Job 3:16

Footnotes

1. 52 The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.
2. 53 The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.
3. 54 Heb “hidden.” The paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”
4. 55 The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness—it is hidden forever.
5. 56 The word עֹלְלִים (’olélim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.
6. 57 The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.