6:16 They 1 are dark 2 because of ice;
snow is piled 3 up over them. 4
18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;
his lamp above him is extinguished. 5
22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, 6
and why a flood 7 of water covers you.
30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; 8
my body 9 is hot with fever. 10
1 tn The article on the participle joins this statement to the preceding noun; it can have the sense of “they” or “which.” The parallel sense then can be continued with a finite verb (see GKC 404 §126.b).
2 tn The participle הַקֹּדְרים (haqqodÿrim), often rendered “which are black,” would better be translated “dark,” for it refers to the turbid waters filled with melting ice or melting snow, or to the frozen surface of the water, but not waters that are muddied. The versions failed to note that this referred to the waters introduced in v. 15.
3 tn The verb יִתְעַלֶּם (yit’allem) has been translated “is hid” or “hides itself.” But this does not work easily in the sentence with the preposition “upon them.” Torczyner suggested “pile up” from an Aramaic root עֲלַם (’alam), and E. Dhorme (Job, 87) defends it without changing the text, contending that the form we have was chosen for alliterative value with the prepositional phrase before it.
4 tn The LXX paraphrases the whole verse: “They who used to reverence me now come against me like snow or congealed ice.”
5 tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”
sn This thesis of Bildad will be questioned by Job in 21:17 – how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
6 tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.
7 tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.
8 tn The MT has “become dark from upon me,” prompting some editions to supply the verb “falls from me” (RSV, NRSV), or “peels” (NIV).
9 tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.
10 tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.