5:25 You will also know that your children 5 will be numerous,
and your descendants 6 like the grass of the earth.
10:5 Are your days like the days of a mortal,
or your years like the years 7 of a mortal,
11:14 if 8 iniquity is in your hand – put it far away, 9
and do not let evil reside in your tents.
21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” 10
22:24 and throw 11 your gold 12 in the dust –
your gold 13 of Ophir
among the rocks in the ravines –
33:5 Reply to me, if you can;
set your arguments 14 in order before me
and take your stand!
36:19 Would your wealth 15 sustain you,
so that you would not be in distress, 16
even all your mighty efforts? 17
39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?
Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
39:12 Can you count on 18 it to bring in 19 your grain, 20
and gather the grain 21 to your threshing floor? 22
1 tn The particle אוּלָם (’ulam, “but”) serves to restrict the clause in relation to the preceding clause (IBHS 671-73 §39.3.5e, n. 107).
2 tn The force of the imperatives in this sentence are almost conditional – if God were to do this, then surely Job would respond differently.
sn The two imperatives (“stretch out” and “strike”) and the word “hand” all form a bold anthropomorphic sentence. It is as if God would deliver a blow to Job with his fist. But the intended meaning is that God would intervene to destroy Job’s material and physical prosperity.
3 sn The formula used in the expression is the oath formula: “if not to your face he will curse you” meaning “he will surely curse you to your face.” Satan is so sure that the piety is insincere that he can use an oath formula.
4 tn See the comments on Job 1:5. Here too the idea of “renounce” may fit well enough; but the idea of actually cursing God may not be out of the picture if everything Job has is removed. Satan thinks he will denounce God.
5 tn Heb “your seed.”
6 tn The word means “your shoots” and is parallel to “your seed” in the first colon. It refers here (as in Isa 34:1 and 42:5) to the produce of the earth. Some commentators suggest that Eliphaz seems to have forgotten or was insensitive to Job’s loss of his children; H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 57) says his conventional theology is untouched by human feeling.
7 tn The Hebrew has repeated here “like the days of,” but some scholars think that this was an accidental replacement of what should be here, namely, “like the years of.” D. J. A. Clines notes that such repetition is not uncommon in Job, but suggests that the change should be made for English style even if the text is not emended (Job [WBC], 221). This has been followed in the present translation.
sn The question Job asks concerns the mode of life and not just the length of it (see Job 7:1). Humans spend their days and years watching each other and defending themselves. But there is also the implication that if God is so limited like humans he may not uncover Job’s sins before he dies.
8 tn Verse 14 should be taken as a parenthesis and not a continuation of the protasis, because it does not fit with v. 13 in that way (D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 256).
9 tn Many commentators follow the Vulgate and read the line “if you put away the sin that is in your hand.” They do this because the imperative comes between the protasis (v. 13) and the apodosis (v. 15) and does not appear to be clearly part of the protasis. The idea is close to the MT, but the MT is much more forceful – if you find sin in your hand, get rid of it.
10 tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.
11 tc The form is the imperative. Eliphaz is telling Job to get rid of his gold as evidence of his repentance. Many commentators think that this is too improbable for Eliphaz to have said, and that Job has lost everything anyway, and so they make proposals for the text. Most would follow Theodotion and the Syriac to read וְשָׁתָּ (vÿshatta, “and you will esteem….”). This would mean that he is promising Job restoration of his wealth.
tn Heb “place.”
12 tn The word for “gold” is the rare בֶּצֶר (betser), which may be derived from a cognate of Arabic basara, “to see; to examine.” If this is the case, the word here would refer to refined gold. The word also forms a fine wordplay with בְצוּר (bÿtsur, “in the rock”).
13 tn The Hebrew text simply has “Ophir,” a metonymy for the gold that comes from there.
14 tn The Hebrew text does not contain the term “arguments,” but this verb has been used already for preparing or arranging a defense.
15 tn The form in the MT is “your cry (for help).” See J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 472-73) and E. Dhorme (Job, 547-48) on the difficulties.
16 tn This part has only two words לֹא בְצָר (lo’ bÿtsar, “not in distress”). The negated phrase serves to explain the first colon.
17 tc For the many suggestions and the reasoning here, see the commentaries.
18 tn The word is normally translated “believe” in the Bible. The idea is that of considering something dependable and acting on it. The idea of reliability is found also in the Niphal stem usages.
19 tc There is a textual problem here: יָשׁוּב (yashuv) is the Kethib, meaning “[that] he will return”; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) is the Qere, meaning “that he will bring in.” This is the preferred reading, since the object follows it. For commentators who think the line too unbalanced for this, the object is moved to the second colon, and the reading “returns” is taken for the first. But the MT is perfectly clear as it stands.
20 tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.
21 tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.