12:7 “But now, ask the animals and they 2 will teach you,
or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.
27:11 I will teach you 3 about the power 4 of God;
What is on the Almighty’s mind 5 I will not conceal.
34:32 Teach me what I cannot see. 6
If I have done evil, I will do so no more.’
38:6 On what 7 were its bases 8 set,
or who laid its cornerstone –
1 sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”
2 tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).
3 tn The object suffix is in the plural, which gives some support to the idea Job is speaking to them.
4 tn Heb “the hand of.”
5 tn Heb “[what is] with Shaddai.”
5 tn Heb “what I do not see,” more specifically, “apart from [that which] I see.”
7 tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.
8 sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).