12:3 I also have understanding 1 as well as you;
I am not inferior to you. 2
Who does not know such things as these? 3
1 tn The word is literally “heart,” meaning a mind or understanding.
2 tn Because this line is repeated in 13:2, many commentators delete it from this verse (as does the LXX). The Syriac translates נֹפֵל (nofel) as “little,” and the Vulgate “inferior.” Job is saying that he does not fall behind them in understanding.
3 tn Heb “With whom are not such things as these?” The point is that everyone knows the things that these friends have been saying – they are commonplace.
4 tn Or “clerk.” The “scribe” (γραμματεύς, grammateu") was the keeper of the city’s records.
5 tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo").
6 tn See BDAG 670 s.v. νεωκόρος. The city is described as the “warden” or “guardian” of the goddess and her temple.
7 sn Artemis was a Greek goddess worshiped particularly in Asia Minor, whose temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located just outside the city of Ephesus.
8 tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).