Job 38:3

38:3 Get ready for a difficult task ¹  like a man;

I will question you

and you will inform me!

Job 40:7

40:7 “Get ready for a difficult task ²  like a man.

I will question you and you will inform me!

Job 42:4

42:4 You said, ³ 

‘Pay attention, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you will answer me.’

Job 8:8

8:8 “For inquire now of the former ⁴  generation,

and pay attention ⁵  to the findings ⁶ 

of their ancestors; ⁷ 

Job 21:29

21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?

Do you not recognize their accounts ⁸  –

Job 31:30

31:30 I ⁹  have not even permitted my mouth ¹⁰  to sin

by asking ¹¹  for his life through a curse –

Job 12:7

Knowledge of God’s Wisdom ¹² 

12:7 “But now, ask the animals and they ¹³  will teach you,

or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.

[38:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Gird up your loins.” This idiom basically describes taking the hem of the long garment or robe and pulling it up between the legs and tucking it into the front of the belt, allowing easier and freer movement of the legs. “Girding the loins” meant the preparation for some difficult task (Jer 1:17), or for battle (Isa 5:27), or for running (1 Kgs 18:46). C. Gordon suggests that it includes belt-wrestling, a form of hand-to-hand mortal combat (“Belt-wrestling in the Bible World,” HUCA 23 [1950/51]: 136).

[40:7]  ² tn See note on “task” in 38:3.

[42:4]  ³ tn This phrase, “you said,” is supplied in the translation to introduce the recollection of God’s words.

[8:8]  ⁴ sn Bildad is not calling for Job to trace through the learning of antiquity, but of the most recent former generation. Hebrews were fond of recalling what the “fathers” had taught, for each generation recalled what their fathers had taught.

[8:8]  ⁵ tn The verb כוֹנֵן (khonen, from כּוּן, kun) normally would indicate “prepare yourself” or “fix” one’s heart on something, i.e., give attention to it. The verb with the ל (lamed) preposition after it does mean “to think on” or “to meditate” (Isa 51:13). But some commentators wish to change the כּ (kaf) to a בּ (bet) in the verb to get “to consider” (from בִּין, bin). However, M. Dahood shows a connection between כּנן (knn) and שׁאל (sh’l) in Ugaritic (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography,” Bib 46 [1965]: 329).

[8:8]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew has “the search of their fathers,” but the word is probably intended to mean what that observation or search yielded (so “search” is a metonymy of cause).

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[21:29]  ⁵ tc The LXX reads, “Ask those who go by the way, and do not disown their signs.”

[31:30]  ⁶ tn This verse would then be a parenthesis in which he stops to claim his innocence.

[31:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “I have not given my palate.”

[31:30]  ⁸ tn The infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition (“by asking”) serves in an epexegetical capacity here, explaining the verb of the first colon (“permitted…to sin”). To seek a curse on anyone would be a sin.

[12:7]  ⁷ sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”

[12:7]  ⁸ tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).