18:33 The Lord went on his way 1 when he had finished speaking 2 to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. 3
4:2 “If someone 4 should attempt 5 a word with you,
will you be impatient? 6
But who can refrain from speaking 7 ?
4:4 Tremble with fear and do not sin! 8
Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways! 9 (Selah)
1 tn Heb “And the
2 tn The infinitive construct (“speaking”) serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”
3 tn Heb “to his place.”
4 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so may be translated with “one” or “someone.”
5 tn The Piel perfect is difficult here. It would normally be translated “has one tried (words with you)?” Most commentaries posit a conditional clause, however.
6 tn The verb means “to be weary.” But it can have the extended sense of being either exhausted or impatient (see v. 5). A. B. Davidson (Job, 29) takes it in the sense of “will it be too much for you?” There is nothing in the sentence that indicates this should be an interrogative clause; it is simply an imperfect. But in view of the juxtaposition of the first part, this seems to make good sense. E. Dhorme (Job, 42) has “Shall we address you? You are dejected.”
7 tn The construction uses a noun with the preposition: “and to refrain with words – who is able?” The Aramaic plural of “words” (מִלִּין, millin) occurs 13 times in Job, with the Hebrew plural ten times. The commentaries show that Eliphaz’s speech had a distinctly Aramaic coloring to it.
8 sn The psalmist warns his enemies that they need to tremble with fear before God and repudiate their sinful ways.
9 tn Heb “say in your heart(s) on your bed(s) and wail/lament.” The verb דֹמּוּ (dommu) is understood as a form of דָמָם (“wail, lament”) in sorrow and repentance. Another option is to take the verb from II דָמָם (damam, “be quiet”); cf. NIV, NRSV “be silent.”
10 tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
11 tn This term suggests emotional dialogue and can thus be translated “debated.”
12 tn The phrase “these things” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.