Job 21:10-12

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 21:10 tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.
2. Job 21:10 tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (ʿavar, “to pass over”).
3. Job 21:10 tn The use of the verb גָּעַר (gaʿar) in this place is interesting. It means “to rebuke; to abhor; to loathe.” In the causative stem it means “to occasion impurity” or “to reject as loathsome.” The rabbinic interpretation is that it does not emit semen in vain, and so the meaning is it does not fail to breed (see E. Dhorme, Job, 311; R. Gordis, Job, 229).
4. Job 21:11 tn The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh) means “to send forth,” but in the Piel “to release; to allow to run free.” The picture of children frolicking in the fields and singing and dancing is symbolic of peaceful, prosperous times.
5. Job 21:12 tn The verb is simply “they take up [or lift up],” but the understood object is “their voices,” and so it means “they sing.”