Discovery BoxJob 31:27
Context31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed,
and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth, 1
Job 1:15
Context1:15 and the Sabeans 2 swooped down 3 and carried them all away, and they killed 4 the servants with the sword! 5 And I – only I alone 6 – escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:17
Context1:17 While this one was still speaking another messenger arrived and said, “The Chaldeans 7 formed three bands and made a raid 8 on the camels and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! 9 And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”
[31:27] 1 tn Heb “and my hand kissed my mouth.” The idea should be that of “my mouth kissed my hand.” H. H. Rowley suggests that the hand was important in waving or throwing the kisses of homage to the sun and the moon, and so it receives the focus. This is the only place in the OT that refers to such a custom. Outside the Bible it was known, however.
[1:15] 2 tn The LXX has “the spoilers spoiled them” instead of “the Sabeans swooped down.” The translators might have connected the word to שְָׁבָה (shavah, “to take captive”) rather than שְׁבָא (shÿva’, “Sabeans”), or they may have understood the name as general reference to all types of Bedouin invaders from southern Arabia (HALOT 1381 s.v. שְׁבָא 2.c).
[1:15] 3 tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.
[1:15] 4 sn Job’s servants were probably armed and gave resistance, which would be the normal case in that time. This was probably why they were “killed with the sword.”
[1:15] 5 tn Heb “the edge/mouth of the sword”; see T. J. Meek, “Archaeology and a Point of Hebrew Syntax,” BASOR 122 (1951): 31-33.
[1:15] 6 tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.
[1:17] 3 sn The name may have been given to the tribes that roamed between the Euphrates and the lands east of the Jordan. These are possibly the nomadic Kaldu who are part of the ethnic Aramaeans. The LXX simply has “horsemen.”
[1:17] 4 tn The verb פָּשַׁט (pashat) means “to hurl themselves” upon something (see Judg 9:33, 41). It was a quick, plundering raid to carry off the camels.
