Discovery BoxJob 9:11 
Context9:11 If 1 he passes by me, I cannot see 2 him, 3
if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. 4
Job 12:14-15
Context12:14 If 5 he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt;
if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. 6
12:15 If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; 7
if he releases them, 8 they destroy 9 the land.
Job 14:21
Context14:21 If 10 his sons are honored, 11
he does not know it; 12
if they are brought low,
he does not see 13 it.
Job 15:15
Context15:15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, 14
if even the heavens 15 are not pure in his eyes,
Job 17:13
Context17:13 If 16 I hope for the grave to be my home,
if I spread out my bed in darkness,
Job 22:23
Context22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; 17
if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,
Job 35:6
Context35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? 18
If your transgressions are many,
what does it do to him? 19
1 tn The NIV has “when” to form a temporal clause here. For the use of “if,” see GKC 497 §159.w.
2 tn The imperfect verbs in this verse are consistent with the clauses. In the conditional clauses a progressive imperfect is used, but in the following clauses the verbs are potential imperfects.
3 tn The pronoun “him” is supplied here; it is not in MT, but the Syriac and Vulgate have it (probably for translation purposes as well).
4 sn Like the mountains, Job knows that God has passed by and caused him to shake and tremble, but he cannot understand or perceive the reasons.
5 tn The use of הֵן (hen, equivalent to הִנֵּה, hinneh, “behold”) introduces a hypothetical condition.
6 tn The verse employs antithetical ideas: “tear down” and “build up,” “imprison” and “escape.” The Niphal verbs in the sentences are potential imperfects. All of this is to say that humans cannot reverse the will of God.
7 tc The LXX has a clarification: “he will dry the earth.”
8 sn The verse is focusing on the two extremes of drought and flood. Both are described as being under the power of God.
9 tn The verb הָפַךְ (hafakh) means “to overthrow; to destroy; to overwhelm.” It was used in Job 9:5 for “overturning” mountains. The word is used in Genesis for the destruction of Sodom.
10 tn The clause may be interpreted as a conditional clause, with the second clause beginning with the conjunction serving as the apodosis.
11 tn There is no expressed subject for the verb “they honor,” and so it may be taken as a passive.
12 sn Death is separation from the living, from the land of the living. And ignorance of what goes on in this life, good or bad, is part of death. See also Eccl 9:5-6, which makes a similar point.
13 tn The verb is בִּין (bin, “to perceive; to discern”). The parallelism between “know” and “perceive” stress the point that in death a man does not realize what is happening here in the present life.
14 tn Eliphaz here reiterates the point made in Job 4:18.
15 sn The question here is whether the reference is to material “heavens” (as in Exod 24:10 and Job 25:5), or to heavenly beings. The latter seems preferable in this context.
16 tn The clause begins with אִם (’im) which here has more of the sense of “since.” E. Dhorme (Job, 253) takes a rather rare use of the word to get “Can I hope again” (see also GKC 475 §150.f for the caveat).
17 tc The MT has “you will be built up” (תִּבָּנֶה, tibbaneh). But the LXX has “humble yourself” (reading תְּעַנֶּה [tÿ’anneh] apparently). Many commentators read this; Dahood has “you will be healed.”
18 tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
