Job 4:5

4:5 But now the same thing ¹  comes to you,

and you are discouraged; ² 

it strikes you,

and you are terrified. ³ 

Job 5:26

5:26 You will come to your grave in a full age, ⁴ 

As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.

Job 6:8

A Cry for Death

6:8 “Oh that ⁵  my request would be realized, ⁶ 

and that God would grant me what I long for! ⁷ 

Job 27:9

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

Job 28:20

God Alone Has Wisdom

28:20 “But wisdom – where does it come from? ⁸ 

Where is the place of understanding?

[4:5]  ¹ tn The sentence has no subject, but the context demands that the subject be the same kind of trouble that has come upon people that Job has helped.

[4:5]  ² tn This is the same verb used in v. 2, meaning “to be exhausted” or “impatient.” Here with the vav (ו) consecutive the verb describes Job’s state of mind that is a consequence of the trouble coming on him. In this sentence the form is given a present tense translation (see GKC 329 §111.t).

[4:5]  ³ tn This final verb in the verse is vivid; it means “to terrify, dismay” (here the Niphal preterite). Job will go on to speak about all the terrors that come on him.

[5:26]  ⁴ tn The word translated “in a full age” has been given an array of meanings: “health; integrity”; “like a new blade of corn”; “in your strength [or vigor].” The numerical value of the letters in the word בְכֶלָח (bÿkhelakh, “in old age”) was 2, 20, 30, and 8, or 60. This led some of the commentators to say that at 60 one would enter the ripe old age (E. Dhorme, Job, 73).

[6:8]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew expresses the desire (desiderative clause) with “who will give?” (see GKC 477 §151.d).

[6:8]  ⁸ tn The verb בּוֹא (bo’, “go”) has the sense of “to be realized; to come to pass; to be fulfilled.” The optative “Who will give [that] my request be realized?” is “O that my request would be realized.”

[6:8]  ⁹ tn The text has תִקְוָתִי (tiqvati, “hope”). There is no reason to change the text to “my desire” (as Driver and others do) if the word is interpreted metonymically – it means “what I hope for.” What Job hopes for and asks for is death.

[28:20]  ¹⁰ tn The refrain is repeated, except now the verb is תָּבוֹא (tavo’, “come”).