Job 30:3

30:3 gaunt ¹  with want and hunger,

they would gnaw ²  the parched land,

in former time desolate and waste. ³ 

Job 24:8

24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains

and huddle ⁴  in the rocks because they lack shelter.

Job 37:20

37:20 Should he be informed that I want ⁵  to speak?

If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!

Job 33:32

33:32 If you have any words, ⁶  reply to me;

speak, for I want to justify you. ⁷ 

Job 7:16

7:16 I loathe ⁸  it; ⁹  I do not want to live forever;

leave me alone, ¹⁰  for my days are a vapor! ¹¹ 

Job 9:3

9:3 If someone wishes ¹²  to contend ¹³  with him,

he cannot answer ¹⁴  him one time in a thousand.

Job 21:14

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹⁵  know your ways. ¹⁶ 

Job 23:13

23:13 But he is unchangeable, ¹⁷  and who can change ¹⁸  him?

Whatever he ¹⁹  has desired, he does.

Job 31:19

31:19 If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing,

or a poor man without a coat,

Job 6:3

6:3 But because it is heavier ²⁰  than the sand ²¹  of the sea,

that is why my words have been wild. ²² 

Job 6:24

No Sin Discovered

6:24 “Teach ²³  me and I, for my part, ²⁴  will be silent;

explain to me ²⁵  how I have been mistaken. ²⁶ 

Job 13:3

13:3 But I wish to speak ²⁷  to the Almighty, ²⁸ 

and I desire to argue ²⁹  my case ³⁰  with God.

Job 18:2

18:2 “How long until you ³¹  make an end of words? ³² 

You must consider, ³³  and then ³⁴  we can talk.

Job 24:13

24:13 There are those ³⁵  who rebel against the light;

they do not know its ways

and they do not stay on its paths.

Job 24:16

24:16 In the dark the robber ³⁶  breaks into houses, ³⁷ 

but by day they shut themselves in; ³⁸ 

they do not know the light. ³⁹ 

Job 40:2

40:2 “Will the one who contends ⁴⁰  with the Almighty correct him? ⁴¹ 

Let the person who accuses God give him an answer!”

Job 41:12

41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,

and the extent of its might,

and the grace of its arrangement. ⁴² 

Job 1:12

1:12 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right then, ⁴³  everything he has is ⁴⁴  in your power. ⁴⁵  Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!” ⁴⁶  So Satan went out ⁴⁷  from the presence of the Lord. ⁴⁸ 

[30:3]  ¹ tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.

[30:3]  ² 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]  ³ 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.”

[24:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “embrace” or “hug.”

[37:20]  ⁷ tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.

[33:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “if there are words.”

[33:32]  ¹¹ tn The infinitive construct serves as the complement or object of “I desire.” It could be rendered “to justify you” or “your justification, “namely, “that you be justified.”

[7:16]  ¹³ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 107-8) thinks the idea of loathing or despising is problematic since there is no immediate object. He notes that the verb מָאַס (ma’as, “loathe”) is parallel to מָסַס (masas, “melt”) in the sense of “flow, drip” (Job 42:6). This would give the idea “I am fading away” or “I grow weaker,” or as Dhorme chooses, “I am pining away.”

[7:16]  ¹⁴ tn There is no object for the verb in the text. But the most likely object would be “my life” from the last verse, especially since in this verse Job will talk about not living forever. Some have thought the object should be “death,” meaning that Job despised death more than the pains. But that is a forced meaning; besides, as H. H. Rowley points out, the word here means to despise something, to reject it. Job wanted death.

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “cease from me.” This construction means essentially “leave me in peace.”

[7:16]  ¹⁶ tn This word הֶבֶל (hevel) is difficult to translate. It means “breath; puff of air; vapor” and then figuratively, “vanity.” Job is saying that his life is but a breath – it is brief and fleeting. Compare Ps 144:4 for a similar idea.

[9:3]  ¹⁶ tn Some commentators take God to be the subject of this verb, but it is more likely that it refers to the mortal who tries to challenge God in a controversy. The verb is used of Job in 13:3.

[9:3]  ¹⁷ tn The verb רִיב (riv) is a common one; it has the idea of “contention; dispute; legal dispute or controversy; go to law.” With the preposition אִם (’im) the idea must be “to contend with” or “to dispute with.” The preposition reflects the prepositional phrase “with God” in v. 2, supporting the view that man is the subject.

[9:3]  ¹⁸ tn This use of the imperfect as potential imperfect assumes that the human is the subject, that in a dispute with God he could not answer one of God’s questions (for which see the conclusion of the book when God questions Job). On the other hand, if the interpretation were that God does not answer the demands of mortals, then a simple progressive imperfect would be required. In support of this is the frustration of Job that God does not answer him.

[21:14]  ¹⁹ tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

[21:14]  ²⁰ sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[23:13]  ²² tc The MT has “But he [is] in one.” Many add the word “mind” to capture the point that God is resolute and unchanging. Some commentators find this too difficult, and so change the text from בְאֶחָד (bÿ’ekhad, here “unchangeable”) to בָחָר (bakhar, “he has chosen”). The wording in the text is idiomatic and should be retained. R. Gordis (Job, 262) translates it “he is one, i.e., unchangeable, fixed, determined.” The preposition בּ (bet) is a bet essentiae – “and he [is] as one,” or “he is one” (see GKC 379 §119.i).

[23:13]  ²³ tn Heb “cause him to return.”

[23:13]  ²⁴ tn Or “his soul.”

[6:3]  ²⁵ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 76) notes that כִּי־עַתָּה (ki ’attah) has no more force than “but”; and that the construction is the same as in 17:4; 20:19-21; 23:14-15. The initial clause is causative, and the second half of the verse gives the consequence (“because”…“that is why”). Others take 3a as the apodosis of v. 2, and translate it “for now it would be heavier…” (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).

[6:3]  ²⁶ sn The point of the comparison with the sand of the sea is that the sand is immeasurable. So the grief of Job cannot be measured.

[6:3]  ²⁷ tn The verb לָעוּ (la’u) is traced by E. Dhorme (Job, 76) to a root לָעָה (la’ah), cognate to an Arabic root meaning “to chatter.” He shows how modern Hebrew has a meaning for the word “to stammer out.” But that does not really fit Job’s outbursts. The idea in the context is rather that of speaking wildly, rashly, or charged with grief. This would trace the word to a hollow or geminate word and link it to Arabic “talk wildly” (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 158). In the older works the verb was taken from a geminate root meaning “to suck” or “to swallow” (cf. KJV), but that yields a very difficult sense to the line.

[6:24]  ²⁸ tn The verb “teach” or “instruct” is the Hiphil הוֹרוּנִי (horuni), from the verb יָרָה (yarah); the basic idea of “point, direct” lies behind this meaning. The verb is cognate to the noun תּוֹרָה (torah, “instruction, teaching, law”).

[6:24]  ²⁹ tn The independent personal pronoun makes the subject of the verb emphatic: “and I will be silent.”

[6:24]  ³⁰ tn The verb is הָבִינוּ (havinu, “to cause someone to understand”); with the ל (lamed) following, it has the sense of “explain to me.”

[6:24]  ³¹ tn The verb שָׁגָה (shagah) has the sense of “wandering, getting lost, being mistaken.”

[13:3]  ³¹ tn The verb is simply the Piel imperfect אֲדַבֵּר (’adabber, “I speak”). It should be classified as a desiderative imperfect, saying, “I desire to speak.” This is reinforced with the verb “to wish, desire” in the second half of the verse.

[13:3]  ³² tn The Hebrew title for God here is אֶל־שַׁדַּי (’el shadday, “El Shaddai”).

[13:3]  ³³ tn The infinitive absolute functions here as the direct object of the verb “desire” (see GKC 340 §113.b).

[13:3]  ³⁴ tn The infinitive הוֹכֵחַ (hokheakh) is from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh), which means “to argue, plead, debate.” It has the legal sense here of arguing a case (cf. 5:17).

[18:2]  ³⁴ tn The verb is plural, and so most commentators make it singular. But it seems from the context that Bildad is addressing all of them, and not just Job.

[18:2]  ³⁵ tn The construction is קִנְצֵי לְמִלִּין (qintse lÿmillin), which is often taken to be “end of words,” as if the word was from קֵץ (qets, “end”). But a plural of “end” is not found in the OT. Some will link the word to Arabic qanasa, “to hunt; to give chase,” to get an interpretation of “snares for words.” But E. Dhorme (Job, 257) objects that this does not fit the speech of Bildad (as well as it might Job’s). He finds a cognate qinsu, “fetters, shackles,” and reads “how long will you put shackles on words.” But G. R. Driver had pointed out that this cognate does not exist (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 72-93). So it would be preferable to take the reading “ends” and explain the ן (nun) as from a Aramaizing by-form. This is supported by 11QtgJob that uses סוֹף (sof, “end”). On the construction, GKC 421 §130.a explains this as a use of the construct in rapid narrative to connect the words; in such cases a preposition is on the following noun.

[18:2]  ³⁶ tn The imperfect verb, again plural, would be here taken in the nuance of instruction, or a modal nuance of obligation. So Bildad is telling his listeners to be intelligent. This would be rather cutting in the discourse.

[18:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “afterward.”

[24:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “They are among those who.”

[24:16]  ⁴⁰ tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.

[24:16]  ⁴¹ tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.

[24:16]  ⁴² tc The verb חִתְּמוּ (khittÿmu) is the Piel from the verb חָתַם (khatam, “to seal”). The verb is now in the plural, covering all the groups mentioned that work under the cover of darkness. The suggestion that they “seal,” i.e., “mark” the house they will rob, goes against the meaning of the word “seal.”

[24:16]  ⁴³ tc Some commentators join this very short colon to the beginning of v. 17: “they do not know the light. For together…” becomes “for together they have not known the light.”

[40:2]  ⁴³ tn The form רֹב (rov) is the infinitive absolute from the verb רִיב (riv, “contend”). Dhorme wishes to repoint it to make it the active participle, the “one who argues with the Almighty.”

[40:2]  ⁴⁴ tn The verb יִסּוֹר (yissor) is found only here, but comes from a common root meaning “to correct; to reprove.” Several suggestions have been made to improve on the MT. Dhorme read it יָסוּר (yasur) in the sense of “to turn aside; to yield.” Ehrlich read this emendation as “to come to an end.” But the MT could be read as “to correct; to instruct.”

[41:12]  ⁴⁶ 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.”

[1:12]  ⁴⁹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) introduces a foundational clause upon which the following volitional clause is based.

[1:12]  ⁵⁰ tn The versions add a verb here: “delivered to” or “abandoned to” the hand of Satan.

[1:12]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “in your hand.” The idiom means that it is now Satan’s to do with as he pleases.

[1:12]  ⁵² tn The Hebrew word order emphatically holds out Job’s person as the exception: “only upon him do not stretch forth your hand.”

[1:12]  ⁵³ tn The Targum to Job adds “with permission” to show that he was granted leave from God’s presence.

[1:12]  ⁵⁴ sn So Satan, having received his permission to test Job’s sincerity, goes out from the Lord’s presence. But Satan is bound by the will of the Most High not to touch Job himself. The sentence gives the impression that Satan’s departure is with a certain eagerness and confidence.