Job 4:21

4:21 Is not their excess wealth ¹  taken away from them? ² 

They die, ³  yet without attaining wisdom. ⁴ 

Job 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ⁵  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ⁶ 

Job 8:10

8:10 Will they not ⁷  instruct you and ⁸  speak to you,

and bring forth words ⁹ 

from their understanding? ¹⁰ 

Job 12:11

12:11 Does not the ear test words,

as ¹¹  the tongue ¹²  tastes food? ¹³ 

Job 13:11

13:11 Would not his splendor ¹⁴  terrify ¹⁵  you

and the fear he inspires ¹⁶  fall on you?

Job 21:29

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

Do you not recognize their accounts ¹⁷  –

Job 31:4

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

Job 31:15

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? ¹⁸ 

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

[4:21]  ¹ tn The word יֶתֶר (yeter, here with the suffix, יִתְרָם [yitram]) can mean “what remains” or “rope.” Of the variety of translations, the most frequently used idea seems to be “their rope,” meaning their tent cord. This would indicate that their life was compared to a tent – perfectly reasonable in a passage that has already used the image “houses of clay.” The difficulty is that the verb נָסַע (nasa’) means more properly “to tear up; to uproot.” and not “to cut off.” A similar idea is found in Isa 38:12, but there the image is explicitly that of cutting the life off from the loom. Some have posited that the original must have said their tent peg was pulled up” as in Isa 33:20 (A. B. Davidson, Job, 34; cf. NAB). But perhaps the idea of “what remains” would be easier to defend here. Besides, it is used in 22:20. The wealth of an individual is what has been acquired and usually is left over when he dies. Here it would mean that the superfluous wealth would be snatched away. The preposition בּ (bet) would carry the meaning “from” with this verb.

[4:21]  ² tc The text of the LXX does not seem to be connected to the Hebrew of v. 21a. It reads something like “for he blows on them and they are withered” (see Isa 40:24b). The Targum to Job has “Is it not by their lack of righteousness that they have been deprived of all support?”

[4:21]  ³ sn They die. This clear verb interprets all the images in these verses – they die. When the house of clay collapses, or when their excess perishes – their life is over.

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and without wisdom.” The word “attaining” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[7:1]  ⁵ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ⁶ tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[8:10]  ⁹ tn The sentence begins emphatically: “Is it not they.”

[8:10]  ¹⁰ tn The “and” is not present in the line. The second clause seems to be in apposition to the first, explaining it more thoroughly: “Is it not they [who] will instruct you, [who] will speak to you.”

[8:10]  ¹¹ tn The noun may have been left indeterminate for the sake of emphasis (GKC 401-2 §125.c), meaning “important words.”

[8:10]  ¹² tn Heb “from their heart.”

[12:11]  ¹³ tn The ו (vav) introduces the comparison here (see 5:7; 11:12); see GKC 499 §161.a.

[12:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the palate.”

[12:11]  ¹⁵ tn The final preposition with its suffix is to be understood as a pleonastic dativus ethicus and not translated (see GKC 439 §135.i).

[13:11]  ¹⁷ sn The word translated “his majesty” or “his splendor” (שְׂאֵתוֹ, sÿ’eto) forms a play on the word “show partiality” (תִּשָּׂאוּן, tissa’un) in the last verse. They are both from the verb נָשַׂא (nasa’, “to lift up”).

[13:11]  ¹⁸ tn On this verb in the Piel, see 7:14.

[13:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “His dread”; the suffix is a subjective genitive.

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

[31:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).