Job 23:4

23:4 I would lay out my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

Job 32:9

32:9 It is not the aged who are wise,

nor old men who understand what is right.


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.

tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.