Discovery BoxJob 34:2-15
Context34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;
34:3 For the ear assesses 3 words
as the mouth 4 tastes food.
34:4 Let us evaluate 5 for ourselves what is right; 6
let us come to know among ourselves what is good.
34:5 For Job says, ‘I am innocent, 7
but God turns away my right.
34:6 Concerning my right, should I lie? 8
My wound 9 is incurable,
although I am without transgression.’ 10
34:7 What man is like Job,
who 11 drinks derision 12 like water!
34:8 He goes about 13 in company 14 with evildoers,
he goes along 15 with wicked men. 16
34:9 For he says, ‘It does not profit a man
when he makes his delight with God.’ 17
34:10 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. 18
Far be it from 19 God to do wickedness,
from the Almighty to do evil.
34:11 For he repays a person for his work, 20
and according to the conduct of a person,
he causes the consequences to find him. 21
34:12 Indeed, in truth, God does not act wickedly,
and the Almighty does not pervert justice.
34:13 Who entrusted 22 to him the earth?
And who put him over 23 the whole world?
34:14 If God 24 were to set his heart on it, 25
and gather in his spirit and his breath,
34:15 all flesh would perish together
and human beings would return to dust.
[34:2] 1 tn Heb “give ear to me.”
[34:2] 2 tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”
[34:3] 3 tn Or “examines; tests; tries; discerns.”
[34:3] 4 tn Or “palate”; the Hebrew term refers to the tongue or to the mouth in general.
[34:4] 5 sn Elihu means “choose after careful examination.”
[34:4] 6 tn The word is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) again, with the sense of what is right or just.
[34:5] 7 tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.
[34:6] 8 tn The verb is the Piel imperfect of כָּזַב (kazav), meaning “to lie.” It could be a question: “Should I lie [against my right?] – when I am innocent. If it is repointed to the Pual, then it can be “I am made to lie,” or “I am deceived.” Taking it as a question makes good sense here, and so emendations are unnecessary.
[34:6] 9 tn The Hebrew text has only “my arrow.” Some commentators emend that word slightly to get “my wound.” But the idea could be derived from “arrows” as well, the wounds caused by the arrows. The arrows are symbolic of God’s affliction.
[34:6] 10 tn Heb “without transgression”; but this is parallel to the first part where the claim is innocence.
[34:7] 11 tn Heb “he drinks,” but coming after the question this clause may be subordinated.
[34:7] 12 tn The scorn or derision mentioned here is not against Job, but against God. Job scorns God so much, he must love it. So to reflect this idea, Gordis has translated it “blasphemy” (cf. NAB).
[34:8] 13 tn The perfect verb with the vav (ו) consecutive carries the sequence forward from the last description.
[34:8] 14 tn The word חֶבְרַה (khevrah, “company”) is a hapax legomenon. But its meaning is clear enough from the connections to related words and this context as well.
[34:8] 15 tn The infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition may continue the clause with the finite verb (see GKC 351 §114.p).
[34:8] 16 tn Heb “men of wickedness”; the genitive is attributive (= “wicked men”).
[34:9] 17 tn Gordis, however, takes this expression in the sense of “being in favor with God.”
[34:10] 18 tn Heb “men of heart.” The “heart” is used for the capacity to understand and make the proper choice. It is often translated “mind.”
[34:10] 19 tn For this construction, see Job 27:5.
[34:11] 20 tn Heb “for the work of man, he [= God] repays him.”
[34:11] 21 tn Heb “he causes it to find him.” The text means that God will cause a man to find (or receive) the consequences of his actions.
[34:13] 22 tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) means “to visit; to appoint; to number.” Here it means “to entrust” for care and governing. The implication would be that there would be someone higher than God – which is what Elihu is repudiating by the rhetorical question. No one entrusted God with this.
[34:13] 23 tn The preposition is implied from the first half of the verse.
[34:14] 24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:14] 25 tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.
