Discovery BoxJob 22:15-20 
Context22:15 Will you keep to the old path 1
that evil men have walked –
22:16 men 2 who were carried off 3 before their time, 4
when the flood 5 was poured out 6
on their foundations? 7
22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’
and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ 8
22:18 But it was he 9 who filled their houses
with good things –
yet the counsel of the wicked 10
was far from me. 11
22:19 The righteous see their destruction 12 and rejoice;
the innocent mock them scornfully, 13 saying,
22:20 ‘Surely our enemies 14 are destroyed,
and fire consumes their wealth.’
1 tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.
2 tn The word “men” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the relative pronoun “who.”
3 tn The verb קָמַט (qamat) basically means “to seize; to tie together to make a bundle.” So the Pual will mean “to be bundled away; to be carried off.”
4 tn The clause has “and [it was] not the time.” It may be used adverbially here.
5 tn The word is נָהַר (nahar, “river” or “current”); it is taken here in its broadest sense of the waters on the earth that formed the current of the flood (Gen 7:6, 10).
6 tn The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out; to shed; to spill; to flow.” The Pual means “to be poured out” (as in Lev 21:10 and Ps 45:3).
7 tn This word is then to be taken as an adverbial accusative of place. Another way to look at this verse is what A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) proposes “whose foundation was poured away and became a flood.” This would mean that that on which they stood sank away.
8 tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”
9 tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.
11 tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).
12 tn The line is talking about the rejoicing of the righteous when judgment falls on the wicked. An object (“destruction”) has to be supplied here to clarify this (see Pss 52:6 [8]; 69:32 [33]; 107:42).
13 sn In Ps 2:4 it was God who mocked the wicked by judging them.
14 tc The word translated “our enemies” is found only here. The word means “hostility,” but used here as a collective for those who are hostile – “enemies.” Some commentators follow the LXX and read “possessions,” explaining its meaning and derivation in different ways. Gordis simply takes the word in the text and affirms that this is the meaning. On the other hand, to get this, E. Dhorme (Job, 336) repoints קִימָנוּ (qimanu) of the MT to יְקוּמַם (yÿqumam), arguing that יְקוּם (yÿqum) means “what exists [or has substance]” (although that is used of animals). He translates: “have not their possessions been destroyed.”
