Job 30:12

30:12 On my right the young rabble ¹  rise up;

they drive me from place to place, ² 

and build up siege ramps ³  against me. ⁴ 

Job 31:12

31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, ⁵ 

and it would uproot ⁶  all my harvest.

[30:12]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”

[30:12]  ⁴ sn See Job 19:12.

[31:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “to Abaddon.”

[31:12]  ⁶ tn The verb means “to root out,” but this does not fit the parallelism with fire. Wright changed two letters and the vowels in the verb to get the root צָרַף (tsaraf, “to burn”). The NRSV has “burn to the root.”