Job 30:9

Job’s Indignities

30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;

I have become a byword ¹  among them.

Job 36:9

36:9 then he reveals ²  to them what they have done, ³ 

and their transgressions,

that they were behaving proudly.

Job 3:15

3:15 or with princes who possessed gold, ⁴ 

who filled their palaces ⁵  with silver.

Job 15:19

15:19 to whom alone the land was given

when no foreigner passed among them. ⁶ 

Job 42:15

42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.

[30:9]  ¹ tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”

[36:9]  ² tn The verb נָגַד (nagad) means “to declare; to tell.” Here it is clear that God is making known the sins that caused the enslavement or captivity, so “reveal” makes a good interpretive translation.

[36:9]  ³ tn Heb “their work.”

[3:15]  ³ tn The expression simply has “or with princes gold to them.” The noun is defined by the noun clause serving as a relative clause (GKC 486 §155.e).

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “filled their houses.” There is no reason here to take “houses” to mean tombs; the “houses” refer to the places the princes lived (i.e., palaces). The reference is not to the practice of burying treasures with the dead. It is simply saying that if Job had died he would have been with the rich and famous in death.

[15:19]  ⁴ sn Eliphaz probably thinks that Edom was the proverbial home of wisdom, and so the reference here would be to his own people. If, as many interpret, the biblical writer is using these accounts to put Yahwistic ideas into the discussion, then the reference would be to Canaan at the time of the fathers. At any rate, the tradition of wisdom to Eliphaz has not been polluted by foreigners, but has retained its pure and moral nature from antiquity.