Discovery BoxJob 38:39--39:12
Context38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,
and satisfy the appetite 1 of the lions,
38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven,
when its young cry out to God
and wander about 2 for lack of food?
39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way 3
the mountain goats 4 give birth?
Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?
39:2 Do you count the months they must fulfill,
and do you know the time they give birth? 5
39:3 They crouch, they bear 6 their young,
they bring forth the offspring they have carried. 7
39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; 8
they go off, and do not return to them.
39:5 Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who released the bonds of the donkey,
39:6 to whom I appointed the steppe for its home,
the salt wastes as its dwelling place?
39:7 It scorns the tumult in the town;
it does not hear the shouts of a driver. 9
39:8 It ranges the hills as its pasture,
and searches after every green plant.
39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?
Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
39:10 Can you bind the wild ox 10 to a furrow with its rope,
will it till the valleys, following after you?
39:11 Will you rely on it because its strength is great?
Will you commit 11 your labor to it?
39:12 Can you count on 12 it to bring in 13 your grain, 14
and gather the grain 15 to your threshing floor? 16
Job 39:26-30
Context39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, 17
and spreads its wings toward the south?
39:27 Is it at your command 18 that the eagle soars,
and builds its nest on high?
39:28 It lives on a rock and spends the night there,
on a rocky crag 19 and a fortress. 20
39:29 From there it spots 21 its prey, 22
its eyes gaze intently from a distance.
39:30 And its young ones devour the blood,
and where the dead carcasses 23 are,
there it is.”
Job 41:4-34
Context41:4 Will it make a pact 24 with you,
so you could take it 25 as your slave for life?
41:5 Can you play 26 with it, like a bird,
or tie it on a leash 27 for your girls?
41:6 Will partners 28 bargain 29 for it?
Will they divide it up 30 among the merchants?
41:7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
41:8 If you lay your hand on it,
you will remember 31 the fight,
and you will never do it again!
41:9 (41:1) 32 See, his expectation is wrong, 33
he is laid low even at the sight of it. 34
41:10 Is it not fierce 35 when it is awakened?
Who is he, then, who can stand before it? 36
41:11 (Who has confronted 37 me that I should repay? 38
Everything under heaven belongs to me!) 39
41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,
and the extent of its might,
and the grace of its arrangement. 40
41:13 Who can uncover its outer covering? 41
Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor? 42
41:14 Who can open the doors of its mouth? 43
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
41:15 Its back 44 has rows of shields,
shut up closely 45 together as with a seal;
41:16 each one is so close to the next 46
that no air can come between them.
41:17 They lock tightly together, one to the next; 47
they cling together and cannot be separated.
41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the red glow 48 of dawn.
41:19 Out of its mouth go flames, 49
sparks of fire shoot forth!
41:20 Smoke streams from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning 50 rushes.
41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame shoots from its mouth.
41:22 Strength lodges in its neck,
and despair 51 runs before it.
41:23 The folds 52 of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm on it, immovable. 53
41:24 Its heart 54 is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at its thrashing about they withdraw. 55
41:26 Whoever strikes it with a sword 56
will have no effect, 57
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
41:27 It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood.
41:28 Arrows 58 do not make it flee;
slingstones become like chaff to it.
41:29 A club is counted 59 as a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
41:30 Its underparts 60 are the sharp points of potsherds,
it leaves its mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge. 61
41:31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment, 62
41:32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had a head of white hair.
41:33 The likes of it is not on earth,
a creature 63 without fear.
41:34 It looks on every haughty being;
it is king over all that are proud.” 64
[38:39] 1 tn Heb “fill up the life of.”
[38:41] 2 tn The verse is difficult, making some suspect that a line has dropped out. The little birds in the nest hardly go wandering about looking for food. Dhorme suggest “and stagger for lack of food.”
[39:1] 3 tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”
[39:2] 5 tn Here the infinitive is again a substantive: “the time of their giving birth.”
[39:3] 6 tc The Hebrew verb used here means “to cleave,” and this would not have the object “their young.” Olshausen and others after him change the ח (khet) to ט (tet) and get a verb “to drop,” meaning “drop [= give birth to] young” as used in Job 21:10. G. R. Driver holds out for the MT, arguing it is an idiom, “to breach the womb” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 92-93).
[39:3] 7 tn Heb “they cast forth their labor pains.” This word usually means “birth pangs” but here can mean what caused the pains (metonymy of effect). This fits better with the parallelism, and the verb (“cast forth”). The words “their offspring” are supplied in the translation for clarity; direct objects were often omitted when clear from the context, although English expects them to be included.
[39:4] 8 tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.
[39:7] 9 sn The animal is happier in open countryside than in a busy town, and on its own rather than being driven by a herdsman.
[39:10] 10 tn Some commentators think that the addition of the “wild ox” here is a copyist’s error, making the stich too long. They therefore delete it. Also, binding an animal to the furrow with ropes is unusual. So with a slight emendation Kissane came up with “Will you bind him with a halter of cord?” While the MT is unusual, the sense is understandable, and no changes, even slight ones, are absolutely necessary.
[39:12] 12 tn The word is normally translated “believe” in the Bible. The idea is that of considering something dependable and acting on it. The idea of reliability is found also in the Niphal stem usages.
[39:12] 13 tc There is a textual problem here: יָשׁוּב (yashuv) is the Kethib, meaning “[that] he will return”; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) is the Qere, meaning “that he will bring in.” This is the preferred reading, since the object follows it. For commentators who think the line too unbalanced for this, the object is moved to the second colon, and the reading “returns” is taken for the first. But the MT is perfectly clear as it stands.
[39:12] 14 tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.
[39:12] 15 tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[39:12] 16 tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.
[39:26] 17 tn This word occurs only here. It is connected to “pinions” in v. 13. Dhorme suggests “clad with feathers,” but the line suggests more the use of the wings.
[39:27] 18 tn Heb “your mouth.”
[39:28] 19 tn Heb “upon the tooth of a rock.”
[39:28] 20 tn The word could be taken as the predicate, but because of the conjunction it seems to be adding another description of the place of its nest.
[39:29] 21 tn The word means “search,” but can be used for a wide range of matters, including spying.
[39:30] 23 tn The word חֲלָלִים (khalalim) designates someone who is fatally wounded, literally the “pierced one,” meaning anyone or thing that dies a violent death.
[41:4] 24 tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”
[41:4] 25 tn The imperfect verb serves to express what the covenant pact would cover, namely, “that you take.”
[41:5] 26 tn The Hebrew verb is שָׂחַק (sakhaq, “to sport; to trifle; to play,” Ps 104:26).
[41:5] 27 tn The idea may include putting Leviathan on a leash. D. W. Thomas suggested on the basis of an Arabic cognate that it could be rendered “tie him with a string like a young sparrow” (VT 14 [1964]: 114ff.).
[41:6] 28 tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore – which involves bargaining.
[41:6] 29 tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”
[41:6] 30 tn The verb means “to cut up; to divide up” in the sense of selling the dead body (see Exod 21:35). This will be between them and the merchants (כְּנַעֲנִים, kÿna’anim).
[41:8] 31 tn The verse uses two imperatives which can be interpreted in sequence: do this, and then this will happen.
[41:9] 32 sn Job 41:9 in the English Bible is 41:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). From here to the end of the chapter the Hebrew verse numbers differ from those in the English Bible, with 41:10 ET = 41:2 HT, 41:11 ET = 41:3 HT, etc. See also the note on 41:1.
[41:9] 33 tn The line is difficult. “His hope [= expectation]” must refer to any assailant who hopes or expects to capture the creature. Because there is no antecedent, Dhorme and others transpose it with the next verse. The point is that the man who thought he was sufficient to confront Leviathan soon finds his hope – his expectation – false (a derivative from the verb כָּזַב [kazab, “lie”] is used for a mirage).
[41:9] 34 tn There is an interrogative particle in this line, which most commentators ignore. But others freely emend the MT. Gunkel, following the mythological approach, has “his appearance casts down even a god.” Cheyne likewise has: “even divine beings the fear of him brings low” (JQR 9 [1896/97]: 579). Pope has, “Were not the gods cast down at the sight of him?” There is no need to bring in this mythological element.
[41:10] 35 sn The description is of the animal, not the hunter (or fisherman). Leviathan is so fierce that no one can take him on alone.
[41:10] 36 tc MT has “before me” and can best be rendered as “Who then is he that can stand before me?” (ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT, NJPS). The following verse (11) favors the MT since both express the lesson to be learned from Leviathan: If a man cannot stand up to Leviathan, how can he stand up to its creator? The translation above has chosen to read the text as “before him” (cf. NRSV, NJB).
[41:11] 37 tn The verb קָדַם (qadam) means “to come to meet; to come before; to confront” to the face.
[41:11] 38 sn The verse seems an intrusion (and so E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and many others change the pronouns to make it refer to the animal). But what the text is saying is that it is more dangerous to confront God than to confront this animal.
[41:11] 39 tn This line also focuses on the sovereign God rather than Leviathan. H. H. Rowley, however, wants to change לִי־חוּא (li-hu’, “it [belongs] to me”) into לֹא הוּא (lo’ hu’, “there is no one”). So it would say that there is no one under the whole heaven who could challenge Leviathan and live, rather than saying it is more dangerous to challenge God to make him repay.
[41:12] 40 tn Dhorme changes the noun into a verb, “I will tell,” and the last two words into אֵין עֶרֶךְ (’en ’erekh, “there is no comparison”). The result is “I will tell of his incomparable might.”
[41:13] 41 tn Heb “the face of his garment,” referring to the outer garment or covering. Some take it to be the front as opposed to the back.
[41:13] 42 tc The word רֶסֶן (resen) has often been rendered “bridle” (cf. ESV), but that leaves a number of unanswered questions. The LXX reads סִרְיוֹן (siryon), with the transposition of letters, but that means “coat of armor.” If the metathesis stands, there is also support from the cognate Akkadian.
[41:15] 44 tc The MT has גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “his pride”), but the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate all read גַּוּוֹ (gavvo, “his back”). Almost all the modern English versions follow the variant reading, speaking about “his [or its] back.”
[41:15] 45 tn Instead of צָר (tsar, “closely”) the LXX has צֹר (tsor, “stone”) to say that the seal was rock hard.
[41:16] 46 tn The expression “each one…to the next” is literally “one with one.”
[41:17] 47 tn Heb “a man with his brother.”
[41:18] 48 tn Heb “the eyelids,” but it represents the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts.
[41:19] 49 sn For the animal, the image is that of pent-up breath with water in a hot steam jet coming from its mouth, like a stream of fire in the rays of the sun. The language is hyperbolic, probably to reflect the pagan ideas of the dragon of the deep in a polemical way – they feared it as a fire breathing monster, but in reality it might have been a steamy crocodile.
[41:20] 50 tn The word “burning” is supplied. The Syriac and Vulgate have “a seething and boiling pot” (reading אֹגֵם [’ogem] for אַגְמֹן [’agmon]). This view is widely accepted.
[41:22] 51 tn This word, דְּאָבָה (dÿ’avah) is a hapax legomenon. But the verbal root means “to languish; to pine.” A related noun talks of dejection and despair in Deut 28:65. So here “despair” as a translation is preferable to “terror.”
[41:23] 53 tn The last clause says “it cannot be moved.” But this part will function adverbially in the sentence.
[41:24] 54 tn The description of his heart being “hard” means that he is cruel and fearless. The word for “hard” is the word encountered before for molten or cast metal.
[41:25] 55 tc This verse has created all kinds of problems for the commentators. The first part is workable: “when he raises himself up, the mighty [the gods] are terrified.” The mythological approach would render אֵלִים (’elim) as “gods.” But the last two words, which could be rendered “at the breaking [crashing, or breakers] they fail,” receive much attention. E. Dhorme (Job, 639) suggests “majesty” for “raising up” and “billows” (גַּלִּים, gallim) for אֵלִים (’elim), and gets a better parallelism: “the billows are afraid of his majesty, and the waves draw back.” But H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 263) does not think this is relevant to the context, which is talking about the creature’s defense against attack. The RSV works well for the first part, but the second part need some change; so Rowley adopts “in their dire consternation they are beside themselves.”
[41:26] 56 tn This is the clearest reading, following A. B. Davidson, Job, 285. The versions took different readings of the construction.
[41:26] 57 tn The verb קוּם (qum, “stand”) with בְּלִי (bÿli, “not”) has the sense of “does not hold firm,” or “gives way.”
[41:28] 58 tn Heb “the son of the bow.”
[41:29] 59 tn The verb is plural, but since there is no expressed subject it is translated as a passive here.
[41:30] 60 tn Heb “under him.”
[41:30] 61 tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”
[41:31] 62 sn The idea is either that the sea is stirred up like the foam from beating the ingredients together, or it is the musk-smell that is the point of comparison.
[41:33] 63 tn Heb “one who was made.”
[41:34] 64 tn Heb “the sons of pride.” Dhorme repoints the last word to get “all the wild beasts,” but this misses the point of the verse. This animal looks over every proud creature – but he is king of them all in that department.
