The chat will start when you send the first message.
1“Why are times not appointed by the Almighty?[#tn The preposition מִן (min) is used to express the cause (see GKC 389 §121.f).; #tc The LXX reads “Why are times hidden from the Almighty?” as if to say that God is not interested in the events on the earth. The MT reading is saying that God fails to set the times for judgment and vindication and makes good sense as it stands.]
Why do those who know him not see his days?
2Men move boundary stones;[#tn The line is short: “they move boundary stones.” So some commentators have supplied a subject, such as “wicked men.” The reason for its being wicked men is that to move the boundary stone was to encroach dishonestly on the lands of others (Deut 19:14; 27:17).]
they seize the flock and pasture them.
3They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together.
5Like wild donkeys in the desert[#tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen); but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.]
they go out to their labor,
seeking diligently for food;
the wasteland provides food for them
and for their children.
6They reap fodder in the field,[#tc The word בְּלִילוֹ (bÿlilo) means “his fodder.” It is unclear to what this refers. If the suffix is taken as a collective, then it can be translated “they gather/reap their fodder.” The early versions all have “they reap in a field which is not his” (taking it as בְּלִי לוֹ, bÿli lo). A conjectural emendation would change the word to בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “in the night”). But there is no reason for this.]
and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering against the cold.
8They are soaked by mountain rains
and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter.
9The fatherless child is snatched from the breast,[#tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”; #tn This word is usually defined as “violence; ruin.” But elsewhere it does mean “breast” (Isa 60:16; 66:11), and that is certainly what it means here.]
the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.
10They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.
11They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;[#tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.]
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.
12From the city the dying groan,[#tc The MT as pointed reads “from the city of men they groan.” Most commentators change one vowel in מְתִים (mÿtim) to get מֵתִים (metim) to get the active participle, “the dying.” This certainly fits the parallelism better, although sense could be made out of the MT.]
and the wounded cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13There are those who rebel against the light;[#tn Heb “They are among those who.”]
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
14Before daybreak the murderer rises up;[#tn The text simply has לָאוֹר (la’or, “at light” or “at daylight”), probably meaning just at the time of dawn.]
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is like a thief.
15And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
16In the dark the robber breaks into houses,[#tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.; #tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.]
but by day they shut themselves in;
they do not know the light.
17For all of them, the morning is to them[#tn Heb “together.”]
like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
18“You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters;[#tc Many commentators find vv. 18-24 difficult on the lips of Job, and so identify this unit as a misplaced part of the speech of Zophar. They describe the enormities of the wicked. But a case can also be made for retaining it in this section. Gordis thinks it could be taken as a quotation by Job of his friends’ ideas.; #tn The verb “say” is not in the text; it is supplied here to indicate that this is a different section.; #tn Or “is swift.”; #sn The wicked person is described here as a spray or foam upon the waters, built up in the agitation of the waters but dying away swiftly.]
their portion of the land is cursed
so that no one goes to their vineyard.
19The drought as well as the heat carry away
the melted snow;
so the grave takes away those who have sinned.
20The womb forgets him,[#tn Here “womb” is synecdoche, representing one’s mother.]
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
21He preys on the barren and childless woman,[#tc The form in the text is the active participle, “feed; graze; shepherd.” The idea of “prey” is not natural to it. R. Gordis (Job, 270) argues that third he (ה) verbs are often by-forms of geminate verbs, and so the meaning here is more akin to רָעַע (ra’a’, “to crush”). The LXX seems to have read something like הֵרַע (hera’, “oppressed”).; #tn Heb “the childless [woman], she does not give birth.” The verbal clause is intended to serve as a modifier here for the woman. See on subordinate verbal clauses GKC 490 §156.d, f.]
and does not treat the widow well.
22But God drags off the mighty by his power;[#tn God has to be the subject of this clause. None is stated in the Hebrew text, but “God” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.]
when God rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.
23God may let them rest in a feeling of security,[#tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn The expression לָבֶטַח (lavetakh, “in security”) precedes the verb that it qualifies – God “allows him to take root in security.” For the meaning of the verb, see Job 8:15.]
but he is constantly watching all their ways.
24They are exalted for a little while,
and then they are gone,
they are brought low like all others,
and gathered in,
and like a head of grain they are cut off.’
25“If this is not so, who can prove me a liar
and reduce my words to nothing?”