Job 6:2-3

6:2 “Oh, ¹  if only my grief ²  could be weighed, ³ 

and my misfortune laid ⁴  on the scales too! ⁵ 

6:3 But because it is heavier ⁶  than the sand ⁷  of the sea,

that is why my words have been wild. ⁸ 

Job 16:14

16:14 He breaks through against me, time and time again; ⁹ 

he rushes ¹⁰  against me like a warrior.

Job 19:9-10

19:9 He has stripped me of my honor

and has taken the crown off my head. ¹¹ 

19:10 He tears me down ¹²  on every side until I perish; ¹³ 

he uproots ¹⁴  my hope ¹⁵  like one uproots ¹⁶  a tree.

Job 23:2

23:2 “Even today my complaint is still bitter; ¹⁷ 

his ¹⁸  hand is heavy despite ¹⁹  my groaning.

Isaiah 28:19

28:19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;

indeed, ²⁰  every morning it will sweep by,

it will come through during the day and the night.” ²¹ 

When this announcement is understood,

it will cause nothing but terror.

Jeremiah 51:31

51:31 One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon.

One messenger after another will come bringing news. ²² 

They will bring news to the king of Babylon

that his whole city has been captured. ²³ 

Lamentations 1:12

ל (Lamed)

1:12 Is it nothing to you, ²⁴  all you who pass by on the road? ²⁵ 

Look and see!

Is there any pain like mine?

The Lord ²⁶  has afflicted me, ²⁷ 

he ²⁸  has inflicted it on me

when ²⁹  he burned with anger. ³⁰ 

Amos 4:6-11

4:6 “But surely I gave ³¹  you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live. ³² 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ³³ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ³⁴  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ³⁵  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ³⁶  water,

but remained thirsty. ³⁷ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ³⁸  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ³⁹  devouring your orchards, ⁴⁰  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ⁴¹ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ⁴²  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God ⁴³  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ⁴⁴ 

You were like a burning stick ⁴⁵  snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

[6:2]  ¹ tn The conjunction לוּ (lu, “if, if only”) introduces the wish – an unrealizable wish – with the Niphal imperfect.

[6:2]  ² tn Job pairs כַּעְסִי (ka’si, “my grief”) and הַיָּתִי (hayyati, “my misfortune”). The first word, used in Job 4:2, refers to Job’s whole demeanor that he shows his friends – the impatient and vexed expression of his grief. The second word expresses his misfortune, the cause of his grief. Job wants these placed together in the balances so that his friends could see the misfortune is greater than the grief. The word for “misfortune” is a Kethib-Qere reading. The two words have essentially the same meaning; they derive from the verb הָוַה (havah, “to fall”) and so mean a misfortune.

[6:2]  ³ tn The Qal infinitive absolute is here used to intensify the Niphal imperfect (see GKC 344-45 §113.w). The infinitive absolute intensifies the wish as well as the idea of weighing.

[6:2]  ⁴ tn The third person plural verb is used here; it expresses an indefinite subject and is treated as a passive (see GKC 460 §144.g).

[6:2]  ⁵ tn The adverb normally means “together,” but it can also mean “similarly, too.” In this verse it may not mean that the two things are to be weighed together, but that the whole calamity should be put on the scales (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).

[6:3]  ⁶ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 76) notes that כִּי־עַתָּה (ki ’attah) has no more force than “but”; and that the construction is the same as in 17:4; 20:19-21; 23:14-15. The initial clause is causative, and the second half of the verse gives the consequence (“because”…“that is why”). Others take 3a as the apodosis of v. 2, and translate it “for now it would be heavier…” (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).

[6:3]  ⁷ sn The point of the comparison with the sand of the sea is that the sand is immeasurable. So the grief of Job cannot be measured.

[6:3]  ⁸ tn The verb לָעוּ (la’u) is traced by E. Dhorme (Job, 76) to a root לָעָה (la’ah), cognate to an Arabic root meaning “to chatter.” He shows how modern Hebrew has a meaning for the word “to stammer out.” But that does not really fit Job’s outbursts. The idea in the context is rather that of speaking wildly, rashly, or charged with grief. This would trace the word to a hollow or geminate word and link it to Arabic “talk wildly” (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 158). In the older works the verb was taken from a geminate root meaning “to suck” or “to swallow” (cf. KJV), but that yields a very difficult sense to the line.

[16:14]  ⁹ tn The word פָּרַץ (parats) means “to make a breach” in a wall (Isa 5:5; Ps 80:13). It is used figuratively in the birth and naming of Peres in Gen 38:29. Here the image is now of a military attack that breaks through a wall. The text uses the cognate accusative, and then with the addition of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “in addition”) it repeats the cognate noun. A smooth translation that reflects the three words is difficult. E. Dhorme (Job, 237) has “he batters me down, breach upon breach.”

[16:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “runs.”

[19:9]  ¹¹ sn The images here are fairly common in the Bible. God has stripped away Job’s honorable reputation. The crown is the metaphor for the esteem and dignity he once had. See 29:14; Isa 61:3; see Ps 8:5 [6].

[19:10]  ¹² tn The metaphors are changed now to a demolished building and an uprooted tree. The verb is נָתַץ (natats, “to demolish”). Since it is Job himself who is the object, the meaning cannot be “demolish” (as of a house so that an inhabitant has to leave), but more of the attack or the battering.

[19:10]  ¹³ tn The text has הָלַךְ (halakh, “to leave”). But in view of Job 14:20, “perish” or “depart” would be a better meaning here.

[19:10]  ¹⁴ tn The verb נָסַע (nasa’) means “to travel” generally, but specifically it means “to pull up the tent pegs and move.” The Hiphil here means “uproot.” It is used of a vine in Ps 80:9. The idea here does not contradict Job 14:7, for there the tree still had roots and so could grow.

[19:10]  ¹⁵ tn The NEB has “my tent rope,” but that seems too contrived here. It is absurd to pull up a tent-rope like a tree.

[19:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like a tree.” The words “one uproots” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:2]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads here מְרִי (mÿri, “rebellious”). The word is related to the verb מָרָה (marah, “to revolt”). Many commentators follow the Vulgate, Targum Job, and the Syriac to read מַר (mar, “bitter”). The LXX offers no help here.

[23:2]  ¹⁸ tc The MT (followed by the Vulgate and Targum) has “my hand is heavy on my groaning.” This would mean “my stroke is heavier than my groaning” (an improbable view from Targum Job). A better suggestion is that the meaning would be that Job tries to suppress his groans but the hand with which he suppresses them is too heavy (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 159). Budde, E. Dhorme, J. E. Hartley, and F. I. Andersen all maintain the MT as the more difficult reading. F. I. Andersen (Job [TOTC], 208) indicates that the ִי(i) suffix could be an example of an unusual third masculine singular. Both the LXX and the Syriac versions have “his hand,” and many modern commentators follow this, along with the present translation. In this case the referent of “his” would be God, whose hand is heavy upon Job in spite of Job’s groaning.

[23:2]  ¹⁹ tn The preposition can take this meaning; it could be also translated simply “upon.” R. Gordis (Job, 260) reads the preposition “more than,” saying that Job had been defiant (he takes that view) but God’s hand had been far worse.

[28:19]  ²⁰ tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:19]  ²¹ tn The words “it will come through” are supplied in the translation. The verb “will sweep by” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[51:31]  ²² tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and…” The intent is to portray a relay of runners carrying the news that follows on in vv. 31d-33 to the king of Babylon. The present translation attempts to spell out the significance.

[51:31]  ²³ tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and messenger to meet messenger to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken in [its] entirety.” There is general agreement among the commentaries that the first two lines refer to messengers converging on the king of Babylon from every direction bringing news the sum total of which is reported in the lines that follow. For the meaning of the last phrase see BDB 892 s.v. קָצֶה 3 and compare the usage in Gen 19:4 and Isa 56:11. The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[1:12]  ²⁴ tc The Heb לוֹא אֲלֵיכֶם (lo’ ’alekhem, “not to you”) is awkward and often considered corrupt but there is no textual evidence yet adduced to certify a more original reading.

[1:12]  ²⁵ tn The line as it stands is imbalanced, such that the reference to the passersby may belong here or as a vocative with the following verb translated “look.”

[1:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “He.” The personal pronoun “he” and the personal name “the Lord,” both appearing in this verse, are transposed in the translation for the sake of readability. In the Hebrew text, “He” appears in the A-line and “the Lord” appears in the B-line – good Hebrew poetic style, but awkward English style.

[1:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “which was afflicted on me.” The Polal of עָלַל (’alal) gives the passive voice of the Polel. The Polel of the verb עָלַל (’alal) occurs ten times in the Bible, appearing in agricultural passages for gleaning or some other harvest activity and also in military passages. Jer 6:9 plays on this by comparing an attack to gleaning. The relationship between the meaning in the two types of contexts is unclear, but the very neutral rendering “to treat” in some dictionaries and translations misses the nuance appropriate to the military setting. Indeed it is not at all feasible in a passage like Judges 20:45 where “they treated them on the highway” would make no sense but “they mowed them down on the highway” would fit the context. Accordingly the verb is sometimes rendered “treat” or “deal severely,” as HALOT 834 s.v. poel.3 suggests for Lam 3:51, although simply suggesting “to deal with” in Lam 1:22 and 2:20. A more injurious nuance is given to the translation here and in 1:22; 2:20 and 3:51.

[1:12]  ²⁸ sn The delay in naming the Lord as cause is dramatic. The natural assumption upon hearing the passive verb in the previous line, “it was dealt severely,” might well be the pillaging army, but instead the Lord is named as the tormentor.

[1:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the day of.” The construction בְּיוֹם (bÿyom, “in the day of”) is a common Hebrew idiom, meaning “when” or “on the occasion of” (e.g., Gen 2:4; Lev 7:35; Num 3:1; Deut 4:15; 2 Sam 22:1; Pss 18:1; 138:3; Zech 8:9).

[1:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “on the day of burning anger.”

[4:6]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).

[4:6]  ³² tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.

[4:7]  ³³ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ³⁵ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ³⁷ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ³⁹ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “gardens.”

[4:10]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ⁴² tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[4:11]  ⁴³ tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

[4:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “like that which is burning.”