Job 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ¹  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ² 

Job 12:25

12:25 They grope about in darkness ³  without light;

he makes them stagger ⁴  like drunkards.

Job 14:9

14:9 at the scent ⁵  of water it will flourish ⁶ 

and put forth ⁷  shoots like a new plant.

Job 20:7

20:7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement; ⁸ 

those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’

Job 30:15

30:15 Terrors are turned loose ⁹  on me;

they drive away ¹⁰  my honor like the wind,

and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

Job 40:17

40:17 It makes its tail stiff ¹¹  like a cedar,

the sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.

Job 41:18

41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;

its eyes are like the red glow ¹²  of dawn.

[7:1]  ¹ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ² tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[12:25]  ³ tn The word is an adverbial accusative.

[12:25]  ⁴ tn The verb is the same that was in v. 24, “He makes them [the leaders still] wander” (the Hiphil of תָּעָה, ta’ah). But in this passage some commentators emend the text to a Niphal of the verb and put it in the plural, to get the reading “they reel to and fro.” But even if the verse closes the chapter and there is no further need for a word of divine causation, the Hiphil sense works well here – causing people to wander like a drunken man would be the same as making them stagger.

[14:9]  ⁵ tn The personification adds to the comparison with people – the tree is credited with the sense of smell to detect the water.

[14:9]  ⁶ tn The sense of “flourish” for this verb is found in Ps 92:12,13[13,14], and Prov 14:11. It makes an appropriate parallel with “bring forth boughs” in the second half.

[14:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “and will make.”

[20:7]  ⁷ tn There have been attempts to change the word here to “like a whirlwind,” or something similar. But many argue that there is no reason to remove a coarse expression from Zophar.

[30:15]  ⁹ tn The passive singular verb (Hophal) is used with a plural subject (see GKC 388 §121.b).

[30:15]  ¹⁰ tc This translation assumes that “terrors” (in the plural) is the subject. Others emend the text in accordance with the LXX, which has, “my hope is gone like the wind.”

[40:17]  ¹¹ tn The verb חָפַץ (khafats) occurs only here. It may have the meaning “to make stiff; to make taut” (Arabic). The LXX and the Syriac versions support this with “erects.” But there is another Arabic word that could be cognate, meaning “arch, bend.” This would give the idea of the tail swaying. The other reading seems to make better sense here. However, “stiff” presents a serious problem with the view that the animal is the hippopotamus.

[41:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “the eyelids,” but it represents the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts.