Text -- Job 42:1-3 (NET)

Job’s Confession

42:1 Then Job answered the Lord: 42:2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted; 42:3 you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 42:3

¹ tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.

² tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.

³ tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”

⁴ tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.