Job 31:10

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone ¹  for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her. ² 

Job 31:8

31:8 then let me sow ³  and let another eat,

and let my crops ⁴  be uprooted.

Job 8:19

8:19 Indeed, this is the joy of his way, ⁵ 

and out of the earth ⁶  others spring up. ⁷ 

Job 34:24

34:24 He shatters the great without inquiry, ⁸ 

and sets up others in their place.

[31:10]  ¹ tn Targum Job interpreted the verb טָחַן (takhan, “grind”) in a sexual sense, and this has influenced other versions and commentaries. But the literal sense fits well in this line. The idea is that she would be a slave for someone else. The second line of the verse then might build on this to explain what kind of a slave – a concubine (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 215).

[31:10]  ² tn Heb “bow down over her,” an idiom for sexual relations.

[31:8]  ³ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ⁴ tn The word means “what sprouts up” (from יָצָא [yatsa’] with the sense of “sprout forth”). It could refer metaphorically to children (and so Kissane and Pope), as well as in its literal sense of crops. The latter fits here perfectly.

[8:19]  ⁵ tn This line is difficult. If the MT stands as it is, the expression must be ironic. It would be saying that the joy (all the security and prosperity) of its way (its life) is short-lived – that is the way its joy goes. Most commentators are not satisfied with this. Dhorme, for one, changes מְשׂוֹשׂ (mÿsos, “joy”) to מְסוֹס (mÿsos, “rotting”), and gets “behold him lie rotting on the path.” The sibilants can interchange this way. But Dhorme thinks the MT was written the way it was because the word was thought to be “joy,” when it should have been the other way. The word “way” then becomes an accusative of place. The suggestion is rather compelling and would certainly fit the context. The difficulty is that a root סוּס (sus, “to rot”) has to be proposed. E. Dhorme does this by drawing on Arabic sas, “to be eaten by moths or worms,” thus “worm-eaten; decaying; rotting.” Cf. NIV “its life withers away”; also NAB “there he lies rotting beside the road.”

[8:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “dust.”

[8:19]  ⁷ sn As with the tree, so with the godless man – his place will soon be taken by another.

[34:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “[with] no investigation.”