Psalms 37:35-36

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ¹ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ² 

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ³ 

I looked for them, but they could not be found.

Psalms 55:23

55:23 But you, O God, will bring them ⁴  down to the deep Pit. ⁵ 

Violent and deceitful people ⁶  will not live even half a normal lifespan. ⁷ 

But as for me, I trust in you.

Job 20:23-29

20:23 “While he is ⁸  filling his belly,

God ⁹  sends his burning anger ¹⁰  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ¹¹ 

20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon,

then an arrow ¹²  from a bronze bow pierces him.

20:25 When he pulls it out ¹³  and it comes out of his back,

the gleaming point ¹⁴  out of his liver,

terrors come over him.

20:26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; ¹⁵ 

a fire which has not been kindled ¹⁶ 

will consume him

and devour what is left in his tent.

20:27 The heavens reveal his iniquity;

the earth rises up against him.

20:28 A flood will carry off his house,

rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.

20:29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked,

and the heritage of his appointment ¹⁷  from God.”

Job 27:13-23

27:13 This is the portion of the wicked man

allotted by God, ¹⁸ 

the inheritance that evildoers receive

from the Almighty.

27:14 If his children increase – it is for the sword! ¹⁹ 

His offspring never have enough to eat. ²⁰ 

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ²¹ 

and their ²²  widows do not mourn for them.

27:16 If he piles up silver like dust

and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,

27:17 what he stores up ²³  a righteous man will wear,

and an innocent man will inherit his silver.

27:18 The house he builds is as fragile as a moth’s cocoon, ²⁴ 

like a hut ²⁵  that a watchman has made.

27:19 He goes to bed wealthy, but will do so no more. ²⁶ 

When he opens his eyes, it is all gone. ²⁷ 

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ²⁸ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity ²⁹ 

as he flees headlong from its power.

27:23 It claps ³⁰  its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place. ³¹ 

[37:35]  ¹ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ² tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[37:36]  ³ tn Heb “and he passes by and, look, he is not [there].” The subject of the verb “passes by” is probably indefinite, referring to any passerby. Some prefer to change the form to first person, “and I passed by” (cf. NEB; note the first person verbal forms in preceding verse and in the following line).

[55:23]  ⁴ tn The pronominal suffix refers to the psalmist’s enemies (see v. 19).

[55:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “well of the pit.” The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 103:4).

[55:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “men of bloodshed and deceit.”

[55:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “will not divide in half their days.”

[20:23]  ⁸ tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.

[20:23]  ⁹ tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”

[20:24]  ¹² tn Heb “a bronze bow pierces him.” The words “an arrow from” are implied and are supplied in the translation; cf. “pulls it out” in the following verse.

[20:25]  ¹³ tn The MT has “he draws out [or as a passive, “it is drawn out/forth”] and comes [or goes] out of his back.” For the first verb שָׁלַף (shalaf, “pull, draw”), many commentators follow the LXX and use שֶׁלַח (shelakh, “a spear”). It then reads “and a shaft comes out of his back,” a sword flash comes out of his liver.” But the verse could also be a continuation of the preceding.

[20:25]  ¹⁴ tn Possibly a reference to lightnings.

[20:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all darkness is hidden for his laid up things.” “All darkness” refers to the misfortunes and afflictions that await. The verb “hidden” means “is destined for.”

[20:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “not blown upon,” i.e., not kindled by man. But G. R. Driver reads “unquenched” (“Hebrew notes on the ‘Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach’,” JBL 53 [1934]: 289).

[20:29]  ¹⁷ tn For the word אִמְרוֹ (’imro) some propose reading “his appointment,” and the others, “his word.” Driver shows that “the heritage of his appointment” means “his appointed heritage” (see GKC 440 §135.n).

[27:13]  ¹⁸ tn The expression “allotted by God” interprets the simple prepositional phrase in the text: “with/from God.”

[27:14]  ¹⁹ tn R. Gordis (Job, 294) identifies this as a breviloquence. Compare Ps 92:8 where the last two words also constitute the apodosis.

[27:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “will not be satisfied with bread/food.”

[27:15]  ²¹ tn The text says “will be buried in/by death.” A number of passages in the Bible use “death” to mean the plague that kills (see Jer 15:2; Isa 28:3; and BDB 89 s.v. בְּ 2.a). In this sense it is like the English expression for the plague, “the Black Death.”

[27:15]  ²² tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.

[27:17]  ²³ tn The text simply repeats the verb from the last clause. It could be treated as a separate short clause: “He may store it up, but the righteous will wear it. But it also could be understood as the object of the following verb, “[what] he stores up the righteous will wear.” The LXX simply has, “All these things shall the righteous gain.”

[27:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb כָעָשׁ (kha’ash, “like a moth”), but this leaves room for clarification. Some commentators wanted to change it to “bird’s nest” or just “nest” (cf. NRSV) to make the parallelism; see Job 4:14. But the word is not found. The LXX has a double expression, “as moths, as a spider.” So several take it as the spider’s web, which is certainly unsubstantial (cf. NAB, NASB, NLT; see Job 8:14).

[27:18]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew word is the word for “booth,” as in the Feast of Booths. The word describes something that is flimsy; it is not substantial at all.

[27:19]  ²⁶ tc The verb is the Niphal יֵאָסֵף (ye’asef), from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”). So, “he lies down rich, but he is not gathered.” This does not make much sense. It would mean “he will not be gathered for burial,” but that does not belong here. Many commentators accept the variant יֹאסִף (yo’sif) stood for יוֹסִיף (yosif, “will [not] add”). This is what the LXX and the Syriac have. This leads to the interpretive translation that “he will do so no longer.”

[27:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he is not.” One view is that this must mean that he dies, not that his wealth is gone. R. Gordis (Job, 295) says the first part should be made impersonal: “when one opens one’s eyes, the wicked is no longer there.” E. Dhorme (Job, 396) has it more simply: “He has opened his eyes, and it is for the last time.” But the other view is that the wealth goes overnight. In support of this is the introduction into the verse of the wealthy. The RSV, NRSV, ESV, and NLT take it that “wealth is gone.”

[27:20]  ²⁸ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[27:22]  ²⁹ tn The verb is once again functioning in an adverbial sense. The text has “it hurls itself against him and shows no mercy.”

[27:23]  ³⁰ tn If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”

[27:23]  ³¹ tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).