Job 6:7

6:7 I ¹  have refused ²  to touch such things; ³ 

they are like loathsome food to me. ⁴ 

Luke 15:16-17

15:16 He ⁵  was longing to eat ⁶  the carob pods ⁷  the pigs were eating, but ⁸  no one gave him anything. 15:17 But when he came to his senses ⁹  he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food ¹⁰  enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger!

John 6:9

6:9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good ¹¹  are these for so many people?”

[6:7]  ¹ tn The traditional rendering of נַפְשִׁי (nafshi) is “my soul.” But since נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) means the whole person, body and soul, it is best to translate it with its suffix simply as an emphatic pronoun.

[6:7]  ² tn For the explanation of the perfect verb with its completed action in the past and its remaining effects, see GKC 311 §106.g.

[6:7]  ³ tn The phrase “such things” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied.

[6:7]  ⁴ tn The second colon of the verse is difficult. The word דְּוֵי (dÿve) means “sickness of” and yields a meaning “like the sickness of my food.” This could take the derived sense of דָּוָה (davah) and mean “impure” or “corrupt” food. The LXX has “for I loathe my food as the smell of a lion” and so some commentators emend “they” (which has no clear antecedent) to mean “I loathe it [like the sickness of my food].” Others have more freely emended the text to “my palate loathes my food” (McNeile) or “my bowels resound with suffering” (I. Eitan, “An unknown meaning of RAHAMIÝM,” JBL 53 [1934]: 271). Pope has “they are putrid as my flesh [= my meat].” D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 159) prefers the suggestion in BHS, “it [my soul] loathes them as my food.” E. Dhorme (Job, 80) repoints the second word of the colon to get כְּבֹדִי (kÿvodi, “my glory”): “my heart [glory] loathes/is sickened by my bread.”

[15:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[15:16]  ⁶ tn Or “would gladly have eaten”; Grk “was longing to be filled with.”

[15:16]  ⁷ tn This term refers to the edible pods from a carob tree (BDAG 540 s.v. κεράτιον). They were bean-like in nature and were commonly used for fattening pigs, although they were also used for food by poor people (L&N 3.46).

[15:16]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[15:17]  ⁹ tn Grk “came to himself” (an idiom).

[15:17]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “bread,” but used figuratively for food of any kind (L&N 5.1).

[6:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “but what are these”; the word “good” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.