translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JOB

label: NET translator note

text: The interrogative clause is used here as an exclamation, and sarcastic at that. Job is saying “you have in no way helped the powerless.” The verb uses the singular form, for Job is replying to Bildad.


text: The “powerless” is expressed here by the negative before the word for “strength; power” – “him who has no power” (see GKC 482 §152. u , v ).


text: Heb “the arm [with] no strength.” Here too the negative expression is serving as a relative clause to modify “arm,” the symbol of strength and power, which by metonymy stands for the whole person. “Man of arm” denoted the strong in 22:8 .


label: NET textual note

text: The phrase לָרֹב ( larov ) means “to abundance” or “in a large quantity.” It is also used ironically like all these expressions. This makes very good sense, but some wish to see a closer parallel and so offer emendations. Reiske and Kissane thought “to the tender” for the word. But the timid are not the same as the ignorant and unwise. So Graetz supplied “to the boorish” by reading לְבָעַר ( lÿba ’ ar ). G. R. Driver did the same with less of a change: לַבּוֹר ( labbor ; HTR 29 [1936]: 172).


text: The verse begins with the preposition and the interrogative: אֶת־מִי (’ et-mi , “with who[se help]?”). Others take it as the accusative particle introducing the indirect object: “for whom did you utter…” (see GKC 371 §117. gg ). Both are possible.


text: Heb “has gone out from you.”


text: The text has הָרְפָאִים ( harÿfa ’ im , “the shades”), referring to the “dead,” or the elite among the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14 ; Ps 88:10 [11]). For further discussion, start with A. R. Johnson, The Vitality of the Individual , 88ff.


text: The verb is a Polal from חִיל ( khil ) which means “to tremble.” It shows that even these spirits cannot escape the terror.


text: Heb “Sheol.”


text: Heb “before him.”


text: The line has “and there is no covering for destruction.” “Destruction” here is another name for Sheol: אֲבַדּוֹן (’ avaddon , “Abaddon”).


text: The verb means “to hold; to seize,” here in the sense of shutting up, enshrouding, or concealing.


text: The MT has כִסֵּה ( khisseh ), which is a problematic vocalization. Most certainly כֵּסֶה ( keseh ), alternative for כֶּסֶא ( kese ’, “full moon”) is intended here. The MT is close to the form of “throne,” which would be כִּסֵּא ( kisse ’, cf. NLT “he shrouds his throne with his clouds”). But here God is covering the face of the moon by hiding it behind clouds.


text: The expression חֹק־חָג ( khoq-khag ) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג ( khaq-khug , “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק ( khaqaq , “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג ( khug , “describe a circle”) respectively.


text: The verb רָגַע ( raga ’) has developed a Semitic polarity, i.e., having totally opposite meanings. It can mean “to disturb; to stir up” or “to calm; to still.” Gordis thinks both meanings have been invoked here. But it seems more likely that “calm” fits the context better.


text: Heb “Rahab” ( רָהַב ), the mythical sea monster that represents the forces of chaos in ancient Near Eastern literature. In the translation the words “the great sea monster” have been supplied appositionally in order to clarify “Rahab.”


text: Or “wind”; or perhaps “Spirit.” The same Hebrew word, רוּחַ ( ruakh ), may be translated as “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit/Spirit” depending on the context.


text: Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”


text: Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”