Job 31:5

31:5 If ¹  I have walked in falsehood,

and if ²  my foot has hastened ³  to deceit –

Job 39:15

39:15 She forgets that a foot might crush them,

or that a wild animal ⁴  might trample them.

Job 23:11

23:11 My feet ⁵  have followed ⁶  his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside. ⁷ 

Job 2:7

Job’s Integrity in Suffering

2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he afflicted ⁸  Job with a malignant ulcer ⁹  from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. ¹⁰ 

Job 28:4

28:4 Far from where people live ¹¹  he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten, ¹² 

far from other people he dangles and sways. ¹³ 

Job 28:8

28:8 Proud beasts ¹⁴  have not set foot on it,

and no lion has passed along it.

Job 18:9

18:9 A trap ¹⁵  seizes him by the heel;

a snare ¹⁶  grips him.

Job 38:6

38:6 On what ¹⁷  were its bases ¹⁸  set,

or who laid its cornerstone –

Job 39:5

39:5 Who let the wild donkey go free?

Who released the bonds of the donkey,

[31:5]  ¹ tn The normal approach is to take this as the protasis, and then have it resumed in v. 7 after a parenthesis in v. 6. But some take v. 6 as the apodosis and a new protasis in v. 7.

[31:5]  ² tn The “if” is understood by the use of the consecutive verb.

[31:5]  ³ sn The verbs “walk” and “hasten” (referring in the verse to the foot) are used metaphorically for the manner of life Job lived.

[39:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “an animal of the field.”

[23:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “my foot.”

[23:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “held fast.”

[23:11]  ⁹ tn The last clause, “and I have not turned aside,” functions adverbially in the sentence. The form אָט (’at) is a pausal form of אַתֶּה (’atteh), the Hiphil of נָטָה (natah, “stretch out”).

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is נָכָה (nakhah, “struck, smote”); it can be rendered in this context as “afflicted.”

[2:7]  ¹¹ sn The general consensus is that Job was afflicted with a leprosy known as elephantiasis, named because the rough skin and the swollen limbs are animal-like. The Hebrew word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin, “boil”) can indicate an ulcer as well. Leprosy begins with such, but so do other diseases. Leprosy normally begins in the limbs and spreads, but Job was afflicted everywhere at once. It may be some other disease also characterized by such a malignant ulcer. D. J. A. Clines has a thorough bibliography on all the possible diseases linked to this description (Job [WBC], 48). See also HALOT 1460 s.v. שְׁחִין.

[2:7]  ¹² tn Heb “crown.”

[28:4]  ¹³ tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.

[28:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.

[28:4]  ¹⁵ sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.

[28:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.

[18:9]  ¹⁹ tn This word פָּח (pakh) specifically refers to the snare of the fowler – thus a bird trap. But its plural seems to refer to nets in general (see Job 22:10).

[18:9]  ²⁰ tn This word does not occur elsewhere. But another word from the same root means “plait of hair,” and so this term has something to do with a net like a trellis or lattice.

[38:6]  ²² tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

[38:6]  ²³ sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).