Discovery BoxJob 31:15-20 
Context31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? 1
Did not the same one form us in the womb?
31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, 2
or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,
and did not share any of it with orphans 3 –
31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan 4 like a father,
and from my mother’s womb 5
I guided the widow! 6
31:19 If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing,
or a poor man without a coat,
31:20 whose heart did not bless me 7
as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep, 8
1 tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).
2 tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”
3 tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”
4 tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.
5 tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”
6 tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.
7 tn The MT has simply “if his loins did not bless me.” In the conditional clause this is another protasis. It means, “if I saw someone dying and if he did not thank me for clothing them.” It is Job’s way of saying that whenever he saw a need he met it, and he received his share of thanks – which prove his kindness. G. R. Driver has it “without his loins having blessed me,” taking “If…not” as an Aramaism, meaning “except” (AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 164f.).
8 tn This clause is interpreted here as a subordinate clause to the first half of the verse. It could also be a separate clause: “was he not warmed…?”
