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The Condition of the Wicked

“May my enemy be like the wicked,[a]
my adversary[b] like the unrighteous.[c]
For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off,[d]
when God takes away his life?[e]
Does God listen to his cry
when distress overtakes him?
10 Will he find delight[f] in the Almighty?
Will he call out to God at all times?
11 I will teach you[g] about the power[h] of God;
what is on the Almighty’s mind[i] I will not conceal.
12 If you yourselves have all seen this,
Why in the world[j] do you continue this meaningless talk?[k]

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Footnotes

  1. Job 27:7 sn Of course, he means like his enemy when he is judged, not when he is thriving in prosperity and luxury.
  2. Job 27:7 tn The form is the Hitpolel participle from קוּם (qum): “those who are rising up against me,” or “my adversary.”
  3. Job 27:7 tc The LXX made a free paraphrase: “No, but let my enemies be as the overthrow of the ungodly, and they that rise up against me as the destruction of transgressors.”
  4. Job 27:8 tn The verb יִבְצָע (yivtsaʿ) means “to cut off.” It could be translated transitively or intransitively—the latter is better here (“when he is cut off”). Since the next line speaks of prayer, some have thought this verse should be about prayer. Mandelkern, in his concordance (p. 228b), suggested the verb should be “when he prays” (reading יִפְגַּע [yifgaʿ] in place of יִבְצָע [yivtsaʿ]).
  5. Job 27:8 tn The verb יֵשֶׁל (yeshel) is found only here. It has been related spoils [or sheaves]”); שָׁאַל (shaʾal, “to ask”); נָשָׂא (nasaʾ, “to lift up” [i.e., pray]); and a host of others.
  6. Job 27:10 tn See the note on 22:26 where the same verb is employed.
  7. Job 27:11 tn The object suffix is in the plural, which gives some support to the idea Job is speaking to them.
  8. Job 27:11 tn Heb “the hand of.”
  9. Job 27:11 tn Heb “[what is] with Shaddai.”
  10. Job 27:12 tn The interrogative uses the demonstrative pronoun in its emphatic position: “Why in the world…?” (IBHS 312-13 §17.4.3c).
  11. Job 27:12 tn The text has the noun “vain thing; breath; vapor,” and then a denominative verb from the same root: “to become vain with a vain thing,” or “to do in vain a vain thing.” This is an example of the internal object, or a cognate accusative (see GKC 367 §117.q). The LXX has “you all know that you are adding vanity to vanity.”

“Let my enemies be like evil people,
    ·my foes [those who rise up against me] like ·those who are wrong [the guilty].
What hope do the wicked have when they ·die [L are cut off],
    when God ·takes their life away [requires their life]?
God will not listen to their cries
    when trouble comes to them.
10 ·They will not [Will they…?] find joy in ·the Almighty [Shaddai],
    ·even though [or will…?] they call out to God all the time.

11 “I will ·teach [instruct] you about the ·power [L hand] of God
    and will not ·hide [conceal] ·the ways of [L that which is with] ·the Almighty [Shaddai].
12 You have all seen this yourselves.
    ·So why are we having all this talk that means nothing [L Why have you become so meaningless/vaporous/vain]?

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