Text -- Job 34:1-6 (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.’

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.