22:4 Is it because of your piety 1 that he rebukes you
and goes to judgment with you? 2
23:4 I would lay out my case 3 before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
29:14 I put on righteousness and it clothed me, 4
my just dealing 5 was like a robe and a turban;
32:9 It is not the aged 6 who are wise,
nor old men who understand what is right.
35:2 “Do you think this to be 7 just:
when 8 you say, ‘My right before God.’ 9
36:6 He does not allow the wicked to live, 10
but he gives justice to the poor.
36:17 But now you are preoccupied with the judgment due the wicked,
judgment and justice take hold of you.
40:8 Would you indeed annul 11 my justice?
Would you declare me guilty so that you might be right?
1 tn The word “your fear” or “your piety” refers to Job’s reverence – it is his fear of God (thus a subjective genitive). When “fear” is used of religion, it includes faith and adoration on the positive side, fear and obedience on the negative.
2 sn Of course the point is that God does not charge Job because he is righteous; the point is he must be unrighteous.
3 tn The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) is normally “judgment; decision.” But in these contexts it refers to the legal case that Job will bring before God. With the verb עָרַךְ (’arakh, “to set in order; to lay out”) the whole image of drawing up a lawsuit is complete.
5 tn Both verbs in this first half-verse are from לָבַשׁ (lavash, “to clothe; to put on clothing”). P. Joüon changed the vowels to get a verb “it adorned me” instead of “it clothed me” (Bib 11 [1930]: 324). The figure of clothing is used for the character of the person: to wear righteousness is to be righteous.
6 tn The word מִשְׁפָּטִי (mishpati) is simply “my justice” or “my judgment.” It refers to the decisions he made in settling issues, how he dealt with other people justly.
7 tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.
9 tn The line could be read as “do you reckon this for justice? Here “to be” is understood.
10 tn The word “when” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
11 tn The brief line could be interpreted in a number of ways. The MT simply has “my right from God.” It could be “I am right before God,” “I am more just/right than God” (identifying the preposition as a comparative min (מִן); cf. J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 463), “I will be right before God,” or “My just cause against God.”
11 tn Or “he does not keep the wicked alive.”
13 tn The verb פָּרַר (parar) means “to annul; to break; to frustrate.” It was one thing for Job to claim his own integrity, but it was another matter altogether to nullify God’s righteousness in the process.