Job 9:26

9:26 They glide by ¹  like reed ²  boats,

like an eagle that swoops ³  down on its prey. ⁴ 

Job 12:11

12:11 Does not the ear test words,

as ⁵  the tongue ⁶  tastes food? ⁷ 

Job 21:25

21:25 And another man ⁸  dies in bitterness of soul, ⁹ 

never having tasted ¹⁰  anything good.

Job 31:17

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ¹¹  –

Job 36:31

36:31 It is by these that he judges ¹²  the nations

and supplies food in abundance.

[9:26]  ¹ tn Heb “they flee.”

[9:26]  ² tn The word אֵבֶה (’eveh) means “reed, papyrus,” but it is a different word than was in 8:11. What is in view here is a light boat made from bundles of papyrus that glides swiftly along the Nile (cf. Isa 18:2 where papyrus vessels and swiftness are associated).

[9:26]  ³ tn The verb יָטוּשׂ (yatus) is also a hapax legomenon; the Aramaic cognate means “to soar; to hover in flight.” The sentence here requires the idea of swooping down while in flight.

[9:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “food.”

[12:11]  ⁵ tn The ו (vav) introduces the comparison here (see 5:7; 11:12); see GKC 499 §161.a.

[12:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “the palate.”

[12:11]  ⁷ tn The final preposition with its suffix is to be understood as a pleonastic dativus ethicus and not translated (see GKC 439 §135.i).

[21:25]  ⁹ tn The expression “this (v. 23)…and this” (v. 25) means “one…the other.”

[21:25]  ¹⁰ tn The text literally has “and this [man] dies in soul of bitterness.” Some simply reverse it and translate “in the bitterness of soul.” The genitive “bitterness” may be an attribute adjective, “with a bitter soul.”

[21:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “eaten what is good.” It means he died without having enjoyed the good life.

[31:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[36:31]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is יָדִין (yadin, “he judges”). Houbigant proposedיָזוּן (yazun, “he nourishes”). This has found wide acceptance among commentators (cf. NAB). G. R. Driver retained the MT but gave a meaning “enriches” to the verb (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 88ff.).