Discovery BoxJob 16:10 
Context16:10 People 1 have opened their mouths against me,
they have struck my cheek in scorn; 2
they unite 3 together against me.
Job 29:23
Context29:23 They waited for me as people wait 4 for the rain,
and they opened their mouths 5
as for 6 the spring rains.
Job 31:32
Context31:32 But 7 no stranger had to spend the night outside,
for I opened my doors to the traveler 8 –
1 tn “People” is supplied; the Hebrew verb is third plural. The colon reads, “they have opened against me with [the preposition is instrumental] their mouth.” The gestures here follow the animal imagery; they reflect destructive opposition and attack (see Ps 22:13 among others).
2 tn This is an “insult” or a “reproach.”
3 tn The verb יִתְמַלָּאוּן (yitmalla’un) is taken from מָלֵא (male’), “to be full,” and in this stem, “to pile up; to press together.” The term has a military connotation, such as “to mobilize” (see D. W. Thomas, “ml'w in Jeremiah 4:5 : a military term,” JJS 3 [1952]: 47-52). Job sees himself surrounded by enemies who persecute him and mock him.
4 tn The phrase “people wait for” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.
5 sn The analogy is that they received his words eagerly as the dry ground opens to receive the rains.
6 tn The כּ (kaf) preposition is to be supplied by analogy with the preceding phrase. This leaves a double proposition, “as for” (but see Job 29:2).
7 tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.
8 tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.
