16:17 although 1 there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised in violence 2 is broken. 3
1 tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.
2 tn Heb “the raised arm.” The words “in violence” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.
3 sn What is active at night, the violence symbolized by the raised arm, is broken with the dawn. G. R. Driver thought the whole verse referred to stars, and that the arm is the navigator’s term for the line of stars (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 4 [1953]: 208-12).