Discovery BoxJob 15:10 
Context15:10 The gray-haired 1 and the aged are on our side, 2
men far older than your father. 3
Job 17:14
Context17:14 If I cry 4 to corruption, 5 ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My Mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
Job 29:16
Context29:16 I was a father 6 to the needy,
and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;
1 tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.
2 tn Heb “with us.”
3 tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age – they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.
4 tn This is understood because the conditional clauses seem to run to the apodosis in v. 15.
5 tn The word שַׁחַת (shakhat) may be the word “corruption” from a root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) or a word “pit” from שׁוּחַ (shuakh, “to sink down”). The same problem surfaces in Ps 16:10, where it is parallel to “Sheol.” E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life, 76ff., defends the meaning “corruption.” But many commentators here take it to mean “the grave” in harmony with “Sheol.” But in this verse “worms” would suggest “corruption” is better.
6 sn The word “father” does not have a wide range of meanings in the OT. But there are places that it is metaphorical, especially in a legal setting like this where the poor need aid.
