Discovery Box| (0.28) | (Job 8:18) | 1 tc Ball reads אֵל (ʾel, “God”) instead of אִם (ʾim, “if”): “God destroys it”—but there is no reason for this. The idea would be implied in the context. A. B. Davidson rightly points out that who destroys it is not important, but the fact that it is destroyed. |
| (0.28) | (Job 7:18) | 3 sn The amazing thing is the regularity of the testing. Job is at first amazed that God would visit him, but even more is he amazed that God is testing him every moment. The employment of a chiasm with the two temporal adverbial phrases as the central elements emphasizes the regularity. |
| (0.28) | (Job 7:20) | 3 sn In the Bible God is often described as watching over people to protect them from danger (see Deut 32:10; Ps 31:23). However, here it is a hostile sense, for God may detect sin and bring it to judgment. |
| (0.28) | (Job 7:17) | 2 tn The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them. |
| (0.28) | (Job 5:24) | 1 sn Verses 19-23 described the immunity from evil and trouble that Job would enjoy—if he were restored to peace with God. Now, v. 24 describes the safety and peace of the homestead and his possessions if he were right with God. |
| (0.28) | (Job 5:1) | 4 sn The point being made is that the angels do not represent the cries of people to God as if mediating for them. But if Job appealed to any of them to take his case against God, there would be no response whatsoever for that. |
| (0.28) | (Job 5:1) | 1 sn The imperative is here a challenge for Job. If he makes his appeal against God, who is there who will listen? The rhetorical questions are intended to indicate that no one will respond, not even the angels. Job would do better to realize that he is guilty and his only hope is in God. |
| (0.28) | (Job 3:4) | 2 sn This expression by Job is the negation of the divine decree at creation—“Let there be light,” and that was the first day. Job wishes that his first day be darkness: “As for that day, let there be darkness.” Since only God has this prerogative, Job adds the wish that God on high would not regard that day. |
| (0.28) | (Job 1:19) | 2 sn Both wind and lightning (v. 16) were employed by Satan as his tools. God can permit him such control over factors of the weather when it suits the divine purpose, but God retains ultimate control (see 28:23-27; Prov 30:4; Luke 8:24-25). |
| (0.28) | (Job 1:11) | 2 sn The two imperatives (“stretch out” and “strike”) and the word “hand” all form a bold anthropomorphic sentence. It is as if God would deliver a blow to Job with his fist. But the intended meaning is that God would intervene to destroy Job’s material and physical prosperity. |
| (0.28) | (Job 1:11) | 4 tn See the comments on Job 1:5. Here too the idea of “renounce” may fit well enough, but the idea of actually cursing God may not be out of the picture if everything Job has is removed. Satan thinks he will denounce God. |
| (0.28) | (Job 1:6) | 1 sn The text draws the curtain of heaven aside for the reader to understand the background of this drama. God extols the virtue of Job, but Satan challenges the reasons for it. He receives permission to try to dislodge Job from his integrity. In short, God is using Job to prove Satan’s theory wrong. |
| (0.28) | (2Ch 31:21) | 1 tn Heb “and in all the work which he began with regard to the service of the house of God and with respect to the law and with respect to the commandment, to seek his God; with all his heart he acted and he succeeded.” |
| (0.28) | (2Ch 28:23) | 1 tn Heb “the gods of Damascus, the ones who had defeated him.” The words “he thought” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The perspective is that of Ahaz, not the narrator! Another option is that “the kings” has been accidentally omitted after “gods of.” See v. 23b. |
| (0.28) | (2Ch 7:20) | 1 tn Heb “them.” The switch from the second to the third person pronoun is rhetorically effective, for it mirrors God’s rejection of his people—he has stopped addressing them as “you” and begun addressing them as “them.” However, the switch is awkward and confusing in English, so the translation maintains the direct address style. |
| (0.28) | (1Ch 22:18) | 2 tn In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is not the Lord your God with you?” The question anticipates the response, “Of course he is!” Thus in the translation the positive statement “The Lord your God is with you!” has been used. |
| (0.28) | (1Ch 12:22) | 1 tn Heb “for at the time of day in a day they were coming to David to help him until [there was] a great camp like the camp of God.” The term אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim, “God”) is probably used idiomatically here to indicate the superlative. |
| (0.28) | (2Ki 19:29) | 2 tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (ʾot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25. |
| (0.28) | (2Ki 18:34) | 3 tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 33, 35). |
| (0.28) | (2Ki 7:19) | 3 tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons. |
