Job 30:29-30

30:29 I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches. ¹ 

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; ² 

my body ³  is hot with fever. ⁴ 

Isaiah 38:14

38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,

I coo ⁵  like a dove;

my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. ⁶ 

O sovereign master, ⁷  I am oppressed;

help me! ⁸ 

Micah 1:8

1:8 For this reason I ⁹  will mourn and wail;

I will walk around barefoot ¹⁰  and without my outer garments. ¹¹ 

I will howl ¹²  like a wild dog, ¹³ 

and screech ¹⁴  like an owl. ¹⁵ 

[30:29]  ¹ sn The point of this figure is that Job’s cries of lament are like the howls and screeches of these animals, not that he lives with them. In Job 39:13 the female ostrich is called “the wailer.”

[30:30]  ² tn The MT has “become dark from upon me,” prompting some editions to supply the verb “falls from me” (RSV, NRSV), or “peels” (NIV).

[30:30]  ³ tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.

[30:30]  ⁴ tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.

[38:14]  ⁵ tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”

[38:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”

[38:14]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[38:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.

[1:8]  ⁹ tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”

[1:8]  ¹³ tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”

[1:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”

[1:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).