Discovery BoxJob 3:10 
Context3:10 because it 1 did not shut the doors 2 of my mother’s womb on me, 3
nor did it hide trouble 4 from my eyes!
Job 31:34
Context31:34 because I was terrified 5 of the great multitude, 6
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I remained silent
and would not go outdoors – 7
Job 32:3
Context32:3 With Job’s 8 three friends he was also angry, because they could not find 9 an answer, and so declared Job guilty. 10
Job 34:19
Context34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,
and does not take note of 11 the rich more than the poor,
because all of them are the work of his hands?
Job 34:33
Context34:33 Is it your opinion 12 that God 13 should recompense it,
because you reject this? 14
But you must choose, and not I,
so tell us what you know.
1 tn The subject is still “that night.” Here, at the end of this first section, Job finally expresses the crime of that night – it did not hinder his birth.
2 sn This use of doors for the womb forms an implied comparison; the night should have hindered conception (see Gen 20:18 and 1 Sam 1:5).
3 tn The Hebrew has simply “my belly [= womb].” The suffix on the noun must be objective – it was the womb of Job’s mother in which he lay before his birth. See however N. C. Habel, “The Dative Suffix in Job 33:13,” Bib 63 (1982): 258-59, who thinks it is deliberately ambiguous.
4 tn The word עָמָל (’amal) means “work, heavy labor, agonizing labor, struggle” with the idea of fatigue and pain.
5 tn Here too the verb will be the customary imperfect – it explains what he continually did in past time.
6 tn Heb “the great multitude.” But some commentators take רַבָּה (rabbah) adverbially: “greatly” (see RSV).
7 sn There is no clear apodosis for all these clauses. Some commentators transfer the verses around to make them fit the constructions. But the better view is that there is no apodosis – that Job broke off here, feeling it was useless to go further. Now he will address God and not men. But in vv. 38-40b he does return to a self-imprecation. However, there is not sufficient reason to start rearranging all the verses.
8 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.
9 tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.
10 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.
11 tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).
12 tn Heb “is it from with you,” an idiomatic expression meaning “to suit you” or “according to your judgment.”
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn There is no object on the verb, and the meaning is perhaps lost. The best guess is that Elihu is saying Job has rejected his teaching.
