Job 36:27-37:13

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 36:27 tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”
2. Job 36:27 tn This word עֵד (ʿed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.
3. Job 36:29 tn Heb “his booth.”
4. Job 36:30 tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.
5. 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.
6. Job 36:30 tn Heb “roots.”
7. 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.).
8. Job 36:32 tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”
9. 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.
10. Job 36:33 tn Peake knew of over thirty interpretations for this verse. The MT literally says, “He declares his purpose [or his shout] concerning it; cattle also concerning what rises.” Dhorme has it: “The flock which sniffs the coming storm has warned the shepherd.” Kissane: “The thunder declares concerning him, as he excites wrath against iniquity.” Gordis translates it: “His thunderclap proclaims his presence, and the storm his mighty wrath.” Many more could be added to the list.
11. Job 36:33 tn The meaning of this verse is disputed; it may refer to cattle sensing the approaching storm.
12. Job 37:2 tn The imperative is followed by the infinitive absolute from the same root to express the intensity of the verb.
13. Job 37:2 tn The word is the usual word for “to meditate; to murmur; to groan”; here it refers to the low building of the thunder as it rumbles in the sky. The thunder is the voice of God (see Ps 29).
14. Job 37:3 tn Heb “wings,” and then figuratively for the extremities of garments, of land, etc.
15. Job 37:4 tn The verb simply has the pronominal suffix, “them.” The idea must be that when God brings in all the thunderings he does not hold back his lightning bolts either.
16. Job 37:5 tn The form is the Niphal participle, “wonders,” from the verb פָּלָא (palaʾ, “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary”). Some commentators suppress the repeated verb “thunders,” and supply other verbs like “shows” or “works,” enabling them to make “wonders” the object of the verb rather than leaving it in an adverbial role. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 236) notes, no change is needed, for one is not surprised to find repetition in Elihu’s words.
17. Job 37:5 tn Heb “and we do not know.”
18. Job 37:6 tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”
19. Job 37:6 tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew mss delete the second pair, and so many editors do. But the repetition may have served to stress the idea that the rains were heavy.
20. Job 37:6 tn Heb “Be strong.”
21. Job 37:7 tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean that with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.
22. Job 37:7 tc This reading involves a change in the text, for in MT “men” is in the construct. It would be translated “all men whom he made” (i.e., “all men of his making”). This is the translation followed by the NIV and NRSV. Olshausen suggested that the word should have been אֲנָשִׁים (ʾanashim) with the final ם (mem) being lost to haplography.
23. Job 37:7 tn D. W. Thomas suggested a meaning of “rest” for the verb, based on Arabic. He then reads אֱנוֹשׁ (ʾenosh) for man, and supplies a ם (mem) to “his work” to get “that every man might rest from his work [in the fields].”
24. Job 37:9 tn The “driving winds” reflects the Hebrew “from the scatterers.” This refers to the north winds that bring the cold air and the ice and snow and hard rains.
25. Job 37:11 tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (r^evi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.
26. Job 37:12 tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.
27. Job 37:12 tn Heb “that it may do.”
28. Job 37:13 tn Heb “rod,” i.e., a rod used for punishment.
29. Job 37:13 tn This is interpretive; Heb “he makes find it.” The lightning could be what is intended here, for it finds its mark. But R. Gordis (Job, 429) suggests man is the subject—let him find what it is for, i.e., the fate appropriate for him.