Job 31:9-10

31:9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, ¹ 

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone ²  for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her. ³ 

[31:9]  ¹ tn Gordis notes that the word פֶּתַח (petakh, “door”) has sexual connotations in rabbinic literature, based on Prov 7:6ff. (see b. Ketubbot 9b). See also the use in Song 4:12 using a synonym.

[31:10]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “bow down over her,” an idiom for sexual relations.