Discovery BoxJob 19:8 
Context19:8 He has blocked 1 my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness 2 over my paths.
Job 28:8
Context28:8 Proud beasts 3 have not set foot on it,
and no lion has passed along it.
Job 38:5-6
Context38:5 Who set its measurements – if 4 you know –
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
38:6 On what 5 were its bases 6 set,
or who laid its cornerstone –
Job 38:10
Context38:10 when I prescribed 7 its limits,
and set 8 in place its bolts and doors,
1 tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) means “to wall up; to fence up; to block.” God has blocked Job’s way so that he cannot get through. See the note on 3:23. Cf. Lam 3:7.
2 tn Some commentators take the word to be חָשַׁךְ (hasak), related to an Arabic word for “thorn hedge.”
3 tn Heb “the sons of pride.” In Job 41:26 the expression refers to carnivorous wild beasts.
4 tn The particle כּ (ki) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159.dd). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.
5 tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.
6 sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).
7 tc The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ashiyt, “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” (2 Sam 5:24; Job 14:3; Dan 11:36).
8 tn Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.
