Job 31:31-32

31:31 if ¹  the members of my household ²  have never said, ³ 

‘If only there were ⁴  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ⁵  meat!’ –

31:32 But ⁶  no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler ⁷  –

Psalms 123:3

123:3 Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!

For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some. ⁸ 

[31:31]  ¹ tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

[31:31]  ² tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

[31:31]  ³ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

[31:31]  ⁴ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

[31:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[31:32]  ⁶ tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.

[31:32]  ⁷ tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.

[123:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”