Job 12:12

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

Does not long life bring understanding?

Job 29:8

29:8 the young men would see me and step aside, ² 

and the old men would get up and remain standing;

Job 15:10

15:10 The gray-haired ³  and the aged are on our side, ⁴ 

men far older than your father. ⁵ 

Job 32:6

Elihu Claims Wisdom

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

“I am young, ⁷  but you are elderly;

that is why I was fearful, ⁸ 

and afraid to explain ⁹  to you what I know.

[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.

[29:8]  ² tn The verb means “to hide; to withdraw.” The young men out of respect would withdraw or yield the place of leadership to Job (thus the translation “step aside”). The old men would rise and remain standing until Job took his seat – a sign of respect.

[15:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “with us.”

[15:10]  ⁵ 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.

[32:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[32:6]  ⁵ tn The text has “small in days.”

[32:6]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.