Job 34:14

34:14 If God ¹  were to set his heart on it, ² 

and gather in his spirit and his breath,

Job 15:26

15:26 defiantly charging against him ³ 

with a thick, strong shield! ⁴ 

Job 22:27

22:27 You will pray to him and he will hear you,

and you will fulfill your vows to him. ⁵ 

Job 7:17

Insignificance of Humans

7:17 “What is mankind ⁶  that you make so much of them, ⁷ 

and that you pay attention ⁸  to them?

Job 9:4

9:4 He is wise in heart ⁹  and mighty ¹⁰  in strength ¹¹  –

who has resisted ¹²  him and remained safe? ¹³ 

Job 11:13

11:13 “As for you, ¹⁴  if you prove faithful, ¹⁵ 

and if ¹⁶  you stretch out your hands toward him, ¹⁷ 

Job 21:19

21:19 You may say, ¹⁸  ‘God stores up a man’s ¹⁹  punishment for his children!’ ²⁰ 

Instead let him repay ²¹  the man himself ²² 

so that ²³  he may know it!

Job 33:13

33:13 Why do you contend against him,

that he does not answer all a person’s ²⁴  words?

Job 39:11

39:11 Will you rely on it because its strength is great?

Will you commit ²⁵  your labor to it?

Job 9:12

9:12 If he snatches away, ²⁶  who can turn him back? ²⁷ 

Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

Job 2:13

2:13 Then they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, yet no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain ²⁸  was very great. ²⁹ 

Job 1:12

1:12 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right then, ³⁰  everything he has is ³¹  in your power. ³²  Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!” ³³  So Satan went out ³⁴  from the presence of the Lord. ³⁵ 

Job 42:11

42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined ³⁶  with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver ³⁷  and a gold ring. ³⁸ 

[34:14]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:14]  ² tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.

[15:26]  ³ tn Heb “he runs against [or upon] him with the neck.” The RSV takes this to mean “with a stiff neck.” Several commentators, influenced by the LXX’s “insolently,” have attempted to harmonize with some idiom for neck (“outstretched neck,” for example). Others have made more extensive changes. Pope and Anderson follow Tur-Sinai in accepting “with full battle armor.” But the main idea seems to be that of a headlong assault on God.

[15:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “with the thickness of the bosses of his shield.” The bosses are the convex sides of the bucklers, turned against the foe. This is a defiant attack on God.

[22:27]  ⁵ tn The words “to him” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[7:17]  ⁷ tn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is intended to mean that man is too little for God to be making so much over him in all this.

[7:17]  ⁸ tn The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them.

[7:17]  ⁹ tn The expression “set your heart on” means “concentrate your mind on” or “pay attention to.”

[9:4]  ⁹ tn The genitive phrase translated “in heart” would be a genitive of specification, specifying that the wisdom of God is in his intelligent decisions.

[9:4]  ¹⁰ sn The words אַמִּיץ (’ammits) and כֹּחַ (koakh) are synonyms, the first meaning “sturdy; mighty; robust,” and the second “strength.” It too can be interpreted as a genitive of specification – God is mighty with respect to his power. But that comes close to expressing a superlative idea (like “song of songs” or “anger of his wrath”).

[9:4]  ¹¹ tn The first half of the verse simply has “wise of heart and mighty of strength.” The entire line is a casus pendens that will refer to the suffix on אֵלָיו (’elayv) in the second colon. So the question is “Who has resisted the one who is wise of heart and mighty of strength?” Again, the rhetorical question is affirming that no one has done this.

[9:4]  ¹² tn The verb is the Hiphil of the verb קָשָׁה (qashah, “to be hard”). It frequently is found with the word for “neck,” describing people as “stiff-necked,” i.e., stubborn, unbending. So the idea of resisting God fits well. The fact that this word occurs in Exodus with the idea of hardening the heart against God may indicate that there is an allusion to Pharaoh here.

[9:4]  ¹³ tn The use of שָׁלֵם (shalem) in the Qal is rare. It has been translated “remain safe” by E. Dhorme, “survived” by the NEB, “remained unscathed” by the NAB and NIV, or “succeeded” by KJV, G. R. Driver.

[11:13]  ¹¹ tn The pronoun is emphatic, designed to put Job in a different class than the hollow men – at least to raise the possibility of his being in a different class.

[11:13]  ¹² tn The Hebrew uses the perfect of כּוּן (kun, “establish”) with the object “your heart.” The verb can be translated “prepare, fix, make firm” your heart. To fix the heart is to make it faithful and constant, the heart being the seat of the will and emotions. The use of the perfect here does not refer to the past, but should be given a future perfect sense – if you shall have fixed your heart, i.e., prove faithful. Job would have to make his heart secure, so that he was no longer driven about by differing views.

[11:13]  ¹³ tn This half-verse is part of the protasis and not, as in the RSV, the apodosis to the first half. The series of “if” clauses will continue through these verses until v. 15.

[11:13]  ¹⁴ sn This is the posture of prayer (see Isa 1:15). The expression means “spread out your palms,” probably meaning that the one praying would fall to his knees, put his forehead to the ground, and spread out his hands in front of him on the ground.

[21:19]  ¹³ tn These words are supplied. The verse records an idea that Job suspected they might have, namely, that if the wicked die well God will make their children pay for the sins (see Job 5:4; 20:10; as well as Exod 20:5).

[21:19]  ¹⁴ tn The text simply has אוֹנוֹ (’ono, “his iniquity”), but by usage, “the punishment for the iniquity.”

[21:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his sons.”

[21:19]  ¹⁶ tn The verb שָׁלַם (shalam) in the Piel has the meaning of restoring things to their normal, making whole, and so reward, repay (if for sins), or recompense in general.

[21:19]  ¹⁷ tn The text simply has “let him repay [to] him.”

[21:19]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verb after the jussive carries the meaning of a purpose clause, and so taken as a final imperfect: “in order that he may know [or realize].”

[33:13]  ¹⁵ tc The MT has “all his words.” This must refer to “man” in the previous verse. But many wish to change it to “my words,” since it would be summarizing Job’s complaint to God.

[39:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “leave.”

[9:12]  ¹⁹ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 133) surveys the usages and concludes that the verb חָתַף (khataf) normally describes the wicked actions of a man, especially by treachery or trickery against another. But a verb חָתַף (khataf) is found nowhere else; a noun “robber” is found in Prov 23:28. Dhorme sees no reason to emend the text, because he concludes that the two verbs are synonymous. Job is saying that if God acts like a plunderer, there is no one who can challenge what he does.

[9:12]  ²⁰ tn The verb is the Hiphil imperfect (potential again) from שׁוּב (shuv). In this stem it can mean “turn back, refute, repel” (BDB 999 s.v. Hiph.5).

[2:13]  ²¹ tn The word כְּאֵב (kÿ’ev) means “pain” – both mental and physical pain. The translation of “grief” captures only part of its emphasis.

[2:13]  ²² sn The three friends went into a more severe form of mourning, one that is usually reserved for a death. E. Dhorme says it is a display of grief in its most intense form (Job, 23); for one of them to speak before the sufferer spoke would have been wrong.

[1:12]  ²³ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) introduces a foundational clause upon which the following volitional clause is based.

[1:12]  ²⁴ tn The versions add a verb here: “delivered to” or “abandoned to” the hand of Satan.

[1:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in your hand.” The idiom means that it is now Satan’s to do with as he pleases.

[1:12]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew word order emphatically holds out Job’s person as the exception: “only upon him do not stretch forth your hand.”

[1:12]  ²⁷ tn The Targum to Job adds “with permission” to show that he was granted leave from God’s presence.

[1:12]  ²⁸ sn So Satan, having received his permission to test Job’s sincerity, goes out from the Lord’s presence. But Satan is bound by the will of the Most High not to touch Job himself. The sentence gives the impression that Satan’s departure is with a certain eagerness and confidence.

[42:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “ate bread.”

[42:11]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.

[42:11]  ²⁷ sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.