8:2 “How long will you speak these things, 1
seeing 2 that the words of your mouth
are like a great 3 wind? 4
8:3 Does God pervert 5 justice? 6
Or does the Almighty pervert 7 what is right?
11:2 “Should not this 8 abundance of words be answered, 9
or should this 10 talkative man 11
be vindicated? 12
11:3 Will your idle talk 13 reduce people to silence, 14
and will no one rebuke 15 you when you mock? 16
35:2 “Do you think this to be 17 just:
when 18 you say, ‘My right before God.’ 19
35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ 20
and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’ 21
35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; 22
without knowledge he multiplies words.”
VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)
42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he 23 said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up 24 against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, 25 as my servant Job has.
1 sn “These things” refers to all of Job’s speech, the general drift of which seems to Bildad to question the justice of God.
2 tn The second colon of the verse simply says “and a strong wind the words of your mouth.” The simplest way to treat this is to make it an independent nominal sentence: “the words of your mouth are a strong wind.” Some have made it parallel to the first by apposition, understanding “how long” to do double duty. The line beginning with the ו (vav) can also be subordinated as a circumstantial clause, as here.
3 tn The word כַּבִּיר (kabbir, “great”) implies both abundance and greatness. Here the word modifies “wind”; the point of the analogy is that Job’s words are full of sound but without solid content.
4 tn See, however, G. R. Driver’s translation, “the breath of one who is mighty are the words of your mouth” (“Hebrew Studies,” JRAS 1948: 170).
5 tn The Piel verb יְעַוֵּת (yÿ’avvet) means “to bend; to cause to swerve from the norm; to deviate; to pervert.” The LXX renders the first colon as “will the Lord be unjust when he judges?”
6 tn The first word is מִשְׁפָּת (mishpat, “justice”). It can mean an act of judgment, place of judgment, or what is just, that is, the outcome of the decision. It basically describes an umpire’s decision. The parallel word is צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “righteousness,” or “what is right”). The basic idea here is that which conforms to the standard, what is right. See S. H. Scholnick, “The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job,” JBL 101 (1982): 521-29.
7 tn Some commentators think that the second verb should be changed in order to avoid the repetition of the same word and to reflect the different words in the versions. The suggestion is to read יְעַוֵּה (yÿ’avveh) instead; this would mean “to cause someone to deviate,” for the root means “to bend.” The change is completely unwarranted; the LXX probably chose different words for stylistic reasons (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 198). The repetition in the Hebrew text is a common type; it strengthens the enormity of the charge Job seems to be making.
8 tc The LXX, Targum Job, Symmachus, and Vulgate all assume that the vocalization of רֹב (rov, “abundance”) should be רַב (rav, “great”): “great of words.” This would then mean “one who is abundant of words,” meaning, “a man of many words,” and make a closer parallel to the second half. But the MT makes good sense as it stands.
9 tn The Niphal verb יֵעָנֶה (ye’aneh, “he answered”) would normally require a personal subject, but “abundance” functions as the subject in this sentence. The nuance of the imperfect is obligatory.
10 tn The word is supplied here also for clarification.
11 tn The bound construction “man of lips” means “a boaster” or “proud talker” (attributive genitive; and see GKC 417 §128.t). Zophar is saying that Job pours out this stream of words, but he is still not right.
12 tn The word is literally “be right, righteous.” The idea of being right has appeared before for this word (cf. 9:15). The point here is that just because Job talks a lot does not mean he is right or will be shown to be right through it all.
13 tn The word means “chatter, pratings, boastings” (see Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30).
14 tn The verb חָרַשׁ (kharash) in the Hiphil means “to silence” (41:4); here it functions in a causative sense, “reduce to silence.”
15 tn The form מַכְלִם (makhlim, “humiliating, mocking”) is the Hiphil participle. The verb כָּלַם (kalam) has the meaning “cover with shame, insult” (Job 20:3).
16 tn The construction shows the participle to be in the circumstantial clause: “will you mock – and [with] no one rebuking.”
17 tn The line could be read as “do you reckon this for justice? Here “to be” is understood.
18 tn The word “when” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
19 tn The brief line could be interpreted in a number of ways. The MT simply has “my right from God.” It could be “I am right before God,” “I am more just/right than God” (identifying the preposition as a comparative min (מִן); cf. J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 463), “I will be right before God,” or “My just cause against God.”
20 tn The referent of “you” is usually understood to be God.
21 tn The Hebrew text merely says, “What do I gain from my sin?” But Job has claimed that he has not sinned, and so this has to be elliptical: “more than if I had sinned” (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 224). It could also be, “What do I gain without sin?”
22 tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel) means “vanity; futility; to no purpose.”
23 tn Heb “the
24 tn Heb “is kindled.”
25 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.