Job 4:12

Ungodly Complainers Provoke God’s Wrath

4:12 “Now a word was secretly ¹  brought ²  to me,

and my ear caught ³  a whisper ⁴  of it.

Job 4:14

4:14 a trembling ⁵  gripped me – and a terror! –

and made all my bones shake. ⁶ 

Job 21:2

21:2 “Listen carefully ⁷  to my words;

let this be ⁸  the consolation you offer me. ⁹ 

Job 30:27

30:27 My heart ¹⁰  is in turmoil ¹¹  unceasingly; ¹² 

the days of my affliction confront me.

Job 31:5

31:5 If ¹³  I have walked in falsehood,

and if ¹⁴  my foot has hastened ¹⁵  to deceit –

Job 34:2

34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;

hear ¹⁶  me, you learned men. ¹⁷ 

Job 34:5

34:5 For Job says, ‘I am innocent, ¹⁸ 

but God turns away my right.

[4:12]  ¹ tn The LXX of this verse offers special problems. It reads, “But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have fallen upon you; shall not my ear receive excellent [information] from him?” The major error involves a dittography from the word for “secret,” yielding “truth.”

[4:12]  ² tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal.” The Pual form in this verse is probably to be taken as a preterite since it requires a past tense translation: “it was stolen for me” meaning it was brought to me stealthily (see 2 Sam 19:3).

[4:12]  ³ tn Heb “received.”

[4:12]  ⁴ tn The word שֵׁמֶץ (shemets, “whisper”) is found only here and in Job 26:14. A cognate form שִׁמְצָה (shimtsah) is found in Exod 32:25 with the sense of “a whisper.” In postbiblical Hebrew the word comes to mean “a little.” The point is that Eliphaz caught just a bit, just a whisper of it, and will recount it to Job.

[4:14]  ⁵ tn The two words פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”) and רְעָדָה (rÿ’adah, “terror”) strengthen each other as synonyms (see also Ps 55:6). The subject of the verb קָרָא (qara’, “befall, encounter”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”); its compound subject has been placed at the end of the colon.

[4:14]  ⁶ tn The subject of the Hiphil verb הִפְחִיד (hifkhid, “dread”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”), which is why it is in the singular. The cognate verb intensifies and applies the meaning of the noun. BDB 808 s.v. פַּחַד Hiph translates it “fill my bones with dread.” In that sense “bones” would have to be a metonymy of subject representing the framework of the body, so that the meaning is that his whole being was filled with trembling.

[21:2]  ⁹ tn The intensity of the appeal is again expressed by the imperative followed by the infinitive absolute for emphasis. See note on “listen carefully” in 13:17.

[21:2]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX negates the sentence, “that I may not have this consolation from you.”

[21:2]  ¹¹ tn The word תַּנְחוּמֹתֵיכֶם (tankhumotekhem) is literally “your consolations,” the suffix being a subjective genitive. The friends had thought they were offering Job consolation (Job 14:11), but the consolation he wants from them is that they listen to him and respond accordingly.

[30:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “my loins,” “my bowels” (archaic), “my innermost being.” The latter option is reflected in the translation; some translations take the inner turmoil to be literal (NIV: “The churning inside me never stops”).

[30:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “boils.”

[30:27]  ¹⁵ tn The last clause reads “and they [it] are not quiet” or “do not cease.” The clause then serves adverbially for the sentence – “unceasingly.”

[31:5]  ¹⁷ tn The normal approach is to take this as the protasis, and then have it resumed in v. 7 after a parenthesis in v. 6. But some take v. 6 as the apodosis and a new protasis in v. 7.

[31:5]  ¹⁸ tn The “if” is understood by the use of the consecutive verb.

[31:5]  ¹⁹ sn The verbs “walk” and “hasten” (referring in the verse to the foot) are used metaphorically for the manner of life Job lived.

[34:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “give ear to me.”

[34:2]  ²² tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”

[34:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.