Text -- Job 34:1-17 (NET)

Elihu’s Second Speech

34:1 Elihu answered: 34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men; hear me, you learned men. 34:3 For the ear assesses words as the mouth tastes food. 34:4 Let us evaluate for ourselves what is right; let us come to know among ourselves what is good. 34:5 For Job says, ‘I am innocent, but God turns away my right. 34:6 Concerning my right, should I lie? My wound is incurable, although I am without transgression.’ 34:7 What man is like Job, who drinks derision like water! 34:8 He goes about in company with evildoers, he goes along with wicked men. 34:9 For he says, ‘It does not profit a man when he makes his delight with God.’

God is Not Unjust

34:10 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, from the Almighty to do evil. 34:11 For he repays a person for his work, and according to the conduct of a person, he causes the consequences to find him. 34:12 Indeed, in truth, God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice. 34:13 Who entrusted to him the earth? And who put him over the whole world? 34:14 If God were to set his heart on it, and gather in his spirit and his breath, 34:15 all flesh would perish together and human beings would return to dust.

God Is Impartial and Omniscient

34:16 “If you have understanding, listen to this, hear what I have to say. 34:17 Do you really think that one who hates justice can govern? And will you declare guilty the supremely righteous One,

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 34:1

¹ sn This speech of Elihu focuses on defending God. It can be divided into these sections: Job is irreligious (2-9), God is just (10-15), God is impartial and omniscient (16-30), Job is foolish to rebel (31-37).

NET Notes: Job 34:2

¹ tn Heb “give ear to me.”

² tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”

NET Notes: Job 34:3

¹ tn Or “examines; tests; tries; discerns.”

² tn Or “palate”; the Hebrew term refers to the tongue or to the mouth in general.

NET Notes: Job 34:4

¹ sn Elihu means “choose after careful examination.”

² tn The word is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) again, with the sense of what is right or just.

NET Notes: Job 34:5

¹ tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.

NET Notes: Job 34:6

¹ tn The verb is the Piel imperfect of כָּזַב (kazav), meaning “to lie.” It could be a question: “Should I lie [against my right?] – when I am innocent. If it is repointed to the Pual, then it can be “I am made to lie,” or “I am deceived.” Taking it as a question makes good sense here, and so emendations are unnecessary.

² tn The Hebrew text has only “my arrow.” Some commentators emend that word slightly to get “my wound.” But the idea could be derived from “arrows” as well, the wounds caused by the arrows. The arrows are symbolic of God’s affliction.

³ tn Heb “without transgression”; but this is parallel to the first part where the claim is innocence.

NET Notes: Job 34:7

¹ tn Heb “he drinks,” but coming after the question this clause may be subordinated.

² tn The scorn or derision mentioned here is not against Job, but against God. Job scorns God so much, he must love it. So to reflect this idea, Gordis has translated it “blasphemy” (cf. NAB).

NET Notes: Job 34:8

¹ tn The perfect verb with the vav (ו) consecutive carries the sequence forward from the last description.

² tn The word חֶבְרַה (khevrah, “company”) is a hapax legomenon. But its meaning is clear enough from the connections to related words and this context as well.

³ tn The infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition may continue the clause with the finite verb (see GKC 351 §114.p).

⁴ tn Heb “men of wickedness”; the genitive is attributive (= “wicked men”).

NET Notes: Job 34:9

¹ tn Gordis, however, takes this expression in the sense of “being in favor with God.”

NET Notes: Job 34:10

¹ tn Heb “men of heart.” The “heart” is used for the capacity to understand and make the proper choice. It is often translated “mind.”

² tn For this construction, see Job 27:5.

NET Notes: Job 34:11

¹ tn Heb “for the work of man, he [= God] repays him.”

² tn Heb “he causes it to find him.” The text means that God will cause a man to find (or receive) the consequences of his actions.

NET Notes: Job 34:13

¹ tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) means “to visit; to appoint; to number.” Here it means “to entrust” for care and governing. The implication would be that there would be someone higher than God – which is what Elihu is repudiating by the rhetorical question. No one entrusted God with this.

² tn The preposition is implied from the first half of the verse.

NET Notes: Job 34:14

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.

NET Notes: Job 34:16

¹ tn The phrase “you have” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

² tn Heb “the sound of my words.”

NET Notes: Job 34:17

¹ tn The force of הַאַף (ha’af) is “Is it truly the case?” The point is being made that if Job were right God could not be judging the world.

² tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) has the basic idea of “to bind,” as in binding on the yoke, and then in the sense of subduing people under authority (cf. Assyrian absanu). The imperfect verb here is best expressed with the potential nuance.

³ tn The two words could be taken separately, but they seem to form a fine nominal hendiadys, because the issue is God’s justice. So the word for power becomes the modifier.