VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)
42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he 4 said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up 5 against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, 6 as my servant Job has.
59:4 Though I have done nothing wrong, 7 they are anxious to attack. 8
Spring into action and help me! Take notice of me! 9
119:86 All your commands are reliable.
I am pursued without reason. 10 Help me!
א (Alef)
119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, 12
who obey 13 the law of the Lord.
2:1 Why 15 do the nations rebel? 16
Why 17 are the countries 18 devising 19 plots that will fail? 20
1 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.
2 tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.
3 tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.
4 tn Heb “the
5 tn Heb “is kindled.”
6 tn The form נְכוֹנָה (nÿkhonah) is from כּוּן (kun, “to be firm; to be fixed; to be established”). Here it means “the right thing” or “truth.” The Akkadian word kenu (from כּוּן, kun) connotes justice and truth.
7 tn Heb “without sin.”
8 tn Heb “they run and they are determined.”
9 tn Heb “arise to meet me and see.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to meet; to encounter”) here carries the nuance of “to help.”
10 sn God’s commands are a reliable guide to right and wrong. By keeping them the psalmist is doing what is right, yet he is still persecuted.
11 sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.
12 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”
13 tn Heb “walk in.”
14 sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.
15 tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.
16 tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.
17 tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
18 tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).
19 tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).
20 tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.