19:14 May my words and my thoughts
be acceptable in your sight, 1
O Lord, my sheltering rock 2 and my redeemer. 3
8:2 “How long will you speak these things, 4
seeing 5 that the words of your mouth
are like a great 6 wind? 7
38:2 “Who is this 8 who darkens counsel 9
with words without knowledge?
42:3 you asked, 10
‘Who is this who darkens counsel
without knowledge?’
But 11 I have declared without understanding 12
things too wonderful for me to know. 13
42:6 Therefore I despise myself, 14
and I repent in dust and ashes!
VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)
42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he 15 said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up 16 against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, 17 as my servant Job has. 42:8 So now take 18 seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede 19 for you, and I will respect him, 20 so that I do not deal with you 21 according to your folly, 22 because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 23
1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.
I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, 24
those who think to themselves, 25
‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ 26
3:13 “You have criticized me sharply,” 27 says the Lord, “but you ask, ‘How have we criticized you?’ 3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped 28 by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? 29 3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. 30 In fact, those who challenge 31 God escape!’”
3:16 Then those who respected 32 the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. 33 A scroll 34 was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.
3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature 50 is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. 51 3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless 52 evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord 53 and Father, and with it we curse people 54 made in God’s image. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. 55
1 tn Heb “may the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart be acceptable before you.” The prefixed verbal form at the beginning of the verse is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate the form as an imperfect continuing the thought of v. 14b: “[Then] the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart will be acceptable before you.”
2 tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”
3 tn Heb “and the one who redeems me.” The metaphor casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis.
4 sn “These things” refers to all of Job’s speech, the general drift of which seems to Bildad to question the justice of God.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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).
8 tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here to emphasize the interrogative pronoun (see GKC 442 §136.c).
9 sn The referent of “counsel” here is not the debate between Job and the friends, but the purposes of God (see Ps 33:10; Prov 19:21; Isa 19:17). Dhorme translates it “Providence.”
10 tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.
11 tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.
12 tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”
13 tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.
14 tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).
15 tn Heb “the
16 tn Heb “is kindled.”
17 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.
18 tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.
19 tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”
20 tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”
21 tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.
22 tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.
23 sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.
24 tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.
25 tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”
26 tn Heb “The
27 tn Heb “your words are hard [or “strong”] against me”; cf. NIV “said harsh things against me”; TEV, NLT “said terrible things about me.”
28 tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”
29 sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the
30 tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”
31 tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”
32 tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”
33 tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”
34 sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the
35 tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.
36 tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
37 sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).
38 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
39 tn Or “fail.”
40 tn Or “fail.”
41 tn Grk “in speech.”
42 tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).
43 tn Grk “their entire body.”
44 tn Grk “a small member.”
45 tn Grk “boasts of great things.”
46 tn Grk “Behold.”
47 tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”
48 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
49 sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).
50 tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”
51 tn Grk “the human species.”
52 tc Most
53 tc Most later
54 tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.
55 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.