translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JOB

label: NET translator note

text: The demonstrative pronoun is used here to emphasize the interrogative pronoun (see GKC 442 §136. c ).


text: Heb “Gird up your loins.” This idiom basically describes taking the hem of the long garment or robe and pulling it up between the legs and tucking it into the front of the belt, allowing easier and freer movement of the legs. “Girding the loins” meant the preparation for some difficult task ( Jer 1:17 ), or for battle ( Isa 5:27 ), or for running ( 1 Kgs 18:46 ). C. Gordon suggests that it includes belt-wrestling, a form of hand-to-hand mortal combat (“Belt-wrestling in the Bible World,” HUCA 23 [1950/51]: 136).


text: The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.


text: The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.


text: The particle כּ ( ki ) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159. dd ). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.


text: For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136. b .


text: The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן ( ranan ), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav ( ו ) consecutive preterite.


text: Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.


text: See Job 1:6 .


text: The MT has “and he shut up.” The Vulgate has “Who?” and so many commentaries and editions adopt this reading, if not from the Vulgate, then from the sense of the sequence in the text itself.


text: The line uses two expressions, first the temporal clause with גִּיחַ ( giakh , “when it burst forth”) and then the finite verb יֵצֵא ( yetse ’, “go out”) to mark the concomitance of the two actions.


text: The temporal clause here uses the infinitive from שִׂים ( sim , “to place; to put; to make”). It underscores the sovereign placing of things.


text: This noun is found only here. The verb is in Ezek 16:4 , and a related noun is in Ezek 30:21 .


label: NET textual note

text: The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ ashiyt , “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” ( 2 Sam 5:24 ; Job 14:3 ; Dan 11:36 ).


text: Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.


text: The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.


text: The text has תֹסִיף ( tosif , “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).


text: The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.


text: The Hebrew idiom is “have you from your days?” It means “never in your life” (see 1 Sam 25:28 ; 1 Kgs 1:6 ).


text: The verb is the Piel of יָדַע ( yada ’, “to know”) with a double accusative.


text: Heb “they”; the referent (the objects or features on the earth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: The MT reads “they stand up like a garment” (NASB, NIV) or “its features stand out like a garment” (ESV). The reference could be either to embroidered decoration on a garment or to the folds of a garment (REB: “until all things stand out like the folds of a cloak”; cf. J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 497, “the early light of day makes the earth appear as a beautiful garment, exquisite in design and glorious in color”). Since this is thought to be an odd statement, some suggest with Ehrlich that the text be changed to תִּצָּבַּע ( titsabba ’, “is dyed [like a garment]”). This reference would be to the colors appearing on the earth’s surface under daylight. The present translation follows the emendation.


text: Heb “the raised arm.” The words “in violence” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.


text: Heb “the springs of the sea.” The words “that fill” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of the phrase.


text: Heb “uncovered to you.”


text: Some still retain the traditional phrase “shadow of death” in the English translation (cf. NIV). The reference is to the entrance to Sheol (see Job 10:21 ).


text: The interrogative with דֶרֶךְ ( derekh ) means “in what road” or “in what direction.”


text: The suffixes are singular (“that you may take it to its border…to its home”), referring to either the light or the darkness. Because either is referred to, the translation has employed plurals, since singulars would imply that only the second item, “darkness,” was the referent. Plurals are also employed by NAB and NIV.


text: The imperfect verb after the adverb אָז (’ az , “then”) functions as a preterite: “you were born.” The line is sarcastic.


text: The same Hebrew term ( אוֹצָר , ’ otsar ), has been translated “storehouse” in the first line and “armory” in the second. This has been done for stylistic variation, but also because “hail,” as one of God’s “weapons” (cf. the following verse) suggests military imagery; in this context the word refers to God’s “ammunition dump” where he stockpiles hail.


text: Because the parallel with “light” and “east wind” is not tight, Hoffmann proposed ‘ ed instead, “mist.” This has been adopted by many. G. R. Driver suggests “parching heat” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 91-92).


text: Heb “on a land, no man.”


text: Heb “a desert, no man in it.”


text: Heb “to cause to sprout a source of vegetation.” The word מֹצָא ( motsa ’) is rendered “mine” in Job 28:1 . The suggestion with the least changes is Wright’s: צָמֵא ( tsame ’, “thirsty”). But others choose מִצִּיָּה ( mitsiyyah , “from the steppe”).


text: Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם ( shamayim ) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.


text: Several suggest that the verb is not from חָבָא ( khava ’, “to hide”) but from a homonym, “to congeal.” This may be too difficult to support, however.


text: This word is found here and in 1 Sam 15:32 . Dhorme suggests, with others, that there has been a metathesis (a reversal of consonants), and it is the same word found in Job 31:36 (“bind”). G. R. Driver takes it as “cluster” without changing the text (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 7 [1956] :3).


text: The word מַזָּרוֹת ( mazzarot ) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kgs 23:5 ), and by others as connected to the word for “crown,” and so “corona.”


text: The LXX has “answer you,” and some editors have adopted this. However, the reading of the MT makes better sense in the verse.


text: This verse is difficult because of the two words, טֻחוֹת ( tukhot , rendered here “heart”) and שֶׂכְוִי ( sekhvi , here “mind”). They have been translated a number of ways: “meteor” and “celestial appearance”; the stars “Procyon” and “Sirius”; “inward part” and “mind”; even as birds, “ibis” and “cock.” One expects them to have something to do with nature – clouds and the like. The RSV accordingly took them to mean “meteor” (from a verb “to wander”) and “a celestial appearance.” But these meanings are not well-attested.


text: The word actually means “to cause to lie down.”


text: The word means “to flow” or “to cast” (as in casting metals). So the noun developed the sense of “hard,” as in cast metal.


text: Heb “fill up the life of.”


text: The verse is difficult, making some suspect that a line has dropped out. The little birds in the nest hardly go wandering about looking for food. Dhorme suggest “and stagger for lack of food.”