Job 12:12

12:12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? ¹ 

Does not long life bring understanding?

Job 15:10

15:10 The gray-haired ²  and the aged are on our side, ³ 

men far older than your father. ⁴ 

Job 15:18

15:18 what wise men declare,

hiding nothing,

from the tradition of ⁵  their ancestors, ⁶ 

Job 32:6-7

Elihu Claims Wisdom

32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ⁷ 

“I am young, ⁸  but you are elderly;

that is why I was fearful, ⁹ 

and afraid to explain ¹⁰  to you what I know.

32:7 I said to myself, ‘Age ¹¹  should speak, ¹² 

and length of years ¹³  should make wisdom known.’

Deuteronomy 4:32

The Uniqueness of Israel’s God

4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ¹⁴  on the earth, and ask ¹⁵  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.

Deuteronomy 32:7

32:7 Remember the ancient days;

bear in mind ¹⁶  the years of past generations. ¹⁷ 

Ask your father and he will inform you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

Psalms 44:1

Psalm 44 ¹⁸ 

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ¹⁹ 

44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; ²⁰ 

our ancestors ²¹  have told us

what you did ²²  in their days,

in ancient times. ²³ 

Psalms 78:3-4

78:3 What we have heard and learned ²⁴  –

that which our ancestors ²⁵  have told us –

78:4 we will not hide from their ²⁶  descendants.

We will tell the next generation

about the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, ²⁷ 

about his strength and the amazing things he has done.

Isaiah 38:19

38:19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,

as I do today.

A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.

Romans 15:4

15:4 For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

Romans 15:1

Exhortation for the Strong to Help the Weak

15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. ²⁸ 

Colossians 1:11

1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ²⁹  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

[12:12]  ¹ tn The statement in the Hebrew Bible simply has “among the aged – wisdom.” Since this seems to be more the idea of the friends than of Job, scholars have variously tried to rearrange it. Some have proposed that Job is citing his friends: “With the old men, you say, is wisdom” (Budde, Gray, Hitzig). Others have simply made it a question (Weiser). But others take לֹא (lo’) from the previous verse and make it the negative here, to say, “wisdom is not….” But Job will draw on the wisdom of the aged, only with discernment, for ultimately all wisdom is with God.

[15:10]  ² 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.

[15:10]  ³ tn Heb “with us.”

[15:10]  ⁴ 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.

[15:18]  ⁵ tn The word “tradition” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “their fathers.” Some commentators change one letter and follow the reading of the LXX: “and their fathers have not hidden.” Pope tries to get the same reading by classifying the מ (mem) as an enclitic mem. The MT on first glance would read “and did not hide from their fathers.” Some take the clause “and they did not hide” as adverbial and belonging to the first part of the verse: “what wise men declare, hiding nothing, according to the tradition of their fathers.”

[32:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[32:6]  ⁸ tn The text has “small in days.”

[32:6]  ⁹ tn The verb זָחַלְתִּי (zakhalti) is found only here in the OT, but it is found in a ninth century Aramaic inscription as well as in Biblical Aramaic. It has the meaning “to be timid” (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 208).

[32:6]  ¹⁰ tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.

[32:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “days.”

[32:7]  ¹² tn The imperfect here is to be classified as an obligatory imperfect.

[32:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “abundance of years.”

[4:32]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term אָדָם (’adam) may refer either to Adam or, more likely, to “man” in the sense of the human race (“mankind,” “humankind”). The idea here seems more universal in scope than reference to Adam alone would suggest.

[4:32]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is not present in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification. The challenge has both temporal and geographical dimensions. The people are challenged to (1) inquire about the entire scope of past history and (2) conduct their investigation on a worldwide scale.

[32:7]  ¹⁶ tc The Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read 2nd person masculine singular whereas the MT has 2nd person masculine plural. The former is preferred, the latter perhaps being a misreading (בִּינוּ [binu] for בִּינָה [binah]). Both the preceding (“remember”) and following (“ask”) imperatives are singular forms in the Hebrew text.

[32:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “generation and generation.” The repetition of the singular noun here singles out each of the successive past generations. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3b.

[44:1]  ¹⁸ sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.

[44:1]  ¹⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.

[44:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”

[44:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.

[44:1]  ²² tn Heb “the work you worked.”

[44:1]  ²³ tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.

[78:3]  ²⁴ tn Or “known.”

[78:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 8, 12, 57).

[78:4]  ²⁶ tn The pronominal suffix refers back to the “fathers” (“our ancestors,” v. 3).

[78:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to a following generation telling the praises of the Lord.” “Praises” stand by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.

[15:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”

[1:11]  ²⁹ tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.