7:10 He returns no more to his house,
nor does his place of residence 1 know him 2 any more.
8:17 It wraps its roots around a heap 3 of stones 4
and it looks 5 for a place among stones. 6
14:18 But as 7 a mountain falls away and crumbles, 8
and as a rock will be removed from its place,
16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, 9
nor let there be a secret 10 place for my cry.
27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
30:23 I know that you are bringing 11 me to death,
to the meeting place for all the living.
33:28 He redeemed my life 12
from going down to the place of corruption,
and my life sees the light!’
33:30 to turn back his life from the place of corruption,
that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
1 tn M. Dahood suggests the meaning is the same as “his abode” (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography V,” Bib 48 [1967]: 421-38).
2 tn The verb means “to recognize” by seeing. “His place,” the place where he was living, is the subject of the verb. This personification is intended simply to say that the place where he lived will not have him any more. The line is very similar to Ps 103:16b – when the wind blows the flower away, its place knows it no more.
3 tn Cheyne reads “spring” or “well” rather than “heap.” However, this does not fit the parallelism very well, and so he emends the second half as well. Nevertheless the Hebrew text needs no emending here.
4 tn The expression “of stones” is added for clarification of what the heap would be. It refers to the object around which the roots would grow. The parallelism with “house of stones” makes this reading highly probable.
5 tn The idea is that the plant grows, looking for a place to grow among the stones. Some trees grow so tightly around the rocks and stones that they are impossible to uproot. The rocky ground where it grows forms “a house of stones.” The LXX supports an emendation from יְחֱזֶה (yÿkhezeh, “it looks”) to יִחְיֶה (yikhyeh, “it lives”). Others have tried to emend the text in a variety of ways: “pushes” (Budde), “cleave” (Gordis), “was opposite” (Driver), or “run against” (NEB, probably based on G. R. Driver). If one were to make a change, the reading with the LXX would be the easiest to defend, but there is no substantial reason to do that. The meaning is about the same without such a change.
6 sn The idea seems to be that the stones around which the roots of the tree wrap themselves suggest strength and security for the tree, but uprooting comes to it nevertheless (v. 18). The point is that the wicked may appear to be living in security and flourishing, yet can be quickly destroyed (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 74).
7 tn The indication that this is a simile is to be obtained from the conjunction beginning 19c (see GKC 499 §161.a).
8 tn The word יִבּוֹל (yibbol) usually refers to a flower fading and so seems strange here. The LXX and the Syriac translate “and will fall”; most commentators accept this and repoint the preceding word to get “and will surely fall.” Duhm retains the MT and applies the image of the flower to the falling mountain. The verb is used of the earth in Isa 24:4, and so NIV, RSV, and NJPS all have the idea of “crumble away.”
9 sn Job knows that he will die, and that his death, signified here by blood on the ground, will cry out for vindication.
10 tn The word is simply “a place,” but in the context it surely means a hidden place, a secret place that would never be discovered (see 18:21).
11 tn The imperfect verb would be a progressive imperfect, it is future, but it is also already underway.
12 sn See note on “him” in v. 24.