Job 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ² 

to put with my sheep dogs. ³ 

Job 32:6

Elihu Claims Wisdom

32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ⁴ 

“I am young, ⁵  but you are elderly;

that is why I was fearful, ⁶ 

and afraid to explain ⁷  to you what I know.

[30:1]  ¹ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ² tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ³ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.

[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.