Job 36:30-32

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 36:30 tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.
2. Job 36:30 tn The word is “light,” but taken to mean “lightning.” Theodotion had “mist” here, and so most commentators follow that because it is more appropriate to the verb and the context.
3. Job 36:30 tn Heb “roots.”
4. Job 36:31 tn The verb is יָדִין (yadin, “he judges”). Houbigant proposed יָזוּן (yazun, “he nourishes”). This has found wide acceptance among commentators (cf. NAB). G. R. Driver retained the MT but gave a meaning “enriches” to the verb (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 88ff.).
5. Job 36:32 tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”
6. Job 36:32 tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissaʾ] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.