3:12 Why did the knees welcome me, 2
and why were there 3 two breasts 4
that I might nurse at them? 5
6:19 The caravans of Tema 6 looked intently 7 for these streams; 8
the traveling merchants 9 of Sheba hoped for them.
11:20 But the eyes of the wicked fail, 10
and escape 11 eludes them;
their one hope 12 is to breathe their last.” 13
12:15 If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; 14
if he releases them, 15 they destroy 16 the land.
12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth 17
of their understanding; 18
he makes them wander
in a trackless desert waste. 19
20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; 20
he has seized a house which he did not build. 21
21:9 Their houses are safe 22 and without fear; 23
and no rod of punishment 24 from God is upon them. 25
22:29 When people are brought low 26 and you say
‘Lift them up!’ 27
then he will save the downcast; 28
24:23 God 29 may let them rest in a feeling of security, 30
but he is constantly watching 31 all their ways. 32
26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,
and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.
27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague, 33
and their 34 widows do not mourn for them.
31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed,
and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth, 35
36:9 then he reveals 36 to them what they have done, 37
and their transgressions,
that they were behaving proudly.
39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; 38
they go off, and do not return to them.
1 tn The use of the verb “to be” with the participle gives emphasis to the continuing of the action in the past (GKC 360 §116.r).
2 tn The verb קִדְּמוּנִי (qiddÿmuni) is the Piel from קָדַם (qadam), meaning “to come before; to meet; to prevent.” Here it has the idea of going to meet or welcome someone. In spite of various attempts to connect the idea to the father or to adoption rites, it probably simply means the mother’s knees that welcome the child for nursing. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 42.
sn The sufferer is looking back over all the possible chances of death, including when he was brought forth, placed on the knees or lap, and breastfed.
3 tn There is no verb in the second half of the verse. The idea simply has, “and why breasts that I might suck?”
4 sn The commentaries mention the parallel construction in the writings of Ashurbanipal: “You were weak, Ashurbanipal, you who sat on the knees of the goddess, queen of Nineveh; of the four teats that were placed near to your mouth, you sucked two and you hid your face in the others” (M. Streck, Assurbanipal [VAB], 348).
5 tn Heb “that I might suckle.” The verb is the Qal imperfect of יָנַק (yanaq, “suckle”). Here the clause is subordinated to the preceding question and so function as a final imperfect.
6 sn Tema is the area of the oasis SE of the head of the Gulf of Aqaba; Sheba is in South Arabia. In Job 1:15 the Sabeans were raiders; here they are traveling merchants.
7 tn The verb נָבַט (navat) means “to gaze intently”; the looking is more intentional, more of a close scrutiny. It forms a fine parallel to the idea of “hope” in the second part. The NIV translates the second verb קִוּוּ (qivvu) as “look in hope.” In the previous verbs the imperfect form was used, expressing what generally happens (so the English present tense was used). Here the verb usage changes to the perfect form. It seems that Job is narrating a typical incident now – they looked, but were disappointed.
8 tn The words “for these streams” are supplied from context to complete the thought and make the connection with the preceding context.
9 tn In Ps 68:24 this word has the meaning of “processions”; here that procession is of traveling merchants forming convoys or caravans.
10 tn The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to fail, cease, fade away.” The fading of the eyes, i.e., loss of sight, loss of life’s vitality, indicates imminent death.
11 tn Heb a “place of escape” (with this noun pattern). There is no place to escape to because they all perish.
12 tn The word is to be interpreted as a metonymy; it represents what is hoped for.
13 tn Heb “the breathing out of the soul”; cf. KJV, ASV “the giving up of the ghost.” The line is simply saying that the brightest hope that the wicked have is death.
14 tc The LXX has a clarification: “he will dry the earth.”
15 sn The verse is focusing on the two extremes of drought and flood. Both are described as being under the power of God.
16 tn The verb הָפַךְ (hafakh) means “to overthrow; to destroy; to overwhelm.” It was used in Job 9:5 for “overturning” mountains. The word is used in Genesis for the destruction of Sodom.
17 tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”
18 tn Heb “heart.”
19 tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).
20 tc The verb indicates that after he oppressed the poor he abandoned them to their fate. But there have been several attempts to improve on the text. Several have repointed the text to get a word parallel to “house.” Ehrlich came up with עֹזֵב (’ozev, “mud hut”), Kissane had “hovel” (similar to Neh 3:8). M. Dahood did the same (“The Root ’zb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 306-7). J. Reider came up with עֶזֶב (’ezev, the “leavings”), what the rich were to leave for the poor (“Contributions to the Scriptural text,” HUCA 24 [1952/53]: 103-6). But an additional root עָזַב (’azav) is questionable. And while the text as it stands is general and not very striking, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Dhorme reverses the letters to gain בְּעֹז (bÿ’oz, “with force [or violence]”).
21 tn The last clause says, “and he did not build it.” This can be understood in an adverbial sense, supplying the relative pronoun to the translation.
22 tn The word שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace, safety”) is here a substantive after a plural subject (see GKC 452 §141.c, n. 3).
23 tn The form מִפָּחַד (mippakhad) is translated “without fear,” literally “from fear”; the preposition is similar to the alpha privative in Greek. The word “fear, dread” means nothing that causes fear or dread – they are peaceful, secure. See GKC 382 §119.w.
24 tn Heb “no rod of God.” The words “punishment from” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor understandable for the modern reader by stating the purpose of the rod.
25 sn In 9:34 Job was complaining that there was no umpire to remove God’s rod from him, but here he observes no such rod is on the wicked.
26 tn There is no expressed subject here, and so the verb is taken as a passive voice again.
27 tn The word גֵּוָה (gevah) means “loftiness; pride.” Here it simply says “up,” or “pride.” The rest is paraphrased. Of the many suggestions, the following provide a sampling: “It is because of pride” (ESV), “he abases pride” (H. H. Rowley); “[he abases] the lofty and the proud” (Beer); “[he abases] the word of pride” [Duhm]; “[he abases] the haughtiness of pride” [Fohrer and others]; “[he abases] the one who speaks proudly” [Weiser]; “[he abases] the one who boasts in pride” [Kissane]; and “God [abases] pride” [Budde, Gray].
28 tn Or “humble”; Heb “the lowly of eyes.”
29 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
30 tn The expression לָבֶטַח (lavetakh, “in security”) precedes the verb that it qualifies – God “allows him to take root in security.” For the meaning of the verb, see Job 8:15.
31 tn Heb “his eyes are on.”
32 sn The meaning of the verse is that God may allow the wicked to rest in comfort and security, but all the time he is watching them closely with the idea of bringing judgment on them.
33 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.”
34 tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.
35 tn Heb “and my hand kissed my mouth.” The idea should be that of “my mouth kissed my hand.” H. H. Rowley suggests that the hand was important in waving or throwing the kisses of homage to the sun and the moon, and so it receives the focus. This is the only place in the OT that refers to such a custom. Outside the Bible it was known, however.
36 tn The verb נָגַד (nagad) means “to declare; to tell.” Here it is clear that God is making known the sins that caused the enslavement or captivity, so “reveal” makes a good interpretive translation.
37 tn Heb “their work.”
38 tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.