Job 16:22 — ExegesisTAB

The verse opens with ki {כִּי | kî} introducing a causal/explanatory ground for Job’s preceding words. The construct chain shnot mispar {שְׁנ֣וֹת מִסְפָּ֣ר | šənôṯ mispār} (“years of number”) compresses the idea of a strictly limited lifetime into a tight nominal phrase; English expresses this as “a numbered span of years” (formal) or “a few years” (dynamic) to communicate finitude without preserving an opaque construct. The imperfect yeetayu {יֶאֱתָ֑יוּ | yeʾĕṯāyû} (“they will come”) presents the remaining time as rapidly approaching rather than merely existing. The second clause is joined by vav in veorach {וְאֹ֖רַח | wəʾōraḥ}, shifting from time to destination: “and (a) path.” The sequence lo-ashuv ehelekh {לֹא־אָשׁ֣וּב אֶהֱלֹֽךְ | lōʾ-ʾāšûḇ ʾĕhĕlōḵ} combines negation with two imperfects, creating a stark movement-and-nonreturn pattern; the “going” is framed as irreversible. English reorders the clause so that “path/road” naturally governs the relative idea “from which I will not return,” while retaining the poetic finality of the Hebrew.