Discovery BoxJob 5:1
Context5:1 “Call now! 1 Is there anyone who will answer you? 2
To which of the holy ones 3 will you turn? 4
Job 26:1-14
Context26:1 Then Job replied:
26:2 “How you have helped 6 the powerless! 7
How you have saved the person who has no strength! 8
26:3 How you have advised the one without wisdom,
and abundantly 9 revealed your insight!
26:4 To whom 10 did you utter these words?
And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth? 11
26:5 “The dead 13 tremble 14 –
those beneath the waters
and all that live in them. 15
26:6 The underworld 16 is naked before God; 17
the place of destruction lies uncovered. 18
26:7 He spreads out the northern skies 19 over empty space; 20
he suspends the earth on nothing. 21
26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,
and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.
26:9 He conceals 22 the face of the full moon, 23
shrouding it with his clouds.
26:10 He marks out the horizon 24 on the surface of the waters
as a boundary between light and darkness.
26:11 The pillars 25 of the heavens tremble
and are amazed at his rebuke. 26
26:12 By his power he stills 27 the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster 28 to pieces. 29
26:13 By his breath 30 the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 31
26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! 32
How faint is the whisper 33 we hear of him!
But who can understand the thunder of his power?”
Job 28:1-28
ContextIII. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)
No Known Road to Wisdom 3428:1 “Surely 35 there is a mine 36 for silver,
and a place where gold is refined. 37
28:2 Iron is taken from the ground, 38
and rock is poured out 39 as copper.
28:3 Man puts an end to the darkness; 40
he searches the farthest recesses
for the ore in the deepest darkness. 41
28:4 Far from where people live 42 he sinks a shaft,
in places travelers have long forgotten, 43
far from other people he dangles and sways. 44
28:5 The earth, from which food comes,
is overturned below as though by fire; 45
28:6 a place whose stones are sapphires 46
and which contains dust of gold; 47
28:7 a hidden path 48 no bird of prey knows –
no falcon’s 49 eye has spotted it.
28:8 Proud beasts 50 have not set foot on it,
and no lion has passed along it.
28:9 On the flinty rock man has set to work 51 with his hand;
he has overturned mountains at their bases. 52
28:10 He has cut out channels 53 through the rocks;
his eyes have spotted 54 every precious thing.
28:11 He has searched 55 the sources 56 of the rivers
and what was hidden he has brought into the light.
28:12 “But wisdom – where can it be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
28:13 Mankind does not know its place; 57
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
28:14 The deep 58 says, ‘It is not with 59 me.’
And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
28:15 Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it,
nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
28:16 It cannot be measured out for purchase 60 with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx 61 or sapphires.
28:17 Neither gold nor crystal 62 can be compared with it,
nor can a vase 63 of gold match its worth.
28:18 Of coral and jasper no mention will be made;
the price 64 of wisdom is more than pearls. 65
28:19 The topaz of Cush 66 cannot be compared with it;
it cannot be purchased with pure gold.
28:20 “But wisdom – where does it come from? 67
Where is the place of understanding?
28:21 For 68 it has been hidden
from the eyes of every living creature,
and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.
28:22 Destruction 69 and Death say,
‘With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.’ 70
28:23 God understands the way to it,
and he alone knows its place.
28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth
and observes everything under the heavens.
28:25 When he made 71 the force of the wind
and measured 72 the waters with a gauge.
28:26 When he imposed a limit 73 for the rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm, 74
28:27 then he looked at wisdom 75 and assessed its value; 76
he established 77 it and examined it closely. 78
28:28 And he said to mankind,
‘The fear of the Lord 79 – that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” 80
[5:1] 1 tn Some commentators transpose this verse with the following paragraph, placing it after v. 7 (see E. Dhorme, Job, 62). But the reasons for this are based on the perceived development of the argument and are not that compelling.
[5:1] 2 tn The participle with the suffix could be given a more immediate translation to accompany the imperative: “Call now! Is anyone listening to you?”
[5:1] 3 tn The LXX has rendered “holy ones” as “holy angels” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT). The LXX has interpreted the verb in the colon too freely: “if you will see.”
[5:1] 4 sn The point being made is that the angels do not represent the cries of people to God as if mediating for them. But if Job appealed to any of them to take his case against God, there would be no response whatsoever for that.
[26:1] 5 sn These two chapters will be taken together under this title, although most commentators would assign Job 26:5-14 to Bildad and Job 27:7-23 to Zophar. Those sections will be noted as they emerge. For the sake of outlining, the following sections will be marked off: Job’s scorn for Bildad (26:2-4); a better picture of God’s greatness (26:5-14); Job’s protestation of innocence (27:2-6); and a picture of the condition of the wicked (27:7-23).
[26:2] 9 tn The interrogative clause is used here as an exclamation, and sarcastic at that. Job is saying “you have in no way helped the powerless.” The verb uses the singular form, for Job is replying to Bildad.
[26:2] 10 tn The “powerless” is expressed here by the negative before the word for “strength; power” – “him who has no power” (see GKC 482 §152.u, v).
[26:2] 11 tn Heb “the arm [with] no strength.” Here too the negative expression is serving as a relative clause to modify “arm,” the symbol of strength and power, which by metonymy stands for the whole person. “Man of arm” denoted the strong in 22:8.
[26:3] 13 tc The phrase לָרֹב (larov) means “to abundance” or “in a large quantity.” It is also used ironically like all these expressions. This makes very good sense, but some wish to see a closer parallel and so offer emendations. Reiske and Kissane thought “to the tender” for the word. But the timid are not the same as the ignorant and unwise. So Graetz supplied “to the boorish” by reading לְבָעַר (lÿba’ar). G. R. Driver did the same with less of a change: לַבּוֹר (labbor; HTR 29 [1936]: 172).
[26:4] 17 tn The verse begins with the preposition and the interrogative: אֶת־מִי (’et-mi, “with who[se help]?”). Others take it as the accusative particle introducing the indirect object: “for whom did you utter…” (see GKC 371 §117.gg). Both are possible.
[26:4] 18 tn Heb “has gone out from you.”
[26:5] 21 sn This is the section, Job 26:5-14, that many conclude makes better sense coming from the friend. But if it is attributed to Job, then he is showing he can surpass them in his treatise of the greatness of God.
[26:5] 22 tn The text has הָרְפָאִים (harÿfa’im, “the shades”), referring to the “dead,” or the elite among the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14; Ps 88:10 [11]). For further discussion, start with A. R. Johnson, The Vitality of the Individual, 88ff.
[26:5] 23 tn The verb is a Polal from חִיל (khil) which means “to tremble.” It shows that even these spirits cannot escape the terror.
[26:5] 24 tc Most commentators wish to lengthen the verse and make it more parallel, but nothing is gained by doing this.
[26:6] 26 tn Heb “before him.”
[26:6] 27 tn The line has “and there is no covering for destruction.” “Destruction” here is another name for Sheol: אֲבַדּוֹן (’avaddon, “Abaddon”).
[26:7] 29 sn The Hebrew word is צָפוֹן (tsafon). Some see here a reference to Mount Zaphon of the Ugaritic texts, the mountain that Baal made his home. The Hebrew writers often equate and contrast Mount Zion with this proud mountain of the north. Of course, the word just means north, and so in addition to any connotations for pagan mythology, it may just represent the northern skies – the stars. Since the parallel line speaks of the earth, that is probably all that was intended in this particular context.
[26:7] 30 sn There is an allusion to the creation account, for this word is תֹּהוּ (tohu), translated “without form” in Gen 1:2.
[26:7] 31 sn Buttenwieser suggests that Job had outgrown the idea of the earth on pillars, and was beginning to see it was suspended in space. But in v. 11 he will still refer to the pillars.
[26:9] 33 tn The verb means “to hold; to seize,” here in the sense of shutting up, enshrouding, or concealing.
[26:9] 34 tc The MT has כִסֵּה (khisseh), which is a problematic vocalization. Most certainly כֵּסֶה (keseh), alternative for כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”) is intended here. The MT is close to the form of “throne,” which would be כִּסֵּא (kisse’, cf. NLT “he shrouds his throne with his clouds”). But here God is covering the face of the moon by hiding it behind clouds.
[26:10] 37 tn The expression חֹק־חָג (khoq-khag) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג (khaq-khug, “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג (khug, “describe a circle”) respectively.
[26:11] 41 sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 173) says these are the great mountains, perceived to hold up the sky.
[26:11] 42 sn The idea here is that when the earth quakes, or when there is thunder in the heavens, these all represent God’s rebuke, for they create terror.
[26:12] 45 tn The verb רָגַע (raga’) has developed a Semitic polarity, i.e., having totally opposite meanings. It can mean “to disturb; to stir up” or “to calm; to still.” Gordis thinks both meanings have been invoked here. But it seems more likely that “calm” fits the context better.
[26:12] 46 tn Heb “Rahab” (רָהַב), the mythical sea monster that represents the forces of chaos in ancient Near Eastern literature. In the translation the words “the great sea monster” have been supplied appositionally in order to clarify “Rahab.”
[26:12] 47 sn Here again there are possible mythological allusions or polemics. The god Yam, “Sea,” was important in Ugaritic as a god of chaos. And Rahab is another name for the monster of the deep (see Job 9:13).
[26:13] 49 tn Or “wind”; or perhaps “Spirit.” The same Hebrew word, רוּחַ (ruakh), may be translated as “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit/Spirit” depending on the context.
[26:13] 50 sn Here too is a reference to pagan views indirectly. The fleeing serpent was a designation for Leviathan, whom the book will simply describe as an animal, but the pagans thought to be a monster of the deep. God’s power over nature is associated with defeat of pagan gods (see further W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan; idem, BASOR 53 [1941]: 39).
[26:14] 53 tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”
[26:14] 54 tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”
[28:1] 57 sn As the book is now arranged, this chapter forms an additional speech by Job, although some argue that it comes from the writer of the book. The mood of the chapter is not despair, but wisdom; it anticipates the divine speeches in the end of the book. This poem, like many psalms in the Bible, has a refrain (vv. 12 and 20). These refrains outline the chapter, giving three sections: there is no known road to wisdom (1-11); no price can buy it (12-19); and only God has it, and only by revelation can man posses it (20-28).
[28:1] 58 tn The poem opens with כִּי (ki). Some commentators think this should have been “for,” and that the poem once stood in another setting. But there are places in the Bible where this word occurs with the sense of “surely” and no other meaning (cf. Gen 18:20).
[28:1] 59 tn The word מוֹצָא (motsa’, from יָצָא [yatsa’, “go out”]) is the word for “mine,” or more simply, “source.” Mining was not an enormous industry in the land of Canaan or Israel; mined products were imported. Some editors have suggested alternative readings: Dahood found in the word the root for “shine” and translated the MT as “smelter.” But that is going too far. P. Joüon suggested “place of finding,” reading מִמְצָא (mimtsa’) for מוֹצָא (motsa’; see Bib 11 [1930]: 323).
[28:1] 60 tn The verb יָזֹקּוּ (yazoqqu) translated “refined,” comes from זָקַק (zaqaq), a word that basically means “to blow.” From the meaning “to blow; to distend; to inflate” derives the meaning for refining.
[28:2] 62 tn The verb יָצוּק (yatsuq) is usually translated as a passive participle “is smelted” (from יָצַק [yatsaq, “to melt”]): “copper is smelted from the ore” (ESV) or “from the stone, copper is poured out” (as an imperfect from צוּק [tsuq]). But the rock becomes the metal in the process. So according to R. Gordis (Job, 304) the translation should be: “the rock is poured out as copper.” E. Dhorme (Job, 400), however, defines the form in the text as “hard,” and simply has it “hard stone becomes copper.”
[28:3] 65 sn The text appears at first to be saying that by opening up a mine shaft, or by taking lights down below, the miner dispels the darkness. But the clause might be more general, meaning that man goes deep into the earth as if it were day.
[28:3] 66 tn The verse ends with “the stone of darkness and deep darkness.” The genitive would be location, describing the place where the stones are found.
[28:4] 69 tc The first part of this verse, “He cuts a shaft far from the place where people live,” has received a lot of attention. The word for “live” is גָּר (gar). Some of the proposals are: “limestone,” on the basis of the LXX; “far from the light,” reading נֵר (ner); “by a foreign people,” taking the word to means “foreign people”; “a foreign people opening shafts”; or taking gar as “crater” based on Arabic. Driver puts this and the next together: “a strange people who have been forgotten cut shafts” (see AJSL 3 [1935]: 162). L. Waterman had “the people of the lamp” (“Note on Job 28:4,” JBL 71 [1952]: 167ff). And there are others. Since there is really no compelling argument in favor of one of these alternative interpretations, the MT should be preserved until shown to be wrong.
[28:4] 70 tn Heb “forgotten by the foot.” This means that there are people walking above on the ground, and the places below, these mines, are not noticed by the pedestrians above.
[28:4] 71 sn This is a description of the mining procedures. Dangling suspended from a rope would be a necessary part of the job of going up and down the shafts.
[28:5] 73 sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.
[28:6] 77 tn It is probably best to take “place” in construct to the rest of the colon, with an understood relative clause: “a place, the rocks of which are sapphires.”
[28:6] 78 sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 181) suggests that if it is lapis lazuli, then the dust of gold would refer to the particles of iron pyrite found in lapis lazuli which glitter like gold.
[28:7] 81 tn The “path” could refer to the mine shaft or it could refer to wisdom. The former seems more likely in the present context; the word “hidden is supplied in the translation to indicate the mines are “hidden” from sharp-eyed birds of prey above.
[28:7] 82 sn The kind of bird mentioned here is debated. The LXX has “vulture,” and so some commentaries follow that. The emphasis on the sight favors the view that it is the falcon.
[28:8] 85 tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.
[28:9] 89 tn The Hebrew verb is simply “to stretch out; to send” (שָׁלח, shalakh). With יָדוֹ (yado, “his hand”) the idea is that of laying one’s hand on the rock, i.e., getting to work on the hardest of rocks.
[28:9] 90 tn The Hebrew מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ (mishoresh) means “from/at [their] root [or base].” In mining, people have gone below ground, under the mountains, and overturned rock and dirt. It is also interesting that here in a small way humans do what God does – overturn mountains (cf. 9:5).
[28:10] 93 tn Or “tunnels.” The word is יְאֹרִים (yÿ’orim), the word for “rivers” and in the singular, the Nile River. Here it refers to tunnels or channels through the rocks.
[28:10] 94 tn Heb “his eye sees.”
[28:11] 97 tc The translation “searched” follows the LXX and Vulgate; the MT reads “binds up” or “dams up.” This latter translation might refer to the damming of water that might seep into a mine (HALOT 289 s.v. חבשׁ; cf. ESV, NJPS, NASB, REB, NLT).
[28:11] 98 tc The older translations had “he binds the streams from weeping,” i.e., from trickling (מִבְּכִי, mibbÿkhi). But the Ugaritic parallel has changed the understanding, reading “toward the spring of the rivers” (`m mbk nhrm). Earlier than that discovery, the versions had taken the word as a noun as well. Some commentators had suggested repointing the Hebrew. Some chose מַבְּכֵי (mabbÿkhe, “sources”). Now there is much Ugaritic support for the reading (see G. M. Landes, BASOR 144 [1956]: 32f.; and H. L. Ginsberg, “The Ugaritic texts and textual criticism,” JBL 62 [1943]: 111).
[28:13] 101 tc The LXX has “its way, apparently reading דַּרְכָה (darkhah) in place of עֶרְכָּהּ (’erkah, “place”). This is adopted by most modern commentators. But R. Gordis (Job, 308) shows that this change is not necessary, for עֶרֶךְ (’erekh) in the Bible means “order; row; disposition,” and here “place.” An alternate meaning would be “worth” (NIV, ESV).
[28:14] 105 sn The תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) is the “deep” of Gen 1:2, the abyss or primordial sea. It was always understood to be a place of darkness and danger. As remote as it is, it asserts that wisdom is not found there (personification). So here we have the abyss and the sea, then death and destruction – but they are not the places that wisdom resides.
[28:14] 106 tn The בּ (bet) preposition is taken here to mean “with” in the light of the parallel preposition.
[28:16] 109 tn The word actually means “weighed,” that is, lifted up on the scale and weighed, in order to purchase.
[28:16] 110 tn The exact identification of these stones is uncertain. Many recent English translations, however, have “onyx” and “sapphires.”
[28:17] 113 tn The word is from זָכַךְ (zakhakh, “clear”). It describes a transparent substance, and so “glass” is an appropriate translation. In the ancient world it was precious and so expensive.
[28:17] 114 tc The MT has “vase”; but the versions have a plural here, suggesting jewels of gold.
[28:18] 117 tn The word מֶשֶׁךְ (meshekh) comes from a root meaning “to grasp; to seize; to hold,” and so the derived noun means “grasping; acquiring; taking possession,” and therefore, “price” (see the discussion in R. Gordis, Job, 309). Gray renders it “acquisition” (so A. Cohen, AJSL 40 [1923/24]: 175).
[28:18] 118 tn In Lam 4:7 these are described as red, and so have been identified as rubies (so NIV) or corals.
[28:19] 121 tn Or “Ethiopia.” In ancient times this referred to the region of the upper Nile, rather than modern Ethiopia (formerly known as Abyssinia).
[28:20] 125 tn The refrain is repeated, except now the verb is תָּבוֹא (tavo’, “come”).
[28:21] 129 tn The vav on the verb is unexpressed in the LXX. It should not be overlooked, for it introduces a subordinate clause of condition (R. Gordis, Job, 310).
[28:22] 134 tn Heb “heard a report of it,” which means a report of its location, thus “where it can be found.”
[28:25] 137 tn Heb “he gave weight to the wind.” The form is the infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition. Some have emended it to change the preposition to the temporal בּ (bet) on the basis of some of the versions (e.g., Latin and Syriac) that have “who made.” This is workable, for the infinitive would then take on the finite tense of the previous verbs. An infinitive of purpose does not work well, for that would be saying God looked everywhere in order to give wind its proper weight (see R. Gordis, Job, 310).
[28:25] 138 tn The verb is the Piel perfect, meaning “to estimate the measure” of something. In the verse, the perfect verb continues the function of the infinitive preceding it, as if it had a ו (vav) prefixed to it. Whatever usage that infinitive had, this verb is to continue it (see GKC 352 §114.r).
[28:26] 142 tn Or “thunderbolt,” i.e., lightning. Heb “the roaring of voices/sounds,” which describes the nature of the storm.
[28:27] 145 tn Heb “it”; the referent (wisdom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[28:27] 146 tn The verb סָפַר (safar) in the Piel basically means “to tell; to declare; to show” or “to count; to number.” Many commentators offer different suggestions for the translation. “Declared” (as in the RSV, NASB, and NRSV) would be the simplest – but to whom did God declare it? Besides “appraised” which is the view of Pope, Dhorme and others (cf. NAB, NIV), J. Reider has suggested “probed” (“Etymological studies in biblical Hebrew,” VT 2 [1952]: 127), Strahan has “studied,” and Kissane has “reckoned.” The difficulty is that the line has a series of verbs, which seem to build to a climax; but without more details it is hard to know how to translate them when they have such a range of meaning.
[28:27] 147 tc The verb כּוּן (kun) means “to establish; to prepare” in this stem. There are several
[28:27] 148 tn The verb חָקַר (khaqar) means “to examine; to search out.” Some of the language used here is anthropomorphic, for the sovereign
[28:28] 149 tc A number of medieval Hebrew manuscripts have YHWH (“
[28:28] 150 tc Many commentators delete this verse because (1) many read the divine name Yahweh (translated “
