16:8 You have seized me, 1
and it 2 has become a witness;
my leanness 3 has risen up against me
and testifies against me.
29:11 “As soon as the ear heard these things, 4 it blessed me, 5
and when the eye saw them, it bore witness to me,
1 tn The verb is קָמַט (qamat) which is used only here and in 22:16; it means “to seize; to grasp.” By God’s seizing him, Job means his afflictions.
2 tn The subject is “my calamity.”
3 tn The verb is used in Ps 109:24 to mean “to be lean”; and so “leanness” is accepted here for the noun by most. Otherwise the word is “lie, deceit.” Accordingly, some take it here as “my slanderer” or “my liar” (gives evidence against me).
4 tn The words “these things” and “them” in the next colon are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn The main clause is introduced by the preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive (see GKC 327 §111.h); the clause before it is therefore temporal and circumstantial to the main clause.