6:13 Is 1 not my power to help myself nothing,
and has not every resource 2 been driven from me?
12:3 I also have understanding 3 as well as you;
I am not inferior to you. 4
Who does not know such things as these? 5
13:5 If only you would keep completely silent! 6
For you, that would be wisdom. 7
15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council? 8
Do you limit 9 wisdom to yourself?
15:9 What do you know that we don’t know?
What do you understand that we don’t understand? 10
15:10 The gray-haired 11 and the aged are on our side, 12
men far older than your father. 13
17:10 “But turn, all of you, 14 and come 15 now! 16
I will not find a wise man among you.
32:11 Look, I waited for you to speak; 17
I listened closely to your wise thoughts, 18 while you were searching for words.
32:12 Now I was paying you close attention, 19
yet 20 there was no one proving Job wrong, 21
not one of you was answering his statements!
32:13 So do not say, 22 ‘We have found wisdom!
God will refute 23 him, not man!’
1 tn For the use of the particle אִם (’im) in this kind of interrogative clause, see GKC 475 §150.g, note.
2 tn The word means something like “recovery,” or the powers of recovery; it was used in Job 5:12. In 11:6 it applies to a condition of the mind, such as mental resource. Job is thinking not so much of relief or rescue from his troubles, but of strength to bear them.
3 tn The word is literally “heart,” meaning a mind or understanding.
4 tn Because this line is repeated in 13:2, many commentators delete it from this verse (as does the LXX). The Syriac translates נֹפֵל (nofel) as “little,” and the Vulgate “inferior.” Job is saying that he does not fall behind them in understanding.
5 tn Heb “With whom are not such things as these?” The point is that everyone knows the things that these friends have been saying – they are commonplace.
6 tn The construction is the imperfect verb in the wish formula preceded by the infinitive that intensifies it. The Hiphil is not directly causative here, but internally – “keep silent.”
7 tn The text literally reads, “and it would be for you for wisdom,” or “that it would become your wisdom.” Job is rather sarcastic here, indicating if they shut up they would prove themselves to be wise (see Prov 17:28).
8 tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the
9 tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”
10 tn The last clause simply has “and it is not with us.” It means that one possesses something through knowledge. Note the parallelism of “know” and “with me” in Ps 50:11.
11 tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.
12 tn Heb “with us.”
13 tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age – they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.
14 tn The form says “all of them.” Several editors would change it to “all of you,” but the lack of concord is not surprising; the vocative elsewhere uses the third person (see Mic 1:2; see also GKC 441 §135.r).
15 tn The first verb, the jussive, means “to return”; the second verb, the imperative, means “to come.” The two could be taken as a hendiadys, the first verb becoming adverbial: “to come again.”
16 tn Instead of the exact correspondence between coordinate verbs, other combinations occur – here we have a jussive and an imperative (see GKC 386 §120.e).
17 tn Heb “for your words.”
18 tn The word means “understanding.” It refers to the faculty of perception and comprehension; but it also can refer to what that produces, especially when it is in the plural (see Ps 49:4). See R. Gordis, Job, 368. Others translate it “reasonings,” “arguments,” etc.
19 tn The verb again is from בִּין (bin, “to perceive; to understand”); in this stem it means to “to pay close attention.”
20 tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) has a deictic force here, calling attention to the thought that is now presented.
21 tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh) that has been used frequently in the book of Job. It means “to argue; to contend; to debate; to prove; to dispute.” The usage of the verb shows that it can focus on the beginning of an argument, the debating itself, or the resolution of the conflict. Here the latter is obviously meant, for they did argue and contend and criticize – but could not prove Job wrong.
22 tn Heb “lest you say.” R. Gordis (Job, 368) calls this a breviloquence: “beware lest [you say].” He then suggests the best reading for their quote to be, “We have attained wisdom, but only God can refute him, not man.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 209) suggests the meaning is a little different, namely, that they are saying they have found wisdom in Job, and only God can deal with it. Elihu is in effect saying that they do not need God, for he is quite capable for this.
23 tn The root is נָדַף (nadaf, “to drive away; to drive off”). Here it is in the abstract sense of “succeed in doing something; confound,” and so “refute; rebut.” Dhorme wants to change the meaning of the word with a slight emendation in the text, deriving it from אָלַף (’alaf, “instruct”) the form becoming יַלְּפֶנוּ (yallÿfenu) instead of יִדְּפֶנּוּ (yiddÿfenu), obtaining the translation “God will instruct us.” This makes a smoother reading, but does not have much support for it.