4:14 a trembling 1 gripped me – and a terror! –
and made all my bones shake. 2
9:22 “It is all one! 3 That is why I say, 4
‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’
13:4 But you, however, are inventors of lies; 5
all of you are worthless physicians! 6
19:19 All my closest friends 7 detest me;
and those whom 8 I love have turned against me. 9
31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, 10
and it would uproot 11 all my harvest.
33:11 12 He puts my feet in shackles;
he watches closely all my paths.’
33:29 “Indeed, God does all these things,
twice, three times, in his dealings 14 with a person,
36:19 Would your wealth 15 sustain you,
so that you would not be in distress, 16
even all your mighty efforts? 17
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know it all!
1 tn The two words פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”) and רְעָדָה (rÿ’adah, “terror”) strengthen each other as synonyms (see also Ps 55:6). The subject of the verb קָרָא (qara’, “befall, encounter”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”); its compound subject has been placed at the end of the colon.
2 tn The subject of the Hiphil verb הִפְחִיד (hifkhid, “dread”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”), which is why it is in the singular. The cognate verb intensifies and applies the meaning of the noun. BDB 808 s.v. פַּחַד Hiph translates it “fill my bones with dread.” In that sense “bones” would have to be a metonymy of subject representing the framework of the body, so that the meaning is that his whole being was filled with trembling.
3 tc The LXX omits the phrase “It is all one.” Modern scholars either omit it or transpose it for clarity.
sn The expression “it is one” means that God’s dealings with people is undiscriminating. The number “one” could also be taken to mean “the same” – “it is all the same.” The implication is that it does not matter if Job is good or evil, if he lives or dies. This is the conclusion of the preceding section.
4 tn The relationships of these clauses is in some question. Some think that the poet has inverted the first two, and so they should read, “That is why I have said: ‘It is all one.’” Others would take the third clause to be what was said.
5 tn The טֹפְלֵי־שָׁקֶר (tofÿle shaqer) are “plasterers of lies” (Ps 119:69). The verb means “to coat, smear, plaster.” The idea is that of imputing something that is not true. Job is saying that his friends are inventors of lies. The LXX was influenced by the next line and came up with “false physicians.”
6 tn The literal rendering of the construct would be “healers of worthlessness.” Ewald and Dillmann translated it “patchers” based on a meaning in Arabic and Ethiopic; this would give the idea “botchers.” But it makes equally good sense to take “healers” as the meaning, for Job’s friends came to minister comfort and restoration to him – but they failed. See P. Humbert, “Maladie et medicine dans l’AT,” RHPR 44 (1964): 1-29.
7 tn Heb “men of my confidence,” or “men of my council,” i.e., intimate friends, confidants.
8 tn The pronoun זֶה (zeh) functions here in the place of a nominative (see GKC 447 §138.h).
9 tn T. Penar translates this “turn away from me” (“Job 19,19 in the Light of Ben Sira 6,11,” Bib 48 [1967]: 293-95).
10 tn Heb “to Abaddon.”
11 tn The verb means “to root out,” but this does not fit the parallelism with fire. Wright changed two letters and the vowels in the verb to get the root צָרַף (tsaraf, “to burn”). The NRSV has “burn to the root.”
12 sn See Job 13:27.
13 sn Elihu will repeat these instructions for Job to listen, over and over in painful repetition. See note on the heading to 32:1.
14 tn The phrase “in his dealings” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
15 tn The form in the MT is “your cry (for help).” See J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 472-73) and E. Dhorme (Job, 547-48) on the difficulties.
16 tn This part has only two words לֹא בְצָר (lo’ bÿtsar, “not in distress”). The negated phrase serves to explain the first colon.
17 tc For the many suggestions and the reasoning here, see the commentaries.