Job 7:8
Context7:8 The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; 1
your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. 2
Job 29:2
Context29:2 “O that I could be 3 as 4 I was
in the months now gone, 5
in the days 6 when God watched 7 over me,
Job 31:7
Context31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,
if my heart has gone after my eyes, 8
or if anything 9 has defiled my hands,
1 sn The meaning of the verse is that God will relent, but it will be too late. God now sees him with a hostile eye; when he looks for him, or looks upon him in friendliness, it will be too late.
2 tn This verse is omitted in the LXX and so by several commentators. But the verb שׁוּר (shur, “turn, return”) is so characteristic of Job (10 times) that the verse seems appropriate here.
3 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).
4 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).
5 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.
6 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.”
7 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.”
8 sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”
9 tc The word מֻאוּם (mu’um) could be taken in one of two ways. One reading is to represent מוּם (mum, “blemish,” see the Masorah); the other is for מְאוּמָה (mÿ’umah, “anything,” see the versions and the Kethib). Either reading fits the passage.