Discovery BoxJob 30:1-12
Context30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger 1 than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much 2
to put with my sheep dogs. 3
30:2 Moreover, the strength of their 4 hands –
what use was it to me?
Men whose strength 5 had perished;
30:3 gaunt 6 with want and hunger,
they would gnaw 7 the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste. 8
30:4 By the brush 9 they would gather 10 herbs from the salt marshes, 11
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community 12 –
people 13 shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves 14 –
30:6 so that they had to live 15
in the dry stream beds, 16
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed 17 like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together 18 under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, 19
they were driven out of the land with whips. 20
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword 21 among them.
30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; 22
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 Because God has untied 23 my tent cord and afflicted me,
people throw off all restraint in my presence. 24
30:12 On my right the young rabble 25 rise up;
they drive me from place to place, 26
and build up siege ramps 27 against me. 28
Job 41:1-34
Context41:1 (40:25) 29 “Can you pull in 30 Leviathan with a hook,
and tie down 31 its tongue with a rope?
41:2 Can you put a cord through its nose,
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
41:3 Will it make numerous supplications to you, 32
will it speak to you with tender words? 33
41:4 Will it make a pact 34 with you,
so you could take it 35 as your slave for life?
41:5 Can you play 36 with it, like a bird,
or tie it on a leash 37 for your girls?
41:6 Will partners 38 bargain 39 for it?
Will they divide it up 40 among the merchants?
41:7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
41:8 If you lay your hand on it,
you will remember 41 the fight,
and you will never do it again!
41:9 (41:1) 42 See, his expectation is wrong, 43
he is laid low even at the sight of it. 44
41:10 Is it not fierce 45 when it is awakened?
Who is he, then, who can stand before it? 46
41:11 (Who has confronted 47 me that I should repay? 48
Everything under heaven belongs to me!) 49
41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,
and the extent of its might,
and the grace of its arrangement. 50
41:13 Who can uncover its outer covering? 51
Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor? 52
41:14 Who can open the doors of its mouth? 53
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
41:15 Its back 54 has rows of shields,
shut up closely 55 together as with a seal;
41:16 each one is so close to the next 56
that no air can come between them.
41:17 They lock tightly together, one to the next; 57
they cling together and cannot be separated.
41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the red glow 58 of dawn.
41:19 Out of its mouth go flames, 59
sparks of fire shoot forth!
41:20 Smoke streams from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning 60 rushes.
41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame shoots from its mouth.
41:22 Strength lodges in its neck,
and despair 61 runs before it.
41:23 The folds 62 of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm on it, immovable. 63
41:24 Its heart 64 is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at its thrashing about they withdraw. 65
41:26 Whoever strikes it with a sword 66
will have no effect, 67
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
41:27 It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood.
41:28 Arrows 68 do not make it flee;
slingstones become like chaff to it.
41:29 A club is counted 69 as a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
41:30 Its underparts 70 are the sharp points of potsherds,
it leaves its mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge. 71
41:31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment, 72
41:32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had a head of white hair.
41:33 The likes of it is not on earth,
a creature 73 without fear.
41:34 It looks on every haughty being;
it is king over all that are proud.” 74
Job 41:1
Context41:1 (40:25) 75 “Can you pull in 76 Leviathan with a hook,
and tie down 77 its tongue with a rope?
Colossians 1:24-25
Context1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship 78 from God – given to me for you – in order to complete 79 the word of God,
[30:1] 1 tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”
[30:1] 2 tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.
[30:1] 3 sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.
[30:2] 4 tn The reference is to the fathers of the scorners, who are here regarded as weak and worthless.
[30:2] 5 tn The word כֶּלַח (kelakh) only occurs in Job 5:26; but the Arabic cognate gives this meaning “strength.” Others suggest כָּלַח (kalakh, “old age”), ֹכּל־חַיִל (kol-khayil, “all vigor”), כֹּל־לֵחַ (kol-leakh, “all freshness”), and the like. But there is no reason for such emendation.
[30:3] 6 tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
[30:3] 7 tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).
[30:3] 8 tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”
[30:4] 9 tn Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:209) in their philological notes.
[30:4] 10 tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.
[30:4] 11 tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.
[30:5] 12 tn The word גֵּו (gev) is an Aramaic term meaning “midst,” indicating “midst [of society].” But there is also a Phoenician word that means “community” (DISO 48).
[30:5] 13 tn The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.
[30:5] 14 tn The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.
[30:6] 15 tn This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see GKC 348-49 §114.h, k).
[30:6] 16 tn The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see GKC 431 §133.h).
[30:7] 17 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.
[30:7] 18 tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people – “they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).
[30:8] 19 tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
[30:8] 20 tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”
[30:9] 21 tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”
[30:10] 22 tn Heb “they are far from me.”
[30:11] 23 tn The verb פָּתַח (patakh) means “to untie [or undo]” a rope or bonds. In this verse יִתְרוֹ (yitro, the Kethib, LXX, and Vulgate) would mean “his rope” (see יֶתֶר [yeter] in Judg 16:7-9). The Qere would be יִתְרִי (yitri, “my rope [or cord]”), meaning “me.” The word could mean “rope,” “cord,” or “bowstring.” If the reading “my cord” is accepted, the cord would be something like “my tent cord” (as in Job 29:20), more than K&D 12:147 “cord of life.” This has been followed in the present translation. If it were “my bowstring,” it would give the sense of disablement. If “his cord” is taken, it would signify that the restraint that God had in afflicting Job was loosened – nothing was held back.
[30:11] 24 sn People throw off all restraint in my presence means that when people saw how God afflicted Job, robbing him of his influence and power, then they turned on him with unrestrained insolence (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 193).
[30:12] 25 tn This Hebrew word occurs only here. The word פִּרְחַח (pirkhakh, “young rabble”) is a quadriliteral, from פָּרַח (parakh, “to bud”) The derivative אֶפְרֹחַ (’efroakh) in the Bible refers to a young bird. In Arabic farhun means both “young bird” and “base man.” Perhaps “young rabble” is the best meaning here (see R. Gordis, Job, 333).
[30:12] 26 tn Heb “they cast off my feet” or “they send my feet away.” Many delete the line as troubling and superfluous. E. Dhorme (Job, 438) forces the lines to say “they draw my feet into a net.”
[30:12] 27 tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”
[41:1] 29 sn Beginning with 41:1, the verse numbers through 41:9 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 41:1 ET = 40:25 HT, 41:2 ET = 40:26 HT, etc., through 41:34 ET = 41:26 HT. The Hebrew verse numbers in the remainder of the chapter differ from the verse numbers in the English Bible. Beginning with 42:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[41:1] 30 tn The verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh) means “to extract from the water; to fish.” The question here includes the use of a hook to fish the creature out of the water so that its jaws can be tied safely.
[41:1] 31 tn The verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’) means “to cause to sink,” if it is connected with the word in Amos 8:8 and 9:5. But it may have the sense of “to tie; to bind.” If the rope were put around the tongue and jaw, binding tightly would be the sense.
[41:3] 32 tn The line asks if the animal, when caught and tied and under control, would keep on begging for mercy. Absolutely not. It is not in the nature of the beast. The construction uses יַרְבֶּה (yarbeh, “[will] he multiply” [= “make numerous”]), with the object, “supplications” i.e., prayers for mercy.
[41:3] 33 tn The rhetorical question again affirms the opposite. The poem is portraying the creature as powerful and insensitive.
[41:4] 34 tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”
[41:4] 35 tn The imperfect verb serves to express what the covenant pact would cover, namely, “that you take.”
[41:5] 36 tn The Hebrew verb is שָׂחַק (sakhaq, “to sport; to trifle; to play,” Ps 104:26).
[41:5] 37 tn The idea may include putting Leviathan on a leash. D. W. Thomas suggested on the basis of an Arabic cognate that it could be rendered “tie him with a string like a young sparrow” (VT 14 [1964]: 114ff.).
[41:6] 38 tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore – which involves bargaining.
[41:6] 39 tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”
[41:6] 40 tn The verb means “to cut up; to divide up” in the sense of selling the dead body (see Exod 21:35). This will be between them and the merchants (כְּנַעֲנִים, kÿna’anim).
[41:8] 41 tn The verse uses two imperatives which can be interpreted in sequence: do this, and then this will happen.
[41:9] 42 sn Job 41:9 in the English Bible is 41:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). From here to the end of the chapter the Hebrew verse numbers differ from those in the English Bible, with 41:10 ET = 41:2 HT, 41:11 ET = 41:3 HT, etc. See also the note on 41:1.
[41:9] 43 tn The line is difficult. “His hope [= expectation]” must refer to any assailant who hopes or expects to capture the creature. Because there is no antecedent, Dhorme and others transpose it with the next verse. The point is that the man who thought he was sufficient to confront Leviathan soon finds his hope – his expectation – false (a derivative from the verb כָּזַב [kazab, “lie”] is used for a mirage).
[41:9] 44 tn There is an interrogative particle in this line, which most commentators ignore. But others freely emend the MT. Gunkel, following the mythological approach, has “his appearance casts down even a god.” Cheyne likewise has: “even divine beings the fear of him brings low” (JQR 9 [1896/97]: 579). Pope has, “Were not the gods cast down at the sight of him?” There is no need to bring in this mythological element.
[41:10] 45 sn The description is of the animal, not the hunter (or fisherman). Leviathan is so fierce that no one can take him on alone.
[41:10] 46 tc MT has “before me” and can best be rendered as “Who then is he that can stand before me?” (ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT, NJPS). The following verse (11) favors the MT since both express the lesson to be learned from Leviathan: If a man cannot stand up to Leviathan, how can he stand up to its creator? The translation above has chosen to read the text as “before him” (cf. NRSV, NJB).
[41:11] 47 tn The verb קָדַם (qadam) means “to come to meet; to come before; to confront” to the face.
[41:11] 48 sn The verse seems an intrusion (and so E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and many others change the pronouns to make it refer to the animal). But what the text is saying is that it is more dangerous to confront God than to confront this animal.
[41:11] 49 tn This line also focuses on the sovereign God rather than Leviathan. H. H. Rowley, however, wants to change לִי־חוּא (li-hu’, “it [belongs] to me”) into לֹא הוּא (lo’ hu’, “there is no one”). So it would say that there is no one under the whole heaven who could challenge Leviathan and live, rather than saying it is more dangerous to challenge God to make him repay.
[41:12] 50 tn Dhorme changes the noun into a verb, “I will tell,” and the last two words into אֵין עֶרֶךְ (’en ’erekh, “there is no comparison”). The result is “I will tell of his incomparable might.”
[41:13] 51 tn Heb “the face of his garment,” referring to the outer garment or covering. Some take it to be the front as opposed to the back.
[41:13] 52 tc The word רֶסֶן (resen) has often been rendered “bridle” (cf. ESV), but that leaves a number of unanswered questions. The LXX reads סִרְיוֹן (siryon), with the transposition of letters, but that means “coat of armor.” If the metathesis stands, there is also support from the cognate Akkadian.
[41:15] 54 tc The MT has גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “his pride”), but the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate all read גַּוּוֹ (gavvo, “his back”). Almost all the modern English versions follow the variant reading, speaking about “his [or its] back.”
[41:15] 55 tn Instead of צָר (tsar, “closely”) the LXX has צֹר (tsor, “stone”) to say that the seal was rock hard.
[41:16] 56 tn The expression “each one…to the next” is literally “one with one.”
[41:17] 57 tn Heb “a man with his brother.”
[41:18] 58 tn Heb “the eyelids,” but it represents the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts.
[41:19] 59 sn For the animal, the image is that of pent-up breath with water in a hot steam jet coming from its mouth, like a stream of fire in the rays of the sun. The language is hyperbolic, probably to reflect the pagan ideas of the dragon of the deep in a polemical way – they feared it as a fire breathing monster, but in reality it might have been a steamy crocodile.
[41:20] 60 tn The word “burning” is supplied. The Syriac and Vulgate have “a seething and boiling pot” (reading אֹגֵם [’ogem] for אַגְמֹן [’agmon]). This view is widely accepted.
[41:22] 61 tn This word, דְּאָבָה (dÿ’avah) is a hapax legomenon. But the verbal root means “to languish; to pine.” A related noun talks of dejection and despair in Deut 28:65. So here “despair” as a translation is preferable to “terror.”
[41:23] 63 tn The last clause says “it cannot be moved.” But this part will function adverbially in the sentence.
[41:24] 64 tn The description of his heart being “hard” means that he is cruel and fearless. The word for “hard” is the word encountered before for molten or cast metal.
[41:25] 65 tc This verse has created all kinds of problems for the commentators. The first part is workable: “when he raises himself up, the mighty [the gods] are terrified.” The mythological approach would render אֵלִים (’elim) as “gods.” But the last two words, which could be rendered “at the breaking [crashing, or breakers] they fail,” receive much attention. E. Dhorme (Job, 639) suggests “majesty” for “raising up” and “billows” (גַּלִּים, gallim) for אֵלִים (’elim), and gets a better parallelism: “the billows are afraid of his majesty, and the waves draw back.” But H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 263) does not think this is relevant to the context, which is talking about the creature’s defense against attack. The RSV works well for the first part, but the second part need some change; so Rowley adopts “in their dire consternation they are beside themselves.”
[41:26] 66 tn This is the clearest reading, following A. B. Davidson, Job, 285. The versions took different readings of the construction.
[41:26] 67 tn The verb קוּם (qum, “stand”) with בְּלִי (bÿli, “not”) has the sense of “does not hold firm,” or “gives way.”
[41:28] 68 tn Heb “the son of the bow.”
[41:29] 69 tn The verb is plural, but since there is no expressed subject it is translated as a passive here.
[41:30] 70 tn Heb “under him.”
[41:30] 71 tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”
[41:31] 72 sn The idea is either that the sea is stirred up like the foam from beating the ingredients together, or it is the musk-smell that is the point of comparison.
[41:33] 73 tn Heb “one who was made.”
[41:34] 74 tn Heb “the sons of pride.” Dhorme repoints the last word to get “all the wild beasts,” but this misses the point of the verse. This animal looks over every proud creature – but he is king of them all in that department.
[41:1] 75 sn Beginning with 41:1, the verse numbers through 41:9 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 41:1 ET = 40:25 HT, 41:2 ET = 40:26 HT, etc., through 41:34 ET = 41:26 HT. The Hebrew verse numbers in the remainder of the chapter differ from the verse numbers in the English Bible. Beginning with 42:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[41:1] 76 tn The verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh) means “to extract from the water; to fish.” The question here includes the use of a hook to fish the creature out of the water so that its jaws can be tied safely.
[41:1] 77 tn The verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’) means “to cause to sink,” if it is connected with the word in Amos 8:8 and 9:5. But it may have the sense of “to tie; to bind.” If the rope were put around the tongue and jaw, binding tightly would be the sense.
[1:25] 78 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
[1:25] 79 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.
