15:5 Your sin inspires 3 your mouth;
you choose the language 4 of the crafty. 5
15:6 Your own mouth condemns 6 you, not I;
your own lips testify against 7 you.
64:8 Their slander will bring about their demise. 8
All who see them will shudder, 9
1 tn Heb “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the
2 sn Like witnesses in a court of law, Israel’s solemn vow to worship the Lord will testify against them in the divine court if the nation ever violates its commitment.
3 tn The verb אַלֵּף (’allef) has the meaning of “to teach; to instruct,” but it is unlikely that the idea of revealing is intended. If the verb is understood metonymically, then “to inspire; to prompt” will be sufficient. Dahood and others find another root, and render the verb “to increase,” reversing subject and object: “your mouth increases your iniquity.”
4 tn Heb “tongue.”
5 tn The word means “shrewd; crafty; cunning” (see Gen 3:1). Job uses clever speech that is misleading and destructive.
6 tn The Hiphil of this root means “declare wicked, guilty” (a declarative Hiphil), and so “condemns.”
7 tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) with the ל (lamed) preposition following it means “to testify against.” For Eliphaz, it is enough to listen to Job to condemn him.
8 tc The MT reads literally, “and they caused him to stumble, upon them, their tongue.” Perhaps the third plural subject of the verb is indefinite with the third singular pronominal suffix on the verb being distributive (see Ps 63:10). In this case one may translate, “each one will be made to stumble.” The preposition עַל (’al) might then be taken as adversative, “against them [is] their tongue.” Many prefer to emend the text to וַיַּכְשִׁילֵמוֹ עֲלֵי לְשׁוֹנָם (vayyakhshilemo ’aley lÿshonam, “and he caused them to stumble over their tongue”). However, if this reading is original, it is difficult to see how the present reading of the MT arose. Furthermore, the preposition is not collocated with the verb כָּשַׁל (kashal) elsewhere. It is likely that the MT is corrupt, but a satisfying emendation has not yet been proposed.
9 tn The Hitpolel verbal form is probably from the root נוּד (nud; see HALOT 678 s.v. נוד), which is attested elsewhere in the Hitpolel stem, not the root נָדַד (nadad, as proposed by BDB 622 s.v. I נָדַד), which does not occur elsewhere in this stem.
10 tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).
12 tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”
13 tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”