Job 9:25

Renewed Complaint

9:25 “My days ¹  are swifter than a runner, ² 

they speed by without seeing happiness.

Job 16:14

16:14 He breaks through against me, time and time again; ³ 

he rushes ⁴  against me like a warrior.

[9:25]  ¹ tn The text has “and my days” following the thoughts in the previous section.

[9:25]  ² sn Job returns to the thought of the brevity of his life (7:6). But now the figure is the swift runner instead of the weaver’s shuttle.

[16:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “runs.”