Job 39:4

39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; ¹ 

they go off, and do not return to them.

Job 24:5

24:5 Like ²  wild donkeys in the desert

they ³  go out to their labor, ⁴ 

seeking diligently for food;

the wasteland provides ⁵  food for them

and for their children.

[39:4]  ¹ tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.

[24:5]  ² tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen); but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.

[24:5]  ³ tn That is, “the poor.”

[24:5]  ⁴ tc The MT has “in the working/labor of them,” or “when they labor.” Some commentators simply omit these words. Dhorme retains them and moves them to go with עֲרָבָה (’aravah), which he takes to mean “evening”; this gives a clause, “although they work until the evening.” Then, with many others, he takes לוֹ (lo) to be a negative and finishes the verse with “no food for the children.” Others make fewer changes in the text, and as a result do not come out with such a hopeless picture – there is some food found. The point is that they spend their time foraging for food, and they find just enough to survive, but it is a day-long activity. For Job, this shows how unrighteous the administration of the world actually is.

[24:5]  ⁵ tn The verb is not included in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation.