14:8 Although its roots may grow old 1 in the ground
and its stump begins to die 2 in the soil, 3
41:30 Its underparts 4 are the sharp points of potsherds,
it leaves its mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge. 5
1 tn The Hiphil of זָקַן (zaqan, “to be old”) is here an internal causative, “to grow old.”
2 tn The Hiphil is here classified as an inchoative Hiphil (see GKC 145 §53.e), for the tree only begins to die. In other words, it appears to be dead, but actually is not completely dead.
3 tn The LXX translates “dust” [soil] with “rock,” probably in light of the earlier illustration of the tree growing in the rocks.
sn Job is thinking here of a tree that dies or decays because of a drought rather than being uprooted, because the next verse will tell how it can revive with water.
4 tn Heb “under him.”
5 tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”