3:13 For now 1 I would be lying down
and 2 would be quiet, 3
I would be asleep and then at peace 4
11:19 You will lie down with 5 no one to make you afraid,
and many will seek your favor. 6
12:14 If 7 he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt;
if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. 8
13:26 For you write down 9 bitter things against me
and cause me to inherit the sins of my youth. 10
17:16 Will 11 it 12 go down to the barred gates 13 of death?
Will 14 we descend 15 together into the dust?”
19:10 He tears me down 16 on every side until I perish; 17
he uproots 18 my hope 19 like one uproots 20 a tree.
20:11 His bones 21 were full of his youthful vigor, 22
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
20:23 “While he is 23 filling his belly,
God 24 sends his burning anger 25 against him,
and rains down his blows upon him. 26
33:28 He redeemed my life 27
from going down to the place of corruption,
and my life sees the light!’
1 tn The word עַתָּה (’attah, “now”) may have a logical nuance here, almost with the idea of “if that had been the case…” (IBHS 667-68 §39.3.4f). However, the temporal “now” is retained in translation since the imperfect verb following two perfects “suggests what Job’s present state would be if he had had the quiet of a still birth” (J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 95, n. 23). Cf. GKC 313 §106.p.
2 tn The copula on the verb indicates a sequence for the imperfect: “and then I would….” In the second half of the verse it is paralleled by “then.”
3 tn The text uses a combination of the perfect (lie down/sleep) and imperfect (quiet/rest). The particle עַתָּה (’attah, “now”) gives to the perfect verb its conditional nuance. It presents actions in the past that are not actually accomplished but seen as possible (GKC 313 §106.p).
4 tn The last part uses the impersonal verb “it would be at rest for me.”
5 tn The clause that reads “and there is no one making you afraid,” is functioning circumstantially here (see 5:4; 10:7).
6 tn Heb “they will stroke your face,” a picture drawn from the domestic scene of a child stroking the face of the parent. The verb is a Piel, meaning “stroke, make soft.” It is used in the Bible of seeking favor from God (supplication); but it may on the human level also mean seeking to sway people by flattery. See further D. R. Ap-Thomas, “Notes on Some Terms Relating to Prayer,” VT 6 (1956): 225-41.
7 tn The use of הֵן (hen, equivalent to הִנֵּה, hinneh, “behold”) introduces a hypothetical condition.
8 tn The verse employs antithetical ideas: “tear down” and “build up,” “imprison” and “escape.” The Niphal verbs in the sentences are potential imperfects. All of this is to say that humans cannot reverse the will of God.
9 tn The meaning is that of writing down a formal charge against someone (cf. Job 31:15).
10 sn Job acknowledges sins in his youth, but they are trifling compared to the suffering he now endures. Job thinks it unjust of God to persecute him now for those – if that is what is happening.
11 sn It is natural to assume that this verse continues the interrogative clause of the preceding verse.
12 tn The plural form of the verb probably refers to the two words, or the two senses of the word in the preceding verse. Hope and what it produces will perish with Job.
13 tn The Hebrew word בַּדִּים (baddim) describes the “bars” or “bolts” of Sheol, referring (by synecdoche) to the “gates of Sheol.” The LXX has “with me to Sheol,” and many adopt that as “by my side.”
14 tn The conjunction אִם (’im) confirms the interrogative interpretation.
15 tn The translation follows the LXX and the Syriac versions with the change of vocalization in the MT. The MT has the noun “rest,” yielding, “will our rest be together in the dust?” The verb נָחַת (nakhat) in Aramaic means “to go down; to descend.” If that is the preferred reading – and it almost is universally accepted here – then it would be spelled נֵחַת (nekhat). In either case the point of the verse is clearly describing death and going to the grave.
16 tn The metaphors are changed now to a demolished building and an uprooted tree. The verb is נָתַץ (natats, “to demolish”). Since it is Job himself who is the object, the meaning cannot be “demolish” (as of a house so that an inhabitant has to leave), but more of the attack or the battering.
17 tn The text has הָלַךְ (halakh, “to leave”). But in view of Job 14:20, “perish” or “depart” would be a better meaning here.
18 tn The verb נָסַע (nasa’) means “to travel” generally, but specifically it means “to pull up the tent pegs and move.” The Hiphil here means “uproot.” It is used of a vine in Ps 80:9. The idea here does not contradict Job 14:7, for there the tree still had roots and so could grow.
19 tn The NEB has “my tent rope,” but that seems too contrived here. It is absurd to pull up a tent-rope like a tree.
20 tn Heb “like a tree.” The words “one uproots” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
21 tn “Bones” is often used metonymically for the whole person, the bones being the framework, meaning everything inside, as well as the body itself.
22 sn This line means that he dies prematurely – at the height of his youthful vigor.
23 tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.
24 tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.
25 tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”
26 tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”
27 sn See note on “him” in v. 24.