Job 9:19

9:19 If it is a matter of strength, ¹ 

most certainly ²  he is the strong one!

And if it is a matter of justice,

he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’ ³ 

Job 13:18

13:18 See now, ⁴  I have prepared ⁵  my ⁶  case; ⁷ 

I know that I am right. ⁸ 

Job 16:19

16:19 Even now my witness ⁹  is in heaven;

my advocate ¹⁰  is on high.

Job 32:19

32:19 Inside I am like wine which has no outlet, ¹¹ 

like new wineskins ¹²  ready to burst!

Job 33:2

33:2 See now, I have opened ¹³  my mouth;

my tongue in my mouth has spoken. ¹⁴ 

Job 33:7

33:7 Therefore no fear of me should terrify you,

nor should my pressure ¹⁵  be heavy on you. ¹⁶ 

Job 40:16

40:16 Look ¹⁷  at its strength in its loins,

and its power in the muscles of its belly.

[9:19]  ¹ tn The MT has only “if of strength.”

[9:19]  ² tn “Most certainly” translates the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh).

[9:19]  ³ tn The question could be taken as “who will summon me?” (see Jer 49:19 and 50:44). This does not make immediate sense. Some have simply changed the suffix to “who will summon him.” If the MT is retained, then supplying something like “he will say” could make the last clause fit the whole passage. Another option is to take it as “Who will reveal it to me?” – i.e., Job could be questioning his friends’ qualifications for being God’s emissaries to bring God’s charges against him (cf. KJV, NKJV; and see 10:2 where Job uses the same verb in the Hiphil to request that God reveal what his sin has been that has led to his suffering).

[13:18]  ⁴ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) functions almost as an imperative here, calling attention to what follows: “look” (archaic: behold).

[13:18]  ⁵ tn The verb עָרַךְ (’arakh) means “to set in order, set in array [as a battle], prepare” in the sense here of arrange and organize a lawsuit.

[13:18]  ⁶ tn The pronoun is added because this is what the verse means.

[13:18]  ⁷ tn The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) usually means “judgment; decision.” Here it means “lawsuit” (and so a metonymy of effect gave rise to this usage; see Num 27:5; 2 Sam 15:4).

[13:18]  ⁸ tn The pronoun is emphatic before the verb: “I know that it is I who am right.” The verb means “to be right; to be righteous.” Some have translated it “vindicated,” looking at the outcome of the suit.

[16:19]  ⁷ sn The witness in heaven must be God, to whom the cries and prayers come. Job’s dilemma is serious, but common to the human experience: the hostility of God toward him is baffling, but he is conscious of his innocence and can call on God to be his witness.

[16:19]  ⁸ tn The parallelism now uses the Aramaic word “my advocate” – the one who testifies on my behalf. The word again appears in Gen 31:47 for Laban’s naming of the “heap of witness” in Aramaic – “Sahadutha.”

[32:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in my belly I am like wine that is not opened” (a Niphal imperfect), meaning sealed up with no place to escape.

[32:19]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text has כְּאֹבוֹת חֲדָשִׁים (kÿ’ovot khadashim), traditionally rendered “like new wineskins.” But only here does the phrase have this meaning. The LXX has “smiths” for “new,” thus “like smith’s bellows.” A. Guillaume connects the word with an Arabic word for a wide vessel for wine shaped like a cup (“Archaeological and philological note on Job 32:19,” PEQ 93 [1961]: 147-50). Some have been found in archaeological sites. The poor would use skins, the rich would use jars. The key to putting this together is the verb at the end of the line, יִבָּקֵעַ (yibbaqea’, “that are ready to burst”). The point of the statement is that Elihu is bursting to speak, and until now has not had the opening.

[33:2]  ¹³ tn The perfect verbs in this verse should be classified as perfects of resolve: “I have decided to open…speak.”

[33:2]  ¹⁴ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 210) says, “The self-importance of Elihu is boundless, and he is the master of banality.” He adds that whoever wrote these speeches this way clearly intended to expose the character rather than exalt him.

[33:7]  ¹⁶ tc The noun means “my pressure; my burden” in the light of the verb אָכֲף (’akhaf, “to press on; to grip tightly”). In the parallel passages the text used “hand” and “rod” in the hand to terrify. The LXX has “hand” here for this word. But simply changing it to “hand” is ruled out because the verb is masculine.

[33:7]  ¹⁷ tn See Job 9:34 and 13:21.

[40:16]  ¹⁹ tn In both of these verses הִנֶּה (hinneh, “behold”) has the deictic force (the word is from Greek δείκνυμι, deiknumi, “to show”). It calls attention to something by pointing it out. The expression goes with the sudden look, the raised eye, the pointing hand – “O look!”