Job 41:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 41:6 tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore—which involves bargaining.
2. Job 41:6 tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (ʿal, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”
3. Job 41:6 tn The verb means “to cut up; to divide up” in the sense of selling the dead body (see Exod 21:35). This will be between them and the merchants (כְּנַעֲנִים, k^enaʿanim).
4. Job 41:8 tn The verse uses two imperatives which can be interpreted in sequence: do this, and then this will happen.
5. Job 41:8 tc The LXX reads “You will lay a hand on it, [though] remembering the battle that [be]comes in its body, don’t let it happen again.” The LXX appear to have read the first verb as an imperfect, implying the addition of a yod, rather than an imperative. If that is correct, it could be read as another question in the series. Also the LXX reading “a hand” rather than “your hand” The LXX could imply a different verb division with the כ (kaf) of the pronominal suffix going instead with the following word. This doesn’t work in the MT, which reads an imperative, but the LXX assumes different vowels for the second verb, treating it as a participle. If these cues are correct, the verse may have originally read, “Will you lay a hand on it? Like one remembering the fight, do not do it again.”