Job 13:2

13:2 What you know, ¹  I ²  know also;

I am not inferior ³  to you!

Job 15:2

15:2 “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, ⁴ 

or fill his belly ⁵  with the east wind? ⁶ 

Job 35:16

35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; ⁷ 

without knowledge he multiplies words.”

Job 38:2

38:2 “Who is this ⁸  who darkens counsel ⁹ 

with words without knowledge?

Job 42:3

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 

[13:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Like your knowledge”; in other words Job is saying that his knowledge is like their knowledge.

[13:2]  ² tn The pronoun makes the subject emphatic and stresses the contrast: “I know – I also.”

[13:2]  ³ tn The verb “fall” is used here as it was in Job 4:13 to express becoming lower than someone, i.e., inferior.

[15:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew is דַעַת־רוּחַ (da’at-ruakh). This means knowledge without any content, vain knowledge.

[15:2]  ⁵ tn The image is rather graphic. It is saying that he puffs himself up with the wind and then brings out of his mouth blasts of this wind.

[15:2]  ⁶ tn The word for “east wind,” קָדִים (qadim), is parallel to “spirit/wind” also in Hos 12:2. The east wind is maleficent, but here in the parallelism it is so much hot air.

[35:16]  ⁷ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel) means “vanity; futility; to no purpose.”

[38:2]  ⁸ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here to emphasize the interrogative pronoun (see GKC 442 §136.c).

[38:2]  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.”

[42:3]  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.

[42:3]  ¹¹ tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.

[42:3]  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.”

[42:3]  ¹³ tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.