Job 12:24-25

12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth ¹ 

of their understanding; ² 

he makes them wander

in a trackless desert waste. ³ 

12:25 They grope about in darkness ⁴  without light;

he makes them stagger ⁵  like drunkards.

[12:24]  ¹ tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”

[12:24]  ² tn Heb “heart.”

[12:24]  ³ tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).

[12:25]  ⁴ tn The word is an adverbial accusative.

[12:25]  ⁵ tn The verb is the same that was in v. 24, “He makes them [the leaders still] wander” (the Hiphil of תָּעָה, ta’ah). But in this passage some commentators emend the text to a Niphal of the verb and put it in the plural, to get the reading “they reel to and fro.” But even if the verse closes the chapter and there is no further need for a word of divine causation, the Hiphil sense works well here – causing people to wander like a drunken man would be the same as making them stagger.