Job 10:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 10:9 tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).
2. Job 10:9 tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”
3. Job 10:10 tn The verb נָתַךְ (natakh) means “to flow,” and in the Hiphil, “to cause to flow.”
4. Job 10:10 tn This verb קָפָא (qafaʾ) means “to coagulate.” In the Hiphil it means “to stiffen; to congeal.”
5. Job 10:10 tn The verbs in v. 10 are prefixed conjugations; since the reference is to the womb, these would need to be classified as preterites. sn These verses figuratively describe the formation of the embryo in the womb.
6. Job 10:11 tn The skin and flesh form the exterior of the body and so the image of “clothing” is appropriate. Once again the verb is the prefixed conjugation, expressing what God did.
7. Job 10:11 tn This verb is found only here (related nouns are common) and in the parallel passage of Ps 139:13. The word סָכַךְ (sakhakh), here a Poel prefixed conjugation (preterite), means “to knit together.” The implied comparison is that the bones and sinews form the tapestry of the person (compare other images of weaving the life).