Job 13:8

13:8 Will you show him partiality? ¹ 

Will you argue the case ²  for God?

Job 21:3

21:3 Bear with me ³  and I ⁴  will speak,

and after I have spoken ⁵  you may mock. ⁶ 

Job 21:12

21:12 They sing ⁷  to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,

and make merry to the sound of the flute.

Job 27:1

A Protest of Innocence

27:1 And Job took up his discourse again: ⁸ 

Job 27:21

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

Job 29:1

IV. Job’s Concluding Soliloquy (29:1-31:40)

Job Recalls His Former Condition ⁹ 

29:1 Then Job continued ¹⁰  his speech:

Job 30:22

30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; ¹¹ 

you toss me about ¹²  in the storm. ¹³ 

Job 36:3

36:3 With my knowledge I will speak comprehensively, ¹⁴ 

and to my Creator I will ascribe righteousness. ¹⁵ 

[13:8]  ¹ sn The idiom used here is “Will you lift up his face?” Here Job is being very sarcastic, for this expression usually means that a judge is taking a bribe. Job is accusing them of taking God’s side.

[13:8]  ² tn The same root is used here (רִיב, riv, “dispute, contention”) as in v. 6b (see note).

[21:3]  ³ tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) means “to lift up; to raise up”; but in this context it means “to endure; to tolerate” (see Job 7:21).

[21:3]  ⁴ tn The conjunction and the independent personal pronoun draw emphatic attention to the subject of the verb: “and I on my part will speak.”

[21:3]  ⁵ tn The adverbial clauses are constructed of the preposition “after” and the Piel infinitive construct with the subjective genitive suffix: “my speaking,” or “I speak.”

[21:3]  ⁶ tn The verb is the imperfect of לָעַג (la’ag). The Hiphil has the same basic sense as the Qal, “to mock; to deride.” The imperfect here would be modal, expressing permission. The verb is in the singular, suggesting that Job is addressing Zophar; however, most of the versions put it into the plural. Note the singular in 16:3 between the plural in 16:1 and 16:4.

[21:12]  ⁵ tn The verb is simply “they take up [or lift up],” but the understood object is “their voices,” and so it means “they sing.”

[27:1]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word מָשָׁל (mashal) is characteristically “proverb; by-word.” It normally refers to a brief saying, but can be used for a discourse (see A. R. Johnson, “MasŒal,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 162ff.).

[29:1]  ⁹ sn Now that the debate with his friends is over, Job concludes with a soliloquy, just as he had begun with one. Here he does not take into account his friends or their arguments. The speech has three main sections: Job’s review of his former circumstances (29:1-25); Job’s present misery (30:1-31); and Job’s vindication of his life (31:1-40).

[29:1]  ¹⁰ tn The verse uses a verbal hendiadys: “and he added (וַיֹּסֶף, vayyosef)…to raise (שְׂאֵת, sÿ’et) his speech.” The expression means that he continued, or he spoke again.

[30:22]  ¹¹ sn Here Job changes the metaphor again, to the driving storm. God has sent his storms, and Job is blown away.

[30:22]  ¹² tn The verb means “to melt.” The imagery would suggest softening the ground with the showers (see Ps 65:10 [11]). The translation “toss…about” comes from the Arabic cognate that is used for the surging of the sea.

[30:22]  ¹³ tc The Qere is תּוּשִׁיָּה (tushiyyah, “counsel”), which makes no sense here. The Kethib is a variant orthography for תְּשֻׁאָה (tÿshu’ah, “storm”).

[36:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will carry my knowledge to-from afar.” The expression means that he will give a wide range to knowledge, that he will speak comprehensively.

[36:3]  ¹⁴ tn This line gives the essence of all of Elihu’s speech – to give or ascribe righteousness to God against the charges of Job. Dhorme translates this “I will justify my Maker,” and that is workable if it carries the meaning of “declaring to be right.”