Job 10:16

If I lift myself up, ¹  you hunt me as a fierce lion, ²  and again ³  you display your power ⁴  against me.

If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me.

‘Should my head be lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion; And again You would show Your power against me.

And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me.

I try to make the best of it, try to brave it out, but you're too much for me, relentless, like a lion on the prowl.

And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

Bold as a lion you hunt me; you repeat your exploits against me.

If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, And again You show Yourself awesome against me.

If I lift myself up, ¹  you hunt me as a fierce lion, ²  and again ³  you display your power ⁴  against me.

¹ tn The MT has the 3rd person of the verb, “and he lifts himself up.” One might assume that the subject is “my head” – but that is rather far removed from the verb. It appears that Job is talking about himself in some way. Some commentators simply emend the text to make it first person. This has the support of Targum Job, which would be expected since it would be interpreting the passage in its context (see D. M. Stec, “The Targum Rendering of WYG’H in Job X 16,” VT 34 [1984]: 367-8). Pope and Gordis make the word adjectival, modifying the subject: “proudly you hunt me,” but support is lacking. E. Dhorme thinks the line should be parallel to the two preceding it, and so suggests יָגֵּעַ (yagea’, “exhausted”) for יִגְאֶה (yig’eh, “lift up”). The contextual argument is that Job has said that he cannot raise his head, but if he were to do so, God would hunt him down. God could be taken as the subject of the verb if the text is using enallage (shifting of grammatical persons within a discourse) for dramatic effect. Perhaps the initial 3rd person was intended with respect within a legal context of witnesses and a complaint, but was switched to 2nd person for direct accusation.

² sn There is some ambiguity here: Job could be the lion being hunted by God, or God could be hunting Job like a lion hunts its prey. The point of the line is clear in either case.

³ tn The text uses two verbs without a coordinating conjunction: “then you return, you display your power.” This should be explained as a verbal hendiadys, the first verb serving adverbially in the clause (see further GKC 386-87 §120.g).

⁴ tn The form is the Hitpael of פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be surpassing; to be extraordinary”). Here in this stem it has the sense of “make oneself admirable, surpassing” or “render oneself powerful, glorious.” The text is ironic; the word that described God’s marvelous creation of Job is here used to describe God’s awesome destruction of Job.