5:9 He does 1 great and unsearchable 2 things,
marvelous things without 3 number; 4
4:13 When they saw the boldness 5 of Peter and John, and discovered 6 that they were uneducated 7 and ordinary 8 men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.
13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! 9
For I am doing a work in your days,
a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” 10
1 tn Heb “who does.” It is common for such doxologies to begin with participles; they follow the pattern of the psalms in this style. Because of the length of the sentence in Hebrew and the conventions of English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
2 tn The Hebrew has וְאֵין חֵקֶר (vÿ’en kheqer), literally, “and no investigation.” The use of the conjunction on the expression follows a form of the circumstantial clause construction, and so the entire expression describes the great works as “unsearchable.”
3 tn The preposition in עַד־אֵין (’ad ’en, “until there was no”) is stereotypical; it conveys the sense of having no number (see Job 9:10; Ps 40:13).
4 sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 54) notes that the verse fits Eliphaz’s approach very well, for he has good understanding of the truth, but has difficulty in making the correct conclusions from it.
5 tn Or “courage.”
6 tn Or “and found out.”
7 sn Uneducated does not mean “illiterate,” that is, unable to read or write. Among Jews in NT times there was almost universal literacy, especially as the result of widespread synagogue schools. The term refers to the fact that Peter and John had no formal rabbinic training and thus, in the view of their accusers, were not qualified to expound the law or teach publicly. The objection is like Acts 2:7.
8 tn For the translation of ἰδιῶται (idiwtai) as “ordinary men” see L&N 27.26.
9 tn Or “and die!”
10 sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.