Job 11:15-17

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 11:15 tn The absolute certainty of the statement is communicated with the addition of כִּי (ki). See GKC 498 §159.ee.
2. Job 11:15 tn For this use of the preposition מִן (min) see GKC 382 §119.w.
3. Job 11:15 tn The word “lift up” is chosen to recall Job’s statement that he could not lift up his head (10:15); the words “without spot” recall his words “filled with shame.” The sentence here says that he will lift up his face in innocence and show no signs of God’s anger on him.
4. Job 11:15 tn The form מֻצָק (mutsaq) is a Hophal participle from יָצַק (yatsaq, “to pour”). The idea is that of metal being melted down and then poured to make a statue, and so hard, firm, solid. The LXX reads the verse, “for thus your face shall shine again, like pure water, and you shall divest yourself of uncleanness, and shall not fear.”
5. Job 11:16 tn For a second time (see v. 13) Zophar employs the emphatic personal pronoun. Could he be providing a gentle reminder that Job might have forgotten the sin that has brought this trouble? After all, there will come a time when Job will not remember this time of trial.
6. Job 11:16 sn It is interesting to note in the book that the resolution of Job’s trouble did not come in the way that Zophar prescribed it.
7. Job 11:16 tn The perfect verb forms an abbreviated relative clause (without the pronoun) modifying “water.”
8. Job 11:17 tn Some translations add the pronoun to make it specifically related to Job (“your life”), but this is not necessary. The word used here has the nuance of lasting life.
9. Job 11:17 tn Heb “and more than the noonday life will arise.” The present translation is an interpretation in the context. The connotation of “arise” in comparison with the noonday, and in contrast with the darkness, supports the interpretation.
10. Job 11:17 tn The form in the MT is the 3fsg imperfect verb, “[though] it be dark.” Most commentators revocalize the word to make it a noun (תְּעֻפָה, t^eʿufah), giving the meaning “the darkness [of your life] will be like the morning.” The contrast is with Job 10:22; here the darkness will shine like the morning.