Job 37:15

37:15 Do you know how God commands them, ¹ 

how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? ² 

Job 15:12

15:12 Why ³  has your heart carried you away, ⁴ 

and why do your eyes flash, ⁵ 

Job 14:5

14:5 Since man’s days ⁶  are determined, ⁷ 

the number of his months is under your control; ⁸ 

you have set his limit ⁹  and he cannot pass it.

Job 9:33

9:33 Nor is there an arbiter ¹⁰  between us,

who ¹¹  might lay ¹²  his hand on us both, ¹³ 

Job 23:14

23:14 For he fulfills his decree against me, ¹⁴ 

and many such things are his plans. ¹⁵ 

[37:15]  ¹ tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.

[37:15]  ² tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”

[15:12]  ³ tn The interrogative מָה (mah) here has the sense of “why?” (see Job 7:21).

[15:12]  ⁴ tn The verb simply means “to take.” The RSV has “carry you away.” E. Dhorme (Job, 212-13) goes further, saying that it implies being unhinged by passion, to be carried away by the passions beyond good sense (pp. 212-13). Pope and Tur-Sinai suggest that the suffix on the verb is datival, and translate it, “What has taken from you your mind?” But the parallelism shows that “your heart” and “your eyes” are subjects.

[15:12]  ⁵ tn Here is another word that occurs only here, and in the absence of a completely convincing suggestion, probably should be left as it is. The verb is רָזַם (razam, “wink, flash”). Targum Job and the Syriac equate it with a verb found in Aramaic and postbiblical Hebrew with the same letters but metathesized – רָמַז (ramaz). It would mean “to make a sign” or “to wink.” Budde, following the LXX probably, has “Why are your eyes lofty?” Others follow an Arabic root meaning “become weak.”

[14:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “his days.”

[14:5]  ⁶ tn The passive participle is from חָרַץ (kharats), which means “determined.” The word literally means “cut” (Lev 22:22, “mutilated”). E. Dhorme, (Job, 197) takes it to mean “engraved” as on stone; from a custom of inscribing decrees on tablets of stone he derives the meaning here of “decreed.” This, he argues, is parallel to the way חָקַק (khaqaq, “engrave”) is used. The word חֹק (khoq) is an “ordinance” or “statute”; the idea is connected to the verb “to engrave.” The LXX has “if his life should be but one day on the earth, and his months are numbered by him, you have appointed him for a time and he shall by no means exceed it.”

[14:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “[is] with you.” This clearly means under God’s control.

[14:5]  ⁸ tn The word חֹק (khoq) has the meanings of “decree, decision, and limit” (cf. Job 28:26; 38:10).

[9:33]  ⁷ tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).

[9:33]  ⁸ tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.

[9:33]  ⁹ tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).

[9:33]  ¹⁰ sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.

[23:14]  ⁹ tn The text has “my decree,” which means “the decree [plan] for/against me.” The suffix is objective, equivalent to a dative of disadvantage. The Syriac and the Vulgate actually have “his decree.” R. Gordis (Job, 262) suggests taking it in the same sense as in Job 14:5: “my limit.”.

[23:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and many such [things] are with him.”