13:2 What you know, 1 I 2 know also;
I am not inferior 3 to you!
15:35 They conceive 4 trouble and bring forth evil;
their belly 5 prepares deception.”
21:3 Bear with me 6 and I 7 will speak,
and after I have spoken 8 you may mock. 9
23:16 Indeed, God has made my heart faint; 10
the Almighty has terrified me.
32:17 I too will answer my part,
I too will explain what I know.
33:31 Pay attention, Job – listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.
39:17 For God deprived her of wisdom,
and did not impart understanding to her.
1 tn Heb “Like your knowledge”; in other words Job is saying that his knowledge is like their knowledge.
2 tn The pronoun makes the subject emphatic and stresses the contrast: “I know – I also.”
3 tn The verb “fall” is used here as it was in Job 4:13 to express becoming lower than someone, i.e., inferior.
4 tn Infinitives absolute are used in this verse in the place of finite verbs. They lend a greater vividness to the description, stressing the basic meaning of the words.
5 tn At the start of the speech Eliphaz said Job’s belly was filled with the wind; now it is there that he prepares deception. This inclusio frames the speech.
7 tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) means “to lift up; to raise up”; but in this context it means “to endure; to tolerate” (see Job 7:21).
8 tn The conjunction and the independent personal pronoun draw emphatic attention to the subject of the verb: “and I on my part will speak.”
9 tn The adverbial clauses are constructed of the preposition “after” and the Piel infinitive construct with the subjective genitive suffix: “my speaking,” or “I speak.”
10 tn The verb is the imperfect of לָעַג (la’ag). The Hiphil has the same basic sense as the Qal, “to mock; to deride.” The imperfect here would be modal, expressing permission. The verb is in the singular, suggesting that Job is addressing Zophar; however, most of the versions put it into the plural. Note the singular in 16:3 between the plural in 16:1 and 16:4.
10 tn The verb הֵרַךְ (kherakh) means “to be tender”; in the Piel it would have the meaning “to soften.” The word is used in parallel constructions with the verbs for “fear.” The implication is that God has made Job fearful.