Job 30:7

30:7 They brayed ¹  like animals among the bushes

and were huddled together ²  under the nettles.

Job 30:14

30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;

amid the crash ³  they come rolling in. ⁴ 

Job 34:26

34:26 He strikes them for their wickedness, ⁵ 

in a place where people can see, ⁶ 

Job 40:21

40:21 Under the lotus trees it lies,

in the secrecy of the reeds and the marsh.

[30:7]  ¹ 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]  ² 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).

[30:14]  ³ tn The MT has “under the crash,” with the idea that they rush in while the stones are falling around them (which is continuing the figure of the military attack). G. R. Driver took the expression to mean in a temporal sense “at the moment of the crash” (AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163-64). Guillaume, drawing from Arabic, has “where the gap is made.”

[30:14]  ⁴ tn The verb, the Hitpalpel of גָּלַל (galal), means “they roll themselves.” This could mean “they roll themselves under the ruins” (Dhorme), “they roll on like a storm” (Gordis), or “they roll on” as in waves of enemy attackers (see H. H. Rowley). This particular verb form is found only here (but see Amos 5:24).

[34:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “under wicked men,” or “under wickednesses.” J. C. Greenfield shows that the preposition can mean “among” as well (“Prepositions B Tachat in Jes 57:5,” ZAW 32 [1961]: 227). That would allow “among wicked men.” It could also be “instead of” or even “in return for [their wickedness]” which is what the RSV does.

[34:26]  ⁶ tn The text simply uses רֹאִים (ro’im): “[in the place where there are] seers,” i.e., spectators.