9:34 who 1 would take his 2 rod 3 away from me
so that his terror 4 would not make me afraid.
21:9 Their houses are safe 5 and without fear; 6
and no rod of punishment 7 from God is upon them. 8
1 tn The verse probably continues the description from the last verse, and so a relative pronoun may be supplied here as well.
2 tn According to some, the reference of this suffix would be to God. The arbiter would remove the rod of God from Job. But others take it as a separate sentence with God removing his rod.
3 sn The “rod” is a symbol of the power of God to decree whatever judgments and afflictions fall upon people.
4 tn “His terror” is metonymical; it refers to the awesome majesty of God that overwhelms Job and causes him to be afraid.
5 tn The word שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace, safety”) is here a substantive after a plural subject (see GKC 452 §141.c, n. 3).
6 tn The form מִפָּחַד (mippakhad) is translated “without fear,” literally “from fear”; the preposition is similar to the alpha privative in Greek. The word “fear, dread” means nothing that causes fear or dread – they are peaceful, secure. See GKC 382 §119.w.
7 tn Heb “no rod of God.” The words “punishment from” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor understandable for the modern reader by stating the purpose of the rod.
8 sn In 9:34 Job was complaining that there was no umpire to remove God’s rod from him, but here he observes no such rod is on the wicked.