39:14 For she leaves 1 her eggs on the ground,
and lets them be warmed on the soil.
14:8 Although its roots may grow old 2 in the ground
and its stump begins to die 3 in the soil, 4
14:19 as water wears away stones,
and torrents 5 wash away the soil, 6
so you destroy man’s hope. 7
1 tn The meaning may have the connotation of “lays; places,” rather than simply abandoning (see M. Dahood, “The Root ’zb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 307f.).
2 tn The Hiphil of זָקַן (zaqan, “to be old”) is here an internal causative, “to grow old.”
3 tn The Hiphil is here classified as an inchoative Hiphil (see GKC 145 §53.e), for the tree only begins to die. In other words, it appears to be dead, but actually is not completely dead.
4 tn The LXX translates “dust” [soil] with “rock,” probably in light of the earlier illustration of the tree growing in the rocks.
sn Job is thinking here of a tree that dies or decays because of a drought rather than being uprooted, because the next verse will tell how it can revive with water.
5 tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.
6 tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”
7 sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.