4:19 how much more to those who live in houses of clay, 1
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed 2 like 3 a moth?
9:32 For he 4 is not a human being like I am,
that 5 I might answer him,
that we might come 6 together in judgment.
16:4 I also could speak 7 like you,
if 8 you were in my place;
I could pile up 9 words against you
and I could shake my head at you. 10
24:5 Like 11 wild donkeys in the desert
they 12 go out to their labor, 13
seeking diligently for food;
the wasteland provides 14 food for them
and for their children.
24:14 Before daybreak 15 the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is 16 like a thief. 17
24:20 The womb 18 forgets him,
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
27:18 The house he builds is as fragile as a moth’s cocoon, 19
like a hut 20 that a watchman has made.
31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan 21 like a father,
and from my mother’s womb 22
I guided the widow! 23
1 sn Those who live in houses of clay are human beings, for the human body was made of clay (Job 10:9; 33:6; and Isa 64:7). In 2 Cor 4:7 the body is an “earthen vessel” – a clay pot. The verse continues the analogy: houses have foundations, and the house of clay is founded on dust, and will return to dust (Gen 3:19; Ps 103:14). The reasoning is that if God finds defects in angels, he will surely find them in humans who are inferior to the angels because they are but dust. In fact, they are easily crushed like the moth.
2 tn The imperfect verb is in the plural, suggesting “they crush.” But since there is no subject expressed, the verb may be given an impersonal subject, or more simply, treated as a passive (see GKC 460 §144.g).
3 tn The prepositional compound לִפְנֵי (lifne) normally has the sense of “before,” but it has been used already in 3:24 in the sense of “like.” That is the most natural meaning of this line. Otherwise, the interpretation must offer some explanation of a comparison between how quickly a moth and a human can be crushed. There are suggestions for different readings here; see for example G. R. Driver, “Linguistic and Textual Problems: Jeremiah,” JQR 28 (1937/38): 97-129 for a change to “bird’s nest”; and J. A. Rimbach, “‘Crushed before the Moth’ (Job 4:19),” JBL 100 (1981): 244-46, for a change of the verb to “they are pure before their Maker.” However, these are unnecessary emendations.
4 tn The personal pronoun that would be expected as the subject of a noun clause is sometimes omitted (see GKC 360 §116.s). Here it has been supplied.
5 tn The consecutive clause is here attached without the use of the ו (vav), but only by simple juxtaposition (see GKC 504-5 §166.a).
6 tn The sense of the verb “come” with “together in judgment” means “to confront one another in court.” See Ps 143:2.
7 tn For the use of the cohortative in the apodosis of conditional sentences, see GKC 322 §109.f.
8 tn The conjunction לוּ (lu) is used to introduce the optative, a condition that is incapable of fulfillment (see GKC 494-95 §159.l).
9 tn This verb אַחְבִּירָה (’akhbirah) is usually connected to חָבַר (khavar, “to bind”). There are several suggestions for this word. J. J. Finkelstein proposed a second root, a homonym, meaning “to make a sound,” and so here “to harangue” (“Hebrew habar and Semitic HBR,” JBL 75 [1956]: 328-31; see also O. Loretz, “HBR in Job 16:4,” CBQ 23 [1961]: 293-94, who renders it “I could make noisy speeches”). Other suggestions have been for new meanings based on cognate studies, such as “to make beautiful” (i.e., make polished speeches).
10 sn The action is a sign of mockery (see Ps 22:7[8]; Isa 37:22; Matt 27:39).
11 tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen); but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.
12 tn That is, “the poor.”
13 tc The MT has “in the working/labor of them,” or “when they labor.” Some commentators simply omit these words. Dhorme retains them and moves them to go with עֲרָבָה (’aravah), which he takes to mean “evening”; this gives a clause, “although they work until the evening.” Then, with many others, he takes לוֹ (lo) to be a negative and finishes the verse with “no food for the children.” Others make fewer changes in the text, and as a result do not come out with such a hopeless picture – there is some food found. The point is that they spend their time foraging for food, and they find just enough to survive, but it is a day-long activity. For Job, this shows how unrighteous the administration of the world actually is.
14 tn The verb is not included in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation.
15 tn The text simply has לָאוֹר (la’or, “at light” or “at daylight”), probably meaning just at the time of dawn.
16 tn In a few cases the jussive is used without any real sense of the jussive being present (see GKC 323 §109.k).
17 sn The point is that he is like a thief in that he works during the night, just before the daylight, when the advantage is all his and the victim is most vulnerable.
18 tn Here “womb” is synecdoche, representing one’s mother.
19 tn Heb כָעָשׁ (kha’ash, “like a moth”), but this leaves room for clarification. Some commentators wanted to change it to “bird’s nest” or just “nest” (cf. NRSV) to make the parallelism; see Job 4:14. But the word is not found. The LXX has a double expression, “as moths, as a spider.” So several take it as the spider’s web, which is certainly unsubstantial (cf. NAB, NASB, NLT; see Job 8:14).
20 tn The Hebrew word is the word for “booth,” as in the Feast of Booths. The word describes something that is flimsy; it is not substantial at all.
21 tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.
22 tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”
23 tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.