Job 6:24

No Sin Discovered

6:24 “Teach ¹  me and I, for my part, ²  will be silent;

explain to me ³  how I have been mistaken. ⁴ 

Job 8:10

8:10 Will they not ⁵  instruct you and ⁶  speak to you,

and bring forth words ⁷ 

from their understanding? ⁸ 

Job 12:8

12:8 Or speak ⁹  to the earth ¹⁰  and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea declare to you.

Job 36:22

36:22 Indeed, God is exalted in his power;

who is a teacher ¹¹  like him?

[6:24]  ¹ tn The verb “teach” or “instruct” is the Hiphil הוֹרוּנִי (horuni), from the verb יָרָה (yarah); the basic idea of “point, direct” lies behind this meaning. The verb is cognate to the noun תּוֹרָה (torah, “instruction, teaching, law”).

[6:24]  ² tn The independent personal pronoun makes the subject of the verb emphatic: “and I will be silent.”

[6:24]  ³ tn The verb is הָבִינוּ (havinu, “to cause someone to understand”); with the ל (lamed) following, it has the sense of “explain to me.”

[6:24]  ⁴ tn The verb שָׁגָה (shagah) has the sense of “wandering, getting lost, being mistaken.”

[8:10]  ⁵ tn The sentence begins emphatically: “Is it not they.”

[8:10]  ⁶ tn The “and” is not present in the line. The second clause seems to be in apposition to the first, explaining it more thoroughly: “Is it not they [who] will instruct you, [who] will speak to you.”

[8:10]  ⁷ tn The noun may have been left indeterminate for the sake of emphasis (GKC 401-2 §125.c), meaning “important words.”

[8:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “from their heart.”

[12:8]  ⁹ tn The word in the MT means “to complain,” not simply “to speak,” and one would expect animals as the object here in parallel to the last verse. So several commentators have replaced the word with words for animals or reptiles – totally different words (cf. NAB, “reptiles”). The RSV and NRSV have here the word “plants” (see 30:4, 7; and Gen 21:15).

[12:8]  ¹⁰ tn A. B. Davidson (Job, 90) offers a solution by taking “earth” to mean all the lower forms of life that teem in the earth (a metonymy of subject).

[36:22]  ¹³ tn The word מוֹרֶה (moreh) is the Hiphil participle from יָרַה (yarah). It is related to the noun תּוֹרָה (torah, “what is taught” i.e., the law).