Job 9:25

Renewed Complaint

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

they speed by without seeing happiness.

Job 33:21

33:21 His flesh wastes away from sight,

and his bones, which were not seen,

are easily visible. ³ 

Job 3:16

3:16 Or why ⁴  was ⁵  I not buried ⁶ 

like a stillborn infant, ⁷ 

like infants ⁸  who have never seen the light? ⁹ 

Job 19:27

19:27 whom I will see for myself, ¹⁰ 

and whom my own eyes will behold,

and not another. ¹¹ 

My heart ¹²  grows faint within me. ¹³ 

Job 37:21

37:21 But now, the sun ¹⁴  cannot be looked at ¹⁵  –

it is bright in the skies –

after a wind passed and swept the clouds away. ¹⁶ 

Job 2:13

2:13 Then they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, yet no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain ¹⁷  was very great. ¹⁸ 

[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.

[33:21]  ³ tc Heb “are laid bare.” This is the Qere reading; the Kethib means “bare height.” Gordis reverses the word order: “his bones are bare [i.e., crushed] so that they cannot be looked upon.” But the sense of that is not clear.

[3:16]  ⁵ tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

[3:16]  ⁶ tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

[3:16]  ⁸ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

[3:16]  ⁹ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.

[19:27]  ⁷ tn The emphasis is on “I” and “for myself.” No other will be seeing this vindication, but Job himself will see it. Of that he is confident. Some take לִי (li, “for myself”) to mean favorable to me, or on my side (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 143). But Job is expecting (not just wishing for) a face-to-face encounter in the vindication.

[19:27]  ⁸ tn Hitzig offered another interpretation that is somewhat forced. The “other” (זָר, zar) or “stranger” would refer to Job. He would see God, not as an enemy, but in peace.

[19:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “kidneys,” a poetic expression for the seat of emotions.

[19:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fail/grow faint in my breast.” Job is saying that he has expended all his energy with his longing for vindication.

[37:21]  ⁹ tn The light here must refer to the sun in the skies that had been veiled by the storm. Then, when the winds blew the clouds away, it could not be looked at because it was so dazzling. Elihu’s analogy will be that God is the same – in his glory one cannot look at him or challenge him.

[37:21]  ¹⁰ tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.

[37:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and cleaned them.” The referent is the clouds (v. 18), which has been supplied in the translation for clarity. There is another way of reading this verse: the word translated “bright” means “dark; obscured” in Syriac. In this interpretation the first line would mean that they could not see the sun, because it was darkened by the clouds, but then the wind came and blew the clouds away. Dhorme, Gray, and several others take it this way, as does the NAB.

[2:13]  ¹¹ tn The word כְּאֵב (kÿ’ev) means “pain” – both mental and physical pain. The translation of “grief” captures only part of its emphasis.

[2:13]  ¹² sn The three friends went into a more severe form of mourning, one that is usually reserved for a death. E. Dhorme says it is a display of grief in its most intense form (Job, 23); for one of them to speak before the sufferer spoke would have been wrong.