Discovery BoxJob 7:18
Context7:18 And that you visit 1 them every morning,
and try 2 them every moment? 3
Job 12:11
Context12:11 Does not the ear test words,
as 4 the tongue 5 tastes food? 6
Job 23:10
Context23:10 But he knows the pathway that I take; 7
if he tested me, I would come forth like gold. 8
Job 34:3
Context34:3 For the ear assesses 9 words
as the mouth 10 tastes food.
Job 34:36
Context34:36 But 11 Job will be tested to the end,
because his answers are like those of wicked men.
[7:18] 1 tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) is a very common one in the Bible; while it is frequently translated “visit,” the “visit” is never comparable to a social call. When God “visits” people it always means a divine intervention for blessing or cursing – but the visit always changes the destiny of the one visited. Here Job is amazed that God Almighty would be so involved in the life of mere human beings.
[7:18] 2 tn Now the verb “to test” is introduced and gives further explanation to the purpose of the “visit” in the parallel line (see the same parallelism in Ps 17:3). The verb בָּחַן (bakhan) has to do with passing things through the fire or the crucible to purify the metal (see Job 23:10; Zech 13:3); metaphorically it means “to examine carefully” and “to purify by testing.”
[7:18] 3 sn The amazing thing is the regularity of the testing. Job is at first amazed that God would visit him; but even more is he amazed that God is testing him every moment. The employment of a chiasm with the two temporal adverbial phrases as the central elements emphasizes the regularity.
[12:11] 4 tn The ו (vav) introduces the comparison here (see 5:7; 11:12); see GKC 499 §161.a.
[12:11] 5 tn Heb “the palate.”
[12:11] 6 tn The final preposition with its suffix is to be understood as a pleonastic dativus ethicus and not translated (see GKC 439 §135.i).
[23:10] 7 tn The expression דֶּרֶךְ עִמָּדִי (derekh ’immadi) means “the way with me,” i.e., “the way that I take.” The Syriac has “my way and my standing.” Several commentators prefer “the way of my standing,” meaning where to look for me. J. Reider offers “the way of my life” (“Some notes to the text of the scriptures,” HUCA 3 [1926]: 115). Whatever the precise wording, Job knows that God can always find him.
[23:10] 8 tn There is a perfect verb followed by an imperfect in this clause with the protasis and apodosis relationship (see GKC 493 §159.b).
[34:3] 10 tn Or “examines; tests; tries; discerns.”
[34:3] 11 tn Or “palate”; the Hebrew term refers to the tongue or to the mouth in general.
[34:36] 13 tc The MT reads אָבִי (’avi, “my father”), which makes no sense. Some follow the KJV and emend the word to make a verb “I desire” or use the noun “my desire of it.” Others follow an Arabic word meaning “entreat, I pray” (cf. ESV, “Would that Job were tried”). The LXX and the Syriac versions have “but” and “surely” respectively. Since this is the only
