Job 35:4

35:4 I ¹  will reply to you, ² 

and to your friends with you.

Job 13:25

13:25 Do you wish to torment ³  a windblown ⁴  leaf

and chase after dry chaff? ⁵ 

Job 36:7

36:7 He does not take his eyes ⁶  off the righteous;

but with kings on the throne

he seats the righteous ⁷  and exalts them forever. ⁸ 

Job 1:15

1:15 and the Sabeans ⁹  swooped down ¹⁰  and carried them all away, and they killed ¹¹  the servants with the sword! ¹²  And I – only I alone ¹³  – escaped to tell you!”

Job 12:3

12:3 I also have understanding ¹⁴  as well as you;

I am not inferior to you. ¹⁵ 

Who does not know such things as these? ¹⁶ 

Job 42:16

42:16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

Job 1:17

1:17 While this one was still speaking another messenger arrived and said, “The Chaldeans ¹⁷  formed three bands and made a raid ¹⁸  on the camels and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! ¹⁹  And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

Job 2:10

2:10 But he replied, ²⁰  “You’re talking like one of the godless ²¹  women would do! Should we receive ²²  what is good from God, and not also ²³  receive ²⁴  what is evil?” ²⁵  In all this Job did not sin by what he said. ²⁶ 

[35:4]  ¹ tn The emphatic pronoun calls attention to Elihu who will answer these questions.

[35:4]  ² tn The Hebrew text adds, “with words,” but since this is obvious, for stylistic reasons it has not been included in the translation.

[13:25]  ³ tn The verb תַּעֲרוֹץ (ta’arots, “you torment”) is from עָרַץ (’arats), which usually means “fear; dread,” but can also mean “to make afraid; to terrify” (Isa 2:19,21). The imperfect is here taken as a desiderative imperfect: “why do you want to”; but it could also be a simple future: “will you torment.”

[13:25]  ⁴ tn The word נִדָּף (niddaf) is “driven” from the root נָדַף (nadaf, “drive”). The words “by the wind” or the interpretation “windblown” has to be added for the clarification. Job is comparing himself to this leaf (so an implied comparison, called hypocatastasis) – so light and insubstantial that it is amazing that God should come after him. Guillaume suggests that the word is not from this root, but from a second root נָדַף (nadaf), cognate to Arabic nadifa, “to dry up” (A. Guillaume, “A Note on Isaiah 19:7,” JTS 14 [1963]: 382-83). But as D. J. A. Clines notes (Job [WBC], 283), a dried leaf is a driven leaf – a point Guillaume allows as he says there is ambiguity in the term.

[13:25]  ⁵ tn The word קַשׁ (qash) means “chaff; stubble,” or a wisp of straw. It is found in Job 41:20-21 for that which is so worthless and insignificant that it is hardly worth mentioning. If dried up or withered, it too will be blown away in the wind.

[36:7]  ⁵ tc Many commentators accept the change of “his eyes” to “his right” (reading דִּינוֹ [dino] for עֵינָיו [’enayv]). There is no compelling reason for the change; it makes the line commonplace.

[36:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the righteous) has been repeated from the first part of the verse for clarity.

[36:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “he seats them forever and exalts them.” The last verb can be understood as expressing a logical consequence of the preceding action (cf. GKC 328 §111.l = “he seats them forever so that he exalts them”). Or the two verbs can be taken as an adverbial hendiadys whereby the first modifies the second adverbially: “he exalts them by seating them forever” or “when he seats them forever” (cf. GKC 326 §111.d). Some interpret this verse to say that God seats kings on the throne, making a change in subject in the middle of the verse. But it makes better sense to see the righteous as the subject matter throughout – they are not only protected, but are exalted.

[1:15]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.

[1:15]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.

[12:3]  ⁹ tn The word is literally “heart,” meaning a mind or understanding.

[12:3]  ¹⁰ tn Because this line is repeated in 13:2, many commentators delete it from this verse (as does the LXX). The Syriac translates נֹפֵל (nofel) as “little,” and the Vulgate “inferior.” Job is saying that he does not fall behind them in understanding.

[12:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “With whom are not such things as these?” The point is that everyone knows the things that these friends have been saying – they are commonplace.

[1:17]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[1:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “with the edge/mouth of the sword.”

[2:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “he said to her.”

[2:10]  ¹⁴ tn The word “foolish” (נָבָל, naval) has to do with godlessness more than silliness (Ps 14:1). To be foolish in this sense is to deny the nature and the work of God in life its proper place. See A. Phillips, “NEBALA – A Term for Serious Disorderly Unruly Conduct,” VT 25 (1975): 237-41; and W. M. W. Roth, “NBL,” VT 10 (1960): 394-409.

[2:10]  ¹⁵ tn The verb קִבֵּל (qibbel) means “to accept, receive.” It is attested in the Amarna letters with the meaning “receive meekly, patiently.”

[2:10]  ¹⁶ tn The adverb גָּם (gam, “also, even”) is placed here before the first clause, but belongs with the second. It intensifies the idea (see GKC 483 §153). See also C. J. Labuschagne, “The Emphasizing Particle GAM and Its Connotations,” Studia Biblica et Semitica, 193-203.

[2:10]  ¹⁷ tn The two verbs in this sentence, Piel imperfects, are deliberative imperfects; they express the reasoning or deliberating in the interrogative sentences.

[2:10]  ¹⁸ tn A question need not be introduced by an interrogative particle or adverb. The natural emphasis on the words is enough to indicate it is a question (GKC 473 §150.a).

[2:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sin with his lips,” an idiom meaning he did not sin by what he said.