21:10 Their bulls 1 breed 2 without fail; 3
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11 They allow their children to run 4 like a flock;
their little ones dance about.
29:9 the chief men refrained from talking
and covered their mouths with their hands;
36:14 They die 5 in their youth,
and their life ends among the male cultic prostitutes. 6
36:15 He delivers the afflicted by 7 their 8 afflictions,
he reveals himself to them 9 by their suffering.
37:8 The wild animals go to their lairs,
and in their dens they remain.
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their homes? 10
1 tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.
2 tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”).
3 tn The use of the verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) in this place is interesting. It means “to rebuke; to abhor; to loathe.” In the causative stem it means “to occasion impurity” or “to reject as loathsome.” The rabbinic interpretation is that it does not emit semen in vain, and so the meaning is it does not fail to breed (see E. Dhorme, Job, 311; R. Gordis, Job, 229).
4 tn The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh) means “to send forth,” but in the Piel “to release; to allow to run free.” The picture of children frolicking in the fields and singing and dancing is symbolic of peaceful, prosperous times.
5 tn The text expresses this with “their soul dies.”
6 tn Heb “among the male prostitutes” who were at the temple – the “holy ones,” with “holy” being used in that sense of “separated to that form of temple service.” So uncleanness and shame are some of the connotations of the reference. Some modern translations give the general sense only: “their life ends in shame” (NRSV); “and perish among the reprobate” (NAB); “die…after wasting their lives in immoral living” (NLT).
7 tn The preposition בּ (bet) in these two lines is not location but instrument, not “in” but “by means of.” The affliction and the oppression serve as a warning for sin, and therefore a means of salvation.
8 tn Heb “his.”
9 tn Heb “he uncovers their ear.”
10 tn The suffixes are singular (“that you may take it to its border…to its home”), referring to either the light or the darkness. Because either is referred to, the translation has employed plurals, since singulars would imply that only the second item, “darkness,” was the referent. Plurals are also employed by NAB and NIV.