Job 30:3-6

30:3 gaunt ¹  with want and hunger,

they would gnaw ²  the parched land,

in former time desolate and waste. ³ 

30:4 By the brush ⁴  they would gather ⁵  herbs from the salt marshes, ⁶ 

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

30:5 They were banished from the community ⁷  –

people ⁸  shouted at them

like they would shout at thieves ⁹  –

30:6 so that they had to live ¹⁰ 

in the dry stream beds, ¹¹ 

in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

Psalms 88:3-6

88:3 For my life ¹²  is filled with troubles

and I am ready to enter Sheol. ¹³ 

88:4 They treat me like ¹⁴  those who descend into the grave. ¹⁵ 

I am like a helpless man, ¹⁶ 

88:5 adrift ¹⁷  among the dead,

like corpses lying in the grave,

whom you remember no more,

and who are cut off from your power. ¹⁸ 

88:6 You place me in the lowest regions of the pit, ¹⁹ 

in the dark places, in the watery depths.

Isaiah 59:10

59:10 We grope along the wall like the blind,

we grope like those who cannot see; ²⁰ 

we stumble at noontime as if it were evening.

Though others are strong, we are like dead men. ²¹ 

Lamentations 3:6

3:6 He has made me reside in deepest darkness ²² 

like those who died long ago.

[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.”

[30:4]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.

[30:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.

[30:5]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.

[30:5]  ⁹ tn The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.

[30:6]  ¹⁰ tn This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see GKC 348-49 §114.h, k).

[30:6]  ¹¹ 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).

[88:3]  ¹² tn Or “my soul.”

[88:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and my life approaches Sheol.”

[88:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I am considered with.”

[88:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[88:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”

[88:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “set free.”

[88:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from your hand.”

[88:6]  ¹⁹ tn The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See v. 4.

[59:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like there are no eyes.”

[59:10]  ²¹ tn Heb among the strong, like dead men.”

[3:6]  ²² tn The plural form of the noun מַחֲשַׁכִּים (makhashakkim, “darknesses”) is an example of the plural of intensity (see IBHS 122 §7.4.3a).