3:12 Why did the knees welcome me, 1
and why were there 2 two breasts 3
that I might nurse at them? 4
5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, 5
and grope about 6 in the noontime as if it were night. 7
8:9 For we were born yesterday 8 and do not have knowledge,
since our days on earth are but a shadow. 9
20:11 His bones 10 were full of his youthful vigor, 11
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 12 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 13 to him?’ 14
22:16 men 15 who were carried off 16 before their time, 17
when the flood 18 was poured out 19
on their foundations? 20
22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’
and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ 21
29:6 when my steps 22 were bathed 23 with butter 24
and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil! 25
34:14 If God 26 were to set his heart on it, 27
and gather in his spirit and his breath,
36:9 then he reveals 28 to them what they have done, 29
and their transgressions,
that they were behaving proudly.
38:4 “Where were you
when I laid the foundation 30 of the earth?
Tell me, 31 if you possess understanding!
1 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.
2 tn There is no verb in the second half of the verse. The idea simply has, “and why breasts that I might suck?”
3 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).
4 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.
5 sn God so confuses the crafty that they are unable to fulfill their plans – it is as if they encounter darkness in broad daylight. This is like the Syrians in 2 Kgs 6:18-23.
6 tn The verb מָשַׁשׁ (mashash) expresses the idea of groping about in the darkness. This is part of the fulfillment of Deut 28:29, which says, “and you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness.” This image is also in Isa 59:10.
7 sn The verse provides a picture of the frustration and bewilderment in the crafty who cannot accomplish their ends because God thwarts them.
8 tn The Hebrew has “we are of yesterday,” the adverb functioning as a predicate. Bildad’s point is that they have not had time to acquire great knowledge because they are recent.
9 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 116) observes that the shadow is the symbol of ephemeral things (14:2; 17:7; Ps 144:4). The shadow passes away quickly (116).
10 tn “Bones” is often used metonymically for the whole person, the bones being the framework, meaning everything inside, as well as the body itself.
11 sn This line means that he dies prematurely – at the height of his youthful vigor.
12 tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”
13 tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.
14 tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.
15 tn The word “men” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the relative pronoun “who.”
16 tn The verb קָמַט (qamat) basically means “to seize; to tie together to make a bundle.” So the Pual will mean “to be bundled away; to be carried off.”
17 tn The clause has “and [it was] not the time.” It may be used adverbially here.
18 tn The word is נָהַר (nahar, “river” or “current”); it is taken here in its broadest sense of the waters on the earth that formed the current of the flood (Gen 7:6, 10).
19 tn The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out; to shed; to spill; to flow.” The Pual means “to be poured out” (as in Lev 21:10 and Ps 45:3).
20 tn This word is then to be taken as an adverbial accusative of place. Another way to look at this verse is what A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) proposes “whose foundation was poured away and became a flood.” This would mean that that on which they stood sank away.
21 tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”
22 tn The word is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is clear enough. It refers to the walking, the steps, or even the paths where one walks. It is figurative of his course of life.
23 tn The Hebrew word means “to wash; to bathe”; here it is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, “my steps” being the genitive: “in the washing of my steps in butter.”
24 tn Again, as in Job 21:17, “curds.”
25 tn The MT reads literally, “and the rock was poured out [passive participle] for me as streams of oil.” There are some who delete the word “rock” to shorten the line because it seems out of place. But olive trees thrive in rocky soil, and the oil presses are cut into the rock; it is possible that by metonymy all this is intended here (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 186).
26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.
28 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.
29 tn Heb “their work.”
30 tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.
31 tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.