Job 16:21-22

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 16:21 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 240) alters this slightly to read “Would that” or “Ah! if only.”
2. Job 16:21 tn This is the simple translation of the expression “son of man” in Job. But some commentators wish to change the word בֵּן (ben, “son”) to בֵּין (ben, “between”). It would then be “[as] between a man and [for] his friend.” Even though a few mss have this reading, it is to be rejected. But see J. Barr, “Some Notes on ‘ben’ in Classical Hebrew,” JSS 23 (1978): 1-22.
3. Job 16:21 tn The verb is supplied from the parallel clause.
4. Job 16:22 tn The expression is “years of number,” meaning that they can be counted, and so “the years are few.” The verb simply means “comes” or “lie ahead.”
5. Job 16:22 tn The verbal expression “I will not return” serves here to modify the journey that he will take. It is “the road [of] I will not return.”