Job 13:4-5

13:4 But you, however, are inventors of lies; ¹ 

all of you are worthless physicians! ² 

13:5 If only you would keep completely silent! ³ 

For you, that would be wisdom. ⁴ 

Job 16:2-3

16:2 “I have heard many things like these before.

What miserable comforters ⁵  are you all!

16:3 Will ⁶  there be an end to your ⁷  windy words? ⁸ 

Or what provokes ⁹  you that you answer? ¹⁰ 

Job 26:1-3

Job’s Reply to Bildad ¹¹ 

26:1 Then Job replied:

26:2 “How you have helped ¹²  the powerless! ¹³ 

How you have saved the person who has no strength! ¹⁴ 

26:3 How you have advised the one without wisdom,

and abundantly ¹⁵  revealed your insight!

Malachi 3:13-15

Resistance to the Lord through Self-sufficiency

3:13 “You have criticized me sharply,” ¹⁶  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 ¹⁷  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁸  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ¹⁹  In fact, those who challenge ²⁰  God escape!’”

Matthew 12:36-37

12:36 I ²¹  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Colossians 4:6

4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.

Colossians 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Colossians 1:4-5

1:4 since ²²  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ²³  from the hope laid up ²⁴  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ²⁵ 

[13:4]  ¹ tn The טֹפְלֵי־שָׁקֶר (tofÿle shaqer) are “plasterers of lies” (Ps 119:69). The verb means “to coat, smear, plaster.” The idea is that of imputing something that is not true. Job is saying that his friends are inventors of lies. The LXX was influenced by the next line and came up with “false physicians.”

[13:4]  ² tn The literal rendering of the construct would be “healers of worthlessness.” Ewald and Dillmann translated it “patchers” based on a meaning in Arabic and Ethiopic; this would give the idea “botchers.” But it makes equally good sense to take “healers” as the meaning, for Job’s friends came to minister comfort and restoration to him – but they failed. See P. Humbert, “Maladie et medicine dans l’AT,” RHPR 44 (1964): 1-29.

[13:5]  ³ tn The construction is the imperfect verb in the wish formula preceded by the infinitive that intensifies it. The Hiphil is not directly causative here, but internally – “keep silent.”

[13:5]  ⁴ tn The text literally reads, “and it would be for you for wisdom,” or “that it would become your wisdom.” Job is rather sarcastic here, indicating if they shut up they would prove themselves to be wise (see Prov 17:28).

[16:2]  ⁵ tn The expression uses the Piel participle in construct: מְנַחֲמֵי עָמָל (mÿnahame ’amal, “comforters of trouble”), i.e., comforters who increase trouble instead of relieving it. D. W. Thomas translates this “breathers out of trouble” (“A Note on the Hebrew Root naham,” ExpTim 44 [1932/33]: 192).

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Disjunctive questions are introduced with the sign of the interrogative; the second part is introduced with אוֹ (’o, see GKC 475 §150.g).

[16:3]  ⁷ tn In v. 3 the second person singular is employed rather than the plural as in vv. 2 and 4. The singular might be an indication that the words of v. 3 were directed at Eliphaz specifically.

[16:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “words of wind.”

[16:3]  ⁹ tn The Hiphil of מָרַץ (marats) does not occur anywhere else. The word means “to compel; to force” (see 6:25).

[16:3]  ¹⁰ tn The LXX seems to have gone a different way: “What, is there any reason in vain words, or what will hinder you from answering?”

[26:1]  ¹¹ sn These two chapters will be taken together under this title, although most commentators would assign Job 26:5-14 to Bildad and Job 27:7-23 to Zophar. Those sections will be noted as they emerge. For the sake of outlining, the following sections will be marked off: Job’s scorn for Bildad (26:2-4); a better picture of God’s greatness (26:5-14); Job’s protestation of innocence (27:2-6); and a picture of the condition of the wicked (27:7-23).

[26:2]  ¹² tn The interrogative clause is used here as an exclamation, and sarcastic at that. Job is saying “you have in no way helped the powerless.” The verb uses the singular form, for Job is replying to Bildad.

[26:2]  ¹³ tn The “powerless” is expressed here by the negative before the word for “strength; power” – “him who has no power” (see GKC 482 §152.u, v).

[26:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the arm [with] no strength.” Here too the negative expression is serving as a relative clause to modify “arm,” the symbol of strength and power, which by metonymy stands for the whole person. “Man of arm” denoted the strong in 22:8.

[26:3]  ¹⁵ tc The phrase לָרֹב (larov) means “to abundance” or “in a large quantity.” It is also used ironically like all these expressions. This makes very good sense, but some wish to see a closer parallel and so offer emendations. Reiske and Kissane thought “to the tender” for the word. But the timid are not the same as the ignorant and unwise. So Graetz supplied “to the boorish” by reading לְבָעַר (lÿba’ar). G. R. Driver did the same with less of a change: לַבּוֹר (labbor; HTR 29 [1936]: 172).

[3:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your words are hard [or “strong”] against me”; cf. NIV “said harsh things against me”; TEV, NLT “said terrible things about me.”

[3:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ¹⁸ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[3:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ²⁰ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[12:36]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[1:4]  ²² tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ²³ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ²⁵ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.