Job 15:17

15:17 “I will explain to you;

listen to me,

and what ¹  I have seen, I will declare, ² 

Job 32:10

32:10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen ³  to me.

I, even I, will explain what I know.’

Job 32:17

32:17 I too will answer my part,

I too will explain what I know.

Job 36:2

36:2 “Be patient ⁴  with me a little longer

and I will instruct you,

for I still have words to speak on God’s behalf. ⁵ 

Job 32:6

Elihu Claims Wisdom

32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ⁶ 

“I am young, ⁷  but you are elderly;

that is why I was fearful, ⁸ 

and afraid to explain ⁹  to you what I know.

¹ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here as a nominative, to introduce an independent relative clause (see GKC 447 §138.h).

² tn Here the vav (ו) apodosis follows with the cohortative (see GKC 458 §143.d).

³ tc In most Hebrew mss this imperative is singular, and so addressed to Job. But two Hebrew mss and the versions have the plural. Elihu was probably addressing all of them.

⁵ tn The verb כָּתַּר (kattar) is the Piel imperative; in Hebrew the word means “to surround” and is related to the noun for crown. But in Syriac it means “to wait.” This section of the book of Job will have a few Aramaic words.

⁶ tn The Hebrew text simply has “for yet for God words.”

⁷ tn Heb “answered and said.”

⁸ tn The text has “small in days.”

⁹ 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).

¹⁰ tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.