13:11 Would not his splendor 1 terrify 2 you
and the fear he inspires 3 fall on you?
40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, 4
and can you thunder with a voice like his?
42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye has seen you. 5
42:6 Therefore I despise myself, 6
and I repent in dust and ashes!
76:7 You are awesome! Yes, you!
Who can withstand your intense anger? 7
1 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”).
2 tn On this verb in the Piel, see 7:14.
3 tn Heb “His dread”; the suffix is a subjective genitive.
4 tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.
5 sn This statement does not imply there was a vision. He is simply saying that this experience of God was real and personal. In the past his knowledge of God was what he had heard – hearsay. This was real.
6 tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).
7 tc Heb “and who can stand before you from the time of your anger?” The Hebrew expression מֵאָז (me’az, “from the time of”) is better emended to מֵאֹז (me’oz, “from [i.e., “because of”] the strength of your anger”; see Ps 90:11).