Job 12:13

12:13 “With God ¹  are wisdom and power;

counsel and understanding are his. ² 

Job 37:5

37:5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; ³ 

he does great things beyond our understanding. ⁴ 

Job 38:7

38:7 when the morning stars ⁵  sang ⁶  in chorus, ⁷ 

and all the sons of God ⁸  shouted for joy?

[12:13]  ¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:13]  ² 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.”

[37:5]  ³ tn The form is the Niphal participle, “wonders,” from the verb פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary”). Some commentators suppress the repeated verb “thunders,” and supply other verbs like “shows” or “works,” enabling them to make “wonders” the object of the verb rather than leaving it in an adverbial role. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 236) notes, no change is needed, for one is not surprised to find repetition in Elihu’s words.

[37:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and we do not know.”

[38:7]  ⁵ sn The expression “morning stars” (Heb “stars of the morning”) is here placed in parallelism to the angels, “the sons of God.” It may refer to the angels under the imagery of the stars, or, as some prefer, it may poetically include all creation. There is a parallel also with the foundation of the temple which was accompanied by song (see Ezra 3:10,11). But then the account of the building of the original tabernacle was designed to mirror creation (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

[38:7]  ⁶ tn The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן (ranan), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav (ו) consecutive preterite.

[38:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

[38:7]  ⁸ tn See Job 1:6.