Job 30:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 30:6 tn This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see GKC 348-49 §114.h, k).
2. Job 30:6 tn The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see GKC 431 §133.h).
3. Job 30:7 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.
4. Job 30:7 tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people—“they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).
5. Job 30:8 tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
6. Job 30:8 tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”