Job 30:27-31
New English Translation
27 My heart[a] is in turmoil[b] unceasingly;[c]
the days of my affliction confront me.
28 I go about blackened,[d] but not by the sun;
in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.[e]
30 My skin has turned dark on me;[f]
my body[g] is hot with fever.[h]
31 My harp is used for[i] mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.
Footnotes
- Job 30:27 tn Heb “my loins,” “my bowels” (archaic), “my innermost being.” The last option is reflected in the translation; some translations take the inner turmoil to be literal (NIV “The churning inside me never stops”).
- Job 30:27 tn Heb “boils.”
- Job 30:27 tn The last clause reads “and they [it] are not quiet” or “do not cease.” The clause then serves adverbially for the sentence—“unceasingly.”
- Job 30:28 tn The construction uses the word קֹדֵר (qoder) followed by the Piel perfect of הָלַךְ (halakh, “I go about”). The adjective “blackened” refers to Job’s skin that has been marred by the disease. Adjectives are often used before verbs to describe some bodily condition (see GKC 374-75 §118.n).
- Job 30:29 sn The point of this figure is that Job’s cries of lament are like the howls and screeches of these animals, not that he lives with them. In Job 39:13 the female ostrich is called “the wailer.”
- Job 30:30 tn The MT has “become dark from upon me,” prompting some editions to supply the verb “falls from me” (RSV, NRSV), or “peels” (NIV).
- Job 30:30 tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.
- Job 30:30 tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.
- Job 30:31 tn The verb הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) followed by the preposition ל (lamed) means “to serve the purpose of” (see Gen 1:14ff., 17:7, etc.).
Job 30:27-31
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and are never still;
days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I go about in sunless gloom;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(A)
29 I am a brother of jackals
and a companion of ostriches.(B)
30 My skin turns black and falls from me,
and my bones burn with heat.(C)
31 My lyre is turned to mourning
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.(D)
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