Job 19:16-17

19:16 I summon ¹  my servant, but he does not respond,

even though I implore ²  him with my own mouth.

19:17 My breath is repulsive ³  to my wife;

I am loathsome ⁴  to my brothers. ⁵ 

Proverbs 18:13

18:13 The one who gives an answer ⁶  before he listens ⁷  –

that is his folly and his shame. ⁸ 

Acts 18:15

18:15 but since it concerns points of disagreement ⁹  about words and names and your own law, settle ¹⁰  it yourselves. I will not be ¹¹  a judge of these things!”

¹ tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the ל (lamed) preposition means “to summon.” Contrast Ps 123:2.

² tn Heb “plead for grace” or “plead for mercy” (ESV).

³ tn The Hebrew appears to have “my breath is strange to my wife.” This would be the meaning if the verb was from זוּר (zur, “to turn aside; to be a stranger”). But it should be connected to זִיר (zir), cognate to Assyrian zaru, “to feel repugnance toward.” Here it is used in the intransitive sense, “to be repulsive.” L. A. Snijders, following Driver, doubts the existence of this second root, and retains “strange” (“The Meaning of zar in the Old Testament,” OTS 10 [1964]: 1-154).

⁴ tn The normal meaning here would be based on the root חָנַן (khanan, “to be gracious”). And so we have versions reading “although I entreated” or “my supplication.” But it seems more likely it is to be connected to another root meaning “to be offensive; to be loathsome.” For the discussion of the connection to the Arabic, see E. Dhorme, Job, 278.

⁵ tn The text has “the sons of my belly [= body].” This would normally mean “my sons.” But they are all dead. And there is no suggestion that Job had other sons. The word “my belly” will have to be understood as “my womb,” i.e., the womb I came from. Instead of “brothers,” the sense could be “siblings” (both brothers and sisters; G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray, Job [ICC], 2:168).

⁶ tn Heb “returns a word”; KJV “He that answereth a matter.”

⁷ sn Poor listening and premature answering indicate that the person has a low regard for what the other is saying, or that he is too absorbed in his own ideas. The Mishnah lists this as the second characteristic of the uncultured person (m. Avot 5:7).

⁸ tn Heb “it is folly to him and shame.” The verse uses formal parallelism, with the second colon simply completing the thought of the first.

⁹ tn Or “dispute.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “see to it” (an idiom).

¹¹ tn Or “I am not willing to be.” Gallio would not adjudicate their religious dispute.