13. The form of the numeral (šiḇʿānāh) is peculiar. Targ. construed
it as a dual, thus doubling the number of sons without increasing the
daughters. A surplus of girls ordinarily would be regarded as a calamity; cf.
Ecclesiasticus 26:10–12, 42:9–11. The pagan Arabs used to bury unwanted
daughters at birth (cf. Sale, The Koran,
pp. 199, 438). Job’s daughters, well endowed with beauty and wealth, figure
more prominently than the sons who are not even mentioned by name. Sarna (JBL
76 [1957], 18) suggests that the numeral šiḇʿānāh
may be a genuine archaism related to the Ugaritic form šbʿny. (Marvin H. Pope, Job: Introduction,
Translation, and Notes [AYB 15; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008],
352)
The Targum of Job reads:
והוו ליה ארבסר בנין ותלת בנן
13. And he had fourteen
sons, and three daughters. (The Targum of Job and The Targum of
Proverbs and The Targum of Qohelet [trans. Céline Mangan, John F. Healey,
and Peter S. Knobel; The Aramaic Bible 15; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical
Press, 1991], Logos Bible Software edition)
Taking šib‘ābāh as dual, corresponding to the doubling of all Job’s
possessions in v. 12: see 1:3. (Ibid., n 9)
