Job 5:17

5:17 “Therefore, ¹  blessed ²  is the man whom God corrects, ³ 

so do not despise the discipline ⁴  of the Almighty. ⁵ 

Job 7:17

Insignificance of Humans

7:17 “What is mankind ⁶  that you make so much of them, ⁷ 

and that you pay attention ⁸  to them?

Job 9:32

9:32 For he ⁹  is not a human being like I am,

that ¹⁰  I might answer him,

that we might come ¹¹  together in judgment.

Job 11:2

11:2 “Should not this ¹²  abundance of words be answered, ¹³ 

or should this ¹⁴  talkative man ¹⁵ 

be vindicated? ¹⁶ 

Job 12:14

12:14 If ¹⁷  he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt;

if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. ¹⁸ 

Job 13:9

13:9 Would it turn out well if he would examine ¹⁹  you?

Or as one deceives ²⁰  a man would you deceive him?

Job 14:19

14:19 as water wears away stones,

and torrents ²¹  wash away the soil, ²² 

so you destroy man’s hope. ²³ 

Job 25:4

25:4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure? ²⁴ 

Job 27:13

27:13 This is the portion of the wicked man

allotted by God, ²⁵ 

the inheritance that evildoers receive

from the Almighty.

Job 28:3

28:3 Man puts an end to the darkness; ²⁶ 

he searches the farthest recesses

for the ore in the deepest darkness. ²⁷ 

Job 28:13

28:13 Mankind does not know its place; ²⁸ 

it cannot be found in the land of the living.

Job 32:8

32:8 But it is a spirit in people,

the breath ²⁹  of the Almighty,

that makes them understand.

Job 33:12

33:12 Now in this, you are not right – I answer you, ³⁰ 

for God is greater than a human being. ³¹ 

Job 37:7

37:7 He causes everyone to stop working, ³² 

so that all people ³³  may know ³⁴  his work.

[5:17]  ¹ tn The particle “therefore” links this section to the preceding; it points this out as the logical consequence of the previous discussion, and more generally, as the essence of Job’s suffering.

[5:17]  ² tn The word אַשְׁרֵי (’ashre, “blessed”) is often rendered “happy.” But “happy” relates to what happens. “Blessed” is a reference to the heavenly bliss of the one who is right with God.

[5:17]  ³ tn The construction is an implied relative clause. The literal rendering would simply be “the man God corrects him.” The suffix on the verb is a resumptive pronoun, completing the use of the relative clause. The verb יָכַח (yakhakh) is a legal term; it always has some sense of a charge, dispute, or conflict. Its usages show that it may describe a strife breaking out, a charge or quarrel in progress, or the settling of a dispute (Isa 1:18). The derived noun can mean “reproach; recrimination; charge” (13:6; 23:4). Here the emphasis is on the consequence of the charge brought, namely, the correction.

[5:17]  ⁴ tn The noun מוּסַר (musar) is parallel to the idea of the first colon. It means “discipline, correction” (from יָסַר, yasar). Prov 3:11 says almost the same thing as this line.

[5:17]  ⁵ sn The name Shaddai occurs 31 times in the book. This is its first occurrence. It is often rendered “Almighty” because of the LXX and some of the early fathers. The etymology and meaning of the word otherwise remains uncertain, in spite of attempts to connect it to “mountains” or “breasts.”

[7:17]  ⁶ tn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is intended to mean that man is too little for God to be making so much over him in all this.

[7:17]  ⁷ tn The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them.

[7:17]  ⁸ tn The expression “set your heart on” means “concentrate your mind on” or “pay attention to.”

[9:32]  ¹¹ tn The personal pronoun that would be expected as the subject of a noun clause is sometimes omitted (see GKC 360 §116.s). Here it has been supplied.

[9:32]  ¹² tn The consecutive clause is here attached without the use of the ו (vav), but only by simple juxtaposition (see GKC 504-5 §166.a).

[9:32]  ¹³ tn The sense of the verb “come” with “together in judgment” means “to confront one another in court.” See Ps 143:2.

[11:2]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX, Targum Job, Symmachus, and Vulgate all assume that the vocalization of רֹב (rov, “abundance”) should be רַב (rav, “great”): “great of words.” This would then mean “one who is abundant of words,” meaning, “a man of many words,” and make a closer parallel to the second half. But the MT makes good sense as it stands.

[11:2]  ¹⁷ tn The Niphal verb יֵעָנֶה (ye’aneh, “he answered”) would normally require a personal subject, but “abundance” functions as the subject in this sentence. The nuance of the imperfect is obligatory.

[11:2]  ¹⁸ tn The word is supplied here also for clarification.

[11:2]  ¹⁹ tn The bound construction “man of lips” means “a boaster” or “proud talker” (attributive genitive; and see GKC 417 §128.t). Zophar is saying that Job pours out this stream of words, but he is still not right.

[11:2]  ²⁰ tn The word is literally “be right, righteous.” The idea of being right has appeared before for this word (cf. 9:15). The point here is that just because Job talks a lot does not mean he is right or will be shown to be right through it all.

[12:14]  ²¹ tn The use of הֵן (hen, equivalent to הִנֵּה, hinneh, “behold”) introduces a hypothetical condition.

[12:14]  ²² tn The verse employs antithetical ideas: “tear down” and “build up,” “imprison” and “escape.” The Niphal verbs in the sentences are potential imperfects. All of this is to say that humans cannot reverse the will of God.

[13:9]  ²⁶ tn The verb חָפַר (khafar) means “to search out, investigate, examine.” In the conditional clause the imperfect verb expresses the hypothetical case.

[13:9]  ²⁷ tn Both the infinitive and the imperfect of תָּלַל (talal, “deceive, mock”) retain the ה (he) (GKC 148 §53.q). But for the alternate form, see F. C. Fensham, “The Stem HTL in Hebrew,” VT 9 (1959): 310-11. The infinitive is used here in an adverbial sense after the preposition.

[14:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.

[14:19]  ³² tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”

[14:19]  ³³ sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.

[25:4]  ³⁶ sn Bildad here does not come up with new expressions; rather, he simply uses what Eliphaz had said (see Job 4:17-19 and 15:14-16).

[27:13]  ⁴¹ tn The expression “allotted by God” interprets the simple prepositional phrase in the text: “with/from God.”

[28:3]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ 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.

[28:13]  ⁵¹ 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).

[32:8]  ⁵⁶ tn This is the word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah, “breath”); according to Gen 2:7 it was breathed into Adam to make him a living person (“soul”). With that divine impartation came this spiritual understanding. Some commentators identify the רוּחַ (ruakh) in the first line as the Spirit of God; this “breath” would then be the human spirit. Whether Elihu knew that much, however, is hard to prove.

[33:12]  ⁶¹ tn The meaning of this verb is “this is my answer to you.”

[33:12]  ⁶² tc The LXX has “he that is above men is eternal.” Elihu is saying that God is far above Job’s petty problems.

[37:7]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.

[37:7]  ⁶⁷ tc This reading involves a change in the text, for in MT “men” is in the construct. It would be translated, “all men whom he made” (i.e., all men of his making”). This is the translation followed by the NIV and NRSV. Olshausen suggested that the word should have been אֲנָשִׁים (’anashim) with the final ם (mem) being lost to haplography.

[37:7]  ⁶⁸ tn D. W. Thomas suggested a meaning of “rest” for the verb, based on Arabic. He then reads אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) for man, and supplies a ם (mem) to “his work” to get “that every man might rest from his work [in the fields].”