32:7 I said to myself, ‘Age 1 should speak, 2
and length of years 3 should make wisdom known.’
32:8 But it is a spirit in people,
the breath 4 of the Almighty,
that makes them understand.
1 tn Heb “days.”
2 tn The imperfect here is to be classified as an obligatory imperfect.
3 tn Heb “abundance of years.”
4 tn This is the word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah, “breath”); according to Gen 2:7 it was breathed into Adam to make him a living person (“soul”). With that divine impartation came this spiritual understanding. Some commentators identify the רוּחַ (ruakh) in the first line as the Spirit of God; this “breath” would then be the human spirit. Whether Elihu knew that much, however, is hard to prove.