Oh, you saw my WT link and raised me a Leolaia link! Well met. I thought this part was especially interesting:
The KJV has translated the strong adversative w'wlm as "and surely" [in 14:18], which obscures the fact that it is emphatically marking an antithesis or opposition. It is better translated as "But no!" (JB), "but" (NIV, NASB, HCSB), "But in the real world" (CEV), or "but indeed", "however", or "nevertheless" as indicated in the lexicons. By using the adversative, Job indicates that his wish is not a real hope. As mentioned in my earlier posts, the nature similes that follow reinforce the point Job made earlier that there is no return from death: mountains erode away, and waters wear stones down. Stones do not reform like trees. These would be the wrong nature similes to mention if Job wanted to express his hope for a return to life from death!
Wow, this is news to me. I never noticed 18 before, and wouldn't have understood that it represented a change in subject, "back to reality". But it's interesting that the NWT that I grew up with rendered verse 18 as:
However, a mountain itself, falling, will fade away, And even a rock will be moved away from its place.
and the revised NWT now says:
As a mountain falls and crumbles away And a rock is dislodged from its place,
They've removed the "however".