Discovery BoxJob 29:2 
Context29:2 “O that I could be 1 as 2 I was
in the months now gone, 3
in the days 4 when God watched 5 over me,
Job 32:3
Context32:3 With Job’s 6 three friends he was also angry, because they could not find 7 an answer, and so declared Job guilty. 8
Job 40:4
Context40:4 “Indeed, I am completely unworthy 9 – how could I reply to you?
I put 10 my hand over my mouth to silence myself. 11
Job 42:15
Context42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.
1 tn The optative is here expressed with מִי־יִתְּנֵנִי (mi-yittÿneni, “who will give me”), meaning, “O that I [could be]…” (see GKC 477 §151.b).
2 tn The preposition כּ (kaf) is used here in an expression describing the state desired, especially in the former time (see GKC 376 §118.u).
3 tn The expression is literally “months of before [or of old; or past].” The word קֶדֶם (qedem) is intended here to be temporal and not spatial; it means days that preceded the present.
4 tn The construct state (“days of”) governs the independent sentence that follows (see GKC 422 §130.d): “as the days of […] God used to watch over me.”
5 tn The imperfect verb here has a customary nuance – “when God would watch over me” (back then), or “when God used to watch over me.”
6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.
7 tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.
8 tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.
9 tn The word קַלֹּתִי (qalloti) means “to be light; to be of small account; to be unimportant.” From this comes the meaning “contemptible,” which in the causative stem would mean “to treat with contempt; to curse.” Dhorme tries to make the sentence a conditional clause and suggests this meaning: “If I have been thoughtless.” There is really no “if” in Job’s mind.
10 tn The perfect verb here should be classified as an instantaneous perfect; the action is simultaneous with the words.
11 tn The words “to silence myself” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
