13:10 He would certainly rebuke 1 you
if you secretly 2 showed partiality!
13:11 Would not his splendor 3 terrify 4 you
and the fear he inspires 5 fall on you?
13:9 Would it turn out well if he would examine 6 you?
Or as one deceives 7 a man would you deceive him?
27:5 I will never 8 declare that you three 9 are in the right;
until I die, I will not set aside my integrity!
27:11 I will teach you 10 about the power 11 of God;
What is on the Almighty’s mind 12 I will not conceal.
32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: 13
“I am young, 14 but you are elderly;
that is why I was fearful, 15
and afraid to explain 16 to you what I know.
1 tn The verbal idea is intensified with the infinitive absolute. This is the same verb used in v. 3; here it would have the sense of “rebuke, convict.”
2 sn The use of the word “in secret” or “secretly” suggests that what they do is a guilty action (31:27a).
3 sn The word translated “his majesty” or “his splendor” (שְׂאֵתוֹ, sÿ’eto) forms a play on the word “show partiality” (תִּשָּׂאוּן, tissa’un) in the last verse. They are both from the verb נָשַׂא (nasa’, “to lift up”).
4 tn On this verb in the Piel, see 7:14.
5 tn Heb “His dread”; the suffix is a subjective genitive.
5 tn The verb חָפַר (khafar) means “to search out, investigate, examine.” In the conditional clause the imperfect verb expresses the hypothetical case.
6 tn Both the infinitive and the imperfect of תָּלַל (talal, “deceive, mock”) retain the ה (he) (GKC 148 §53.q). But for the alternate form, see F. C. Fensham, “The Stem HTL in Hebrew,” VT 9 (1959): 310-11. The infinitive is used here in an adverbial sense after the preposition.
7 tn The text uses חָלִילָה לִּי (khalilah li) meaning “far be it from me,” or more strongly, something akin to “sacrilege.”
8 tn In the Hebrew text “you” is plural – a reference to Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. To make this clear, “three” is supplied in the translation.
9 tn The object suffix is in the plural, which gives some support to the idea Job is speaking to them.
10 tn Heb “the hand of.”
11 tn Heb “[what is] with Shaddai.”
11 tn Heb “answered and said.”
12 tn The text has “small in days.”
13 tn The verb זָחַלְתִּי (zakhalti) is found only here in the OT, but it is found in a ninth century Aramaic inscription as well as in Biblical Aramaic. It has the meaning “to be timid” (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 208).
14 tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.