Job 4:11

4:11 The mighty lion ¹  perishes ²  for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness ³  are scattered.

Job 5:4

5:4 His children are far ⁴  from safety,

and they are crushed ⁵  at the place where judgment is rendered, ⁶ 

nor is there anyone to deliver them. ⁷ 

Job 5:7

5:7 but people ⁸  are born ⁹  to trouble,

as surely as the sparks ¹⁰  fly ¹¹  upward. ¹² 

Job 8:4

8:4 If ¹³  your children sinned against him,

he gave them over ¹⁴  to the penalty ¹⁵  of their sin.

Job 14:21

14:21 If ¹⁶  his sons are honored, ¹⁷ 

he does not know it; ¹⁸ 

if they are brought low,

he does not see ¹⁹  it.

Job 16:21

16:21 and ²⁰  he contends with God on behalf of man

as a man ²¹  pleads ²²  for his friend.

Job 21:19

21:19 You may say, ²³  ‘God stores up a man’s ²⁴  punishment for his children!’ ²⁵ 

Instead let him repay ²⁶  the man himself ²⁷ 

so that ²⁸  he may know it!

Job 25:6

25:6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot ²⁹  –

a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Job 28:8

28:8 Proud beasts ³⁰  have not set foot on it,

and no lion has passed along it.

Job 38:7

38:7 when the morning stars ³¹  sang ³²  in chorus, ³³ 

and all the sons of God ³⁴  shouted for joy?

Job 38:32

38:32 Can you lead out

the constellations ³⁵  in their seasons,

or guide the Bear with its cubs? ³⁶ 

Job 39:4

39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; ³⁷ 

they go off, and do not return to them.

Job 39:16

39:16 She is harsh ³⁸  with her young,

as if they were not hers;

she is unconcerned

about the uselessness of her labor.

[4:11]  ¹ tn The word לַיִשׁ (layish) traditionally rendered “strong lion,” occurs only here and in Prov 30:30 and Isa 30:6. It has cognates in several of the Semitic languages, and so seems to indicate lion as king of the beasts.

[4:11]  ² tn The form of the verb is the Qal active participle; it stresses the characteristic action of the verb as if a standard universal truth.

[4:11]  ³ tn The text literally has “sons of the lioness.”

[5:4]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse describe the condition of the accursed situation. Some commentators follow the LXX and take these as jussives, making this verse the curse that the man pronounced upon the fool. Rashi adds “This is the malediction with which I have cursed him.” That would make the speaker the one calling down the judgment on the fool rather than responding by observation how God destroyed the habitation of the fool.

[5:4]  ⁵ tn The verb יִדַּכְּאוּ (yiddakkÿ’u) could be taken as the passive voice, or in the reciprocal sense (“crush one another”) or reflexive (“crush themselves”). The context favors the idea that the children of the foolish person will be destroyed because there is no one who will deliver them.

[5:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the gate.” The city gate was the place of both business and justice. The sense here seems to fit the usage of gates as the place of legal disputes, so the phrase “at the place of judgment” has been used in the translation.

[5:4]  ⁷ tn The text simply says “and there is no deliverer.” The entire clause could be subordinated to the preceding clause, and rendered simply “without a deliverer.”

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “man [is].” Because “man” is used in a generic sense for humanity here, the generic “people” has been used in the translation.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn There is a slight difficulty here in that vv. 6 and 7 seem to be saying the opposite thing. Many commentators, therefore, emend the the Niphal יוּלָּד (yullad, “is born”) to an active participle יוֹלֵד (yoled, “begets”) to place the source of trouble in man himself. But the LXX seems to retain the passive idea: “man is born to trouble.” The contrast between the two verses does not seem too difficult, for it still could imply that trouble’s source is within the man.

[5:7]  ⁹ tn For the Hebrew בְנֵי־רֶשֶׁף (bÿne reshef, “sons of the flame”) the present translation has the rendering “sparks.” E. Dhorme (Job, 62) thinks it refers to some kind of bird, but renders it “sons of the lightning” because the eagle was associated with lightning in ancient interpretations. Sparks, he argues, do not soar high above the earth. Other suggestions include Resheph, the Phoenician god of lightning (Pope), the fire of passion (Buttenwieser), angels (Peake), or demons (Targum Job). None of these are convincing; the idea of sparks flying upward fits the translation well and makes clear sense in the passage.

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn The simple translation of the last two words is “fly high” or “soar aloft” which would suit the idea of an eagle. But, as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 53) concludes, the argument to identify the expression preceding this with eagles is far-fetched.

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn The LXX has the name of a bird here: “the vulture’s young seek the high places.” The Targum to Job has “sons of demons” or “the sparks which shoot from coals of fire.”

[8:4]  ¹⁰ tn The AV and RV take the protasis down to the middle of v. 6. The LXX changes the “if” at the beginning of v. 5 to “then” and makes that verse the apodosis. If the apodosis comes in the second half of v. 4, then v. 4 would be a complete sentence (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 71; A. B. Davidson, Job, 60). The particle אִם (’im) has the sense of “since” in this section.

[8:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb is a Piel preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive. The ו (vav) need not be translated if the second half of the verse is the apodosis of the first – since they sinned…he did this. The verb שִׁלֵּחַ (shilleakh) means “to expel; to thrust out” normally; here the sense of “deliver up” or “deliver over” fits the sentence well. The verse is saying that sin carries its own punishment, and so God merely delivered the young people over to it.

[8:4]  ¹² tn Heb “into the hand of their rebellion.” The word “hand” often signifies “power.” The rebellious acts have the power to destroy, and so that is what happened – according to Bildad. Bildad’s point is that Job should learn from what happened to his family.

[14:21]  ¹³ tn The clause may be interpreted as a conditional clause, with the second clause beginning with the conjunction serving as the apodosis.

[14:21]  ¹⁴ tn There is no expressed subject for the verb “they honor,” and so it may be taken as a passive.

[14:21]  ¹⁵ sn Death is separation from the living, from the land of the living. And ignorance of what goes on in this life, good or bad, is part of death. See also Eccl 9:5-6, which makes a similar point.

[14:21]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is בִּין (bin, “to perceive; to discern”). The parallelism between “know” and “perceive” stress the point that in death a man does not realize what is happening here in the present life.

[16:21]  ¹⁶ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 240) alters this slightly to read “Would that” or “Ah! if only.”

[16:21]  ¹⁷ tn This is the simple translation of the expression “son of man” in Job. But some commentators wish to change the word בֵּן (ben, “son”) to בֵּין (ben, “between”). It would then be “[as] between a man and [for] his friend.” Even though a few mss have this reading, it is to be rejected. But see J. Barr, “Some Notes on ‘ben’ in Classical Hebrew,” JSS 23 (1978): 1-22.

[16:21]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is supplied from the parallel clause.

[21:19]  ¹⁹ tn These words are supplied. The verse records an idea that Job suspected they might have, namely, that if the wicked die well God will make their children pay for the sins (see Job 5:4; 20:10; as well as Exod 20:5).

[21:19]  ²⁰ tn The text simply has אוֹנוֹ (’ono, “his iniquity”), but by usage, “the punishment for the iniquity.”

[21:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “his sons.”

[21:19]  ²² tn The verb שָׁלַם (shalam) in the Piel has the meaning of restoring things to their normal, making whole, and so reward, repay (if for sins), or recompense in general.

[21:19]  ²³ tn The text simply has “let him repay [to] him.”

[21:19]  ²⁴ tn The imperfect verb after the jussive carries the meaning of a purpose clause, and so taken as a final imperfect: “in order that he may know [or realize].”

[25:6]  ²² tn The text just has “maggot” and in the second half “worm.” Something has to be added to make it a bit clearer. The terms “maggot” and “worm” describe man in his lowest and most ignominious shape.

[28:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.

[38:7]  ²⁸ sn The expression “morning stars” (Heb “stars of the morning”) is here placed in parallelism to the angels, “the sons of God.” It may refer to the angels under the imagery of the stars, or, as some prefer, it may poetically include all creation. There is a parallel also with the foundation of the temple which was accompanied by song (see Ezra 3:10,11). But then the account of the building of the original tabernacle was designed to mirror creation (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

[38:7]  ²⁹ tn The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן (ranan), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav (ו) consecutive preterite.

[38:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

[38:7]  ³¹ tn See Job 1:6.

[38:32]  ³¹ tn The word מַזָּרוֹת (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kgs 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for “crown,” and so “corona.”

[38:32]  ³² sn See Job 9:9.

[39:4]  ³⁴ tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.

[39:16]  ³⁷ sn This verb, “to deal harshly; to harden; to treat cruelly,” is used for hardening the heart elsewhere (see Isa 63:17).