Job 40:4

40:4 “Indeed, I am completely unworthy ¹  – how could I reply to you?

I put ²  my hand over my mouth to silence myself. ³ 

Job 42:5-6

42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye has seen you. ⁴ 

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ⁵ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

Isaiah 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ⁶  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ⁷  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ⁸  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁹ 

Matthew 8:8

8:8 But the centurion replied, ¹⁰  “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed.

[40:4]  ¹ tn The word קַלֹּתִי (qalloti) means “to be light; to be of small account; to be unimportant.” From this comes the meaning “contemptible,” which in the causative stem would mean “to treat with contempt; to curse.” Dhorme tries to make the sentence a conditional clause and suggests this meaning: “If I have been thoughtless.” There is really no “if” in Job’s mind.

[40:4]  ² tn The perfect verb here should be classified as an instantaneous perfect; the action is simultaneous with the words.

[40:4]  ³ tn The words “to silence myself” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[42:5]  ⁴ sn This statement does not imply there was a vision. He is simply saying that this experience of God was real and personal. In the past his knowledge of God was what he had heard – hearsay. This was real.

[42:6]  ⁵ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ⁹ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “But answering, the centurion replied.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.