9:4 He is wise in heart 1 and mighty 2 in strength 3 –
who has resisted 4 him and remained safe? 5
9:19 If it is a matter of strength, 6
most certainly 7 he is the strong one!
And if it is a matter of justice,
he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’ 8
12:13 “With God 9 are wisdom and power;
counsel and understanding are his. 10
36:5 Indeed, God is mighty; and he does not despise people, 11
he 12 is mighty, and firm 13 in his intent. 14
62:11 God has declared one principle;
two principles I have heard: 15
God is strong, 16
65:6 You created the mountains by your power, 17
and demonstrated your strength. 18
66:3 Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear 19 before you.
93:1 The Lord reigns!
He is robed in majesty,
the Lord is robed,
he wears strength around his waist. 21
Indeed, the world is established, it cannot be moved.
99:4 The king is strong;
he loves justice. 22
You ensure that legal decisions will be made fairly; 23
you promote justice and equity in Jacob.
146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful, 24
146:7 vindicates the oppressed, 25
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord releases the imprisoned.
45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! 26
Let them consult with one another!
Who predicted this in the past?
Who announced it beforehand?
Was it not I, the Lord?
I have no peer, there is no God but me,
a God who vindicates and delivers; 27
there is none but me.
6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, 28 but deliver us from the evil one. 29
1 tn The genitive phrase translated “in heart” would be a genitive of specification, specifying that the wisdom of God is in his intelligent decisions.
2 sn The words אַמִּיץ (’ammits) and כֹּחַ (koakh) are synonyms, the first meaning “sturdy; mighty; robust,” and the second “strength.” It too can be interpreted as a genitive of specification – God is mighty with respect to his power. But that comes close to expressing a superlative idea (like “song of songs” or “anger of his wrath”).
3 tn The first half of the verse simply has “wise of heart and mighty of strength.” The entire line is a casus pendens that will refer to the suffix on אֵלָיו (’elayv) in the second colon. So the question is “Who has resisted the one who is wise of heart and mighty of strength?” Again, the rhetorical question is affirming that no one has done this.
4 tn The verb is the Hiphil of the verb קָשָׁה (qashah, “to be hard”). It frequently is found with the word for “neck,” describing people as “stiff-necked,” i.e., stubborn, unbending. So the idea of resisting God fits well. The fact that this word occurs in Exodus with the idea of hardening the heart against God may indicate that there is an allusion to Pharaoh here.
5 tn The use of שָׁלֵם (shalem) in the Qal is rare. It has been translated “remain safe” by E. Dhorme, “survived” by the NEB, “remained unscathed” by the NAB and NIV, or “succeeded” by KJV, G. R. Driver.
6 tn The MT has only “if of strength.”
7 tn “Most certainly” translates the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh).
8 tn The question could be taken as “who will summon me?” (see Jer 49:19 and 50:44). This does not make immediate sense. Some have simply changed the suffix to “who will summon him.” If the MT is retained, then supplying something like “he will say” could make the last clause fit the whole passage. Another option is to take it as “Who will reveal it to me?” – i.e., Job could be questioning his friends’ qualifications for being God’s emissaries to bring God’s charges against him (cf. KJV, NKJV; and see 10:2 where Job uses the same verb in the Hiphil to request that God reveal what his sin has been that has led to his suffering).
9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 91) says, “These attributes of God’s [sic] confound and bring to nought everything bearing the same name among men.”
11 tn The object “people” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.
12 tn The text simply repeats “mighty.”
13 tn The last two words are simply כֹּחַ לֵב (koakh lev, “strong in heart”), meaning something like “strong; firm in his decisions.”
14 tc There are several problems in this verse: the repetition of “mighty,” the lack of an object for “despise,” and the meaning of “strength of heart.” Many commentators reduce the verse to a single line, reading something like “Lo, God does not reject the pure in heart” (Kissane). Dhorme and Pope follow Nichols with: “Lo, God is mighty in strength, and rejects not the pure in heart.” This reading moved “mighty” to the first line and took the second to be בַּר (bar, “pure”).
15 tn Heb “one God spoke, two which I heard.” This is a numerical saying utilizing the “x” followed by “x + 1” pattern to facilitate poetic parallelism. (See W. M. W. Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament [VTSup], 55-56.) As is typical in such sayings, a list corresponding to the second number (in this case “two”) follows. Another option is to translate, “God has spoken once, twice [he has spoken] that which I have heard.” The terms אַחַת (’akhat, “one; once”) and שְׁתַּיִם (shÿtayim, “two; twice”) are also juxtaposed in 2 Kgs 6:10 (where they refer to an action that was done more than “once or twice”) and in Job 33:14 (where they refer to God speaking “one way” and then in “another manner”).
16 tn Heb “that strength [belongs] to God.”
17 tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”
18 tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”
19 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).
20 sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the
21 sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.
22 tn Heb “and strength, a king, justice he loves.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult here. The translation assumes that two affirmations are made about the king, the
23 tn Heb “you establish fairness.”
24 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
25 tn Heb “executes justice for the oppressed.”
26 tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.
27 tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”
28 tn Or “into a time of testing.”
29 tc Most