Job 31:32-34 New English Translation
32 But[a] no stranger[b] had to spend the night outside,
for I opened my doors to the traveler[c]—
33 if[d] I have covered my transgressions as men do,[e]
by hiding[f] iniquity in my heart,[g]
34 because I was terrified[h] of the great multitude,[i]
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I remained silent
and would not go outdoors—
Footnotes
- Job 31:32 tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.
- Job 31:32 tn Or “[resident] foreigner.” The term גֵּר (ger) refers to a foreign resident, but with different social implications in different settings. Here the “stranger” stands in need of the hospitality of lodgings.
- Job 31:32 tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (ʾorakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (ʾoreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.
- Job 31:33 tn Now the protasis continues again.
- Job 31:33 sn Some commentators suggest taking the meaning here to be “as Adam,” referring to the Paradise story of the sin and denial.
- Job 31:33 tn The infinitive is epexegetical, explaining the first line.
- Job 31:33 tn The MT has “in my bosom.” This is the only place in the OT where this word is found. But its meaning is well attested from Aramaic.
- Job 31:34 tn Here too the verb will be the customary imperfect—it explains what he continually did in past time.
- Job 31:34 tn Heb “the great multitude.” But some commentators take רַבָּה (rabbah) adverbially: “greatly” (see RSV).
New English Translation (NET)
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