Job 9:33

9:33 Nor is there an arbiter ¹  between us,

who ²  might lay ³  his hand on us both, ⁴ 

Job 33:14

Elihu Disagrees With Job’s View of God

33:14 “For God speaks, the first time in one way,

the second time in another,

though a person does not perceive ⁵  it.

Job 40:5

40:5 I have spoken once, but I cannot answer;

twice, but I will say no more.” ⁶ 

Job 13:20

13:20 Only in two things spare me, ⁷  O God, ⁸ 

and then I will not hide from your face:

Job 42:7

VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)

42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he ⁹  said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up ¹⁰  against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, ¹¹  as my servant Job has.

[9:33]  ¹ tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).

[9:33]  ² tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.

[9:33]  ³ tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).

[9:33]  ⁴ sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.

[33:14]  ⁵ tn The Syriac and the Vulgate have “and he does not repeat it,” a reading of the text as it is, according to E. Dhorme (Job, 403). But his argument is based on another root with this meaning – a root which does not exist (see L. Dennefeld, RB 48 [1939]: 175). The verse is saying that God does speak to man.

[40:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will not add.”

[13:20]  ¹³ tn The line reads “do not do two things.”

[13:20]  ¹⁴ tn “God” is supplied to the verse, for the address is now to him. Job wishes to enter into dispute with God, but he first appeals that God not take advantage of him with his awesome power.

[42:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” The title has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “is kindled.”

[42:7]  ¹⁹ tn The form נְכוֹנָה (nÿkhonah) is from כּוּן (kun, “to be firm; to be fixed; to be established”). Here it means “the right thing” or “truth.” The Akkadian word kenu (from כּוּן, kun) connotes justice and truth.