in this case an idiom for beginning to work for someone).
[15:15] 17 tn Grk “and he.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) and the personal pronoun have been translated by a relative pronoun to improve the English style.
[15:15] 18 sn To a Jew, being sent to the field to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were considered unclean animals (Lev 11:7).
[15:16] 19 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[15:16] 20 tn Or “would gladly have eaten”; Grk “was longing to be filled with.”
[15:16] 21 tn This term refers to the edible pods from a carob tree (BDAG 540 s.v. κεράτιον). They were bean-like in nature and were commonly used for fattening pigs, although they were also used for food by poor people (L&N 3.46).
[15:16] 22 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
[19:43] 23 sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in
[19:43] 24 sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.
