Psalms 30:7

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ¹ 

Then you rejected me ²  and I was terrified.

Job 13:24

13:24 Why do you hide your face ³ 

and regard me as your enemy?

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ⁴  is quiet, who can condemn ⁵  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ⁶  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ⁷ 

Romans 8:20-22

8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God ⁸  who subjected it – in hope 8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.

[30:7]  ¹ tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ² tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[13:24]  ³ sn The anthropomorphism of “hide the face” indicates a withdrawal of favor and an outpouring of wrath (see Ps 30:7 [8]; Isa 54:8; Ps 27:9). Sometimes God “hides his face” to make himself invisible or aloof (see 34:29). In either case, if God covers his face it is because he considers Job an enemy – at least this is what Job thinks.

[34:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ⁵ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ⁶ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ⁷ tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”

[8:20]  ⁸ tn Grk “because of the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.