Job 21:17-21

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 21:17 tn The interrogative “How often” occurs only with the first colon; it is supplied for smoother reading in the next two.
2. Job 21:17 tn The pronominal suffix is objective; it re-enforces the object of the preposition, “upon them.” The verb in the clause is בּוֹא (boʾ) followed by עַל (ʿal), “come upon [or against],” may be interpreted as meaning attack or strike.
3. Job 21:17 tn חֲבָלִים (khavalim) can mean “ropes” or “cords,” but that would not go with the verb “apportion” in this line. The meaning of “pangs (as in “birth-pangs”) seems to fit best here. The wider meaning would be “physical agony.”
4. Job 21:17 tn The phrase “to them” is understood and thus is supplied in the translation for clarification.
5. Job 21:18 tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.
6. Job 21:18 tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.
7. Job 21:19 tn These words are supplied. The verse records an idea that Job suspected they might have, namely, that if the wicked die well God will make their children pay for their sins (see Job 5:4; 20:10; as well as Exod 20:5).
8. Job 21:19 tn The text simply has אוֹנוֹ (ʾono, “his iniquity”), but by usage, “the punishment for the iniquity.”
9. Job 21:19 tn Heb “his sons.”
10. Job 21:19 tn The verb שָׁלַם (shalam) in the Piel has the meaning of restoring things to normal, making whole, and so reward, repay (if for sins), or recompense in general.
11. Job 21:19 tn The text simply has “let him repay [to] him.”
12. Job 21:19 tn The imperfect verb after the jussive carries the meaning of a purpose clause, and so taken as a final imperfect: “in order that he may be humbled.”
13. Job 21:19 tn The common verb יָדַע (yadaʿ) means “to know.” Among homophonous roots DCH includes יָדַע II meaning “be quiet, at rest; be submissive, humbled” (cf. Prov 5:6; Isa 45:4; Jer 14:18; Hos 9:7).
14. Job 21:20 tc This word occurs only here. The word כִּיד (kid) was connected to Arabic kaid, “fraud, trickery,” or “warfare.” The word is emended by the commentators to other ideas, such as פִּיד (pid, “[his] calamity”). Dahood and others alter it to “cup”; Wright to “weapons.” A. F. L. Beeston argues for a meaning “condemnation” for the MT form, and so makes no change in the text (Mus 67 [1954]: 315-16). If the connection to Arabic “warfare” is sustained, or if such explanations of the existing MT can be sustained, then the text need not be emended. In any case, the sense of the line is clear.
15. Job 21:21 tn Heb “his desire.” The meaning is that after he is gone he does not care about what happens to his household (“house” meaning “family” here).
16. Job 21:21 tn Heb “after him,” but clearly the meaning is “after he is gone.”
17. Job 21:21 tc The rare word חֻצָּצוּ (khutsatsu) is probably a cognate of hassa in Arabic, meaning “to cut off.” There is also an Akkadian word “to cut in two” and “to break.” These fit the context here rather well. The other Hebrew words that are connected to the root חָצַץ (khatsats) do not offer any help.