Proverbs 20:29

20:29 The glory ¹  of young men is their strength,

and the splendor ²  of old men is gray hair. ³ 

Leviticus 19:32

19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord.

Job 32:6-7

Elihu Claims Wisdom

32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ⁴ 

“I am young, ⁵  but you are elderly;

that is why I was fearful, ⁶ 

and afraid to explain ⁷  to you what I know.

32:7 I said to myself, ‘Age ⁸  should speak, ⁹ 

and length of years ¹⁰  should make wisdom known.’

[20:29]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term תִּפְאֶרֶת (tif’eret) means “beauty; glory”; in a context like this it means “honor” in the sense of glorying or boasting (BDB 802 s.v. 3.b).

[20:29]  ² tn The Hebrew term הֲדַר (hadar), the noun in construct, means “splendor; honor; ornament.” The latter sense is used here, since grey hair is like a crown on the head.

[20:29]  ³ sn “Grey hair” is a metonymy of adjunct; it represents everything valuable about old age – dignity, wisdom, honor, experience, as well as worry and suffering of life. At the very least, since they survived, they must know something. At the most, they were the sages and elders of the people.

[32:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[32:6]  ⁵ tn The text has “small in days.”

[32:6]  ⁶ tn The verb זָחַלְתִּי (zakhalti) is found only here in the OT, but it is found in a ninth century Aramaic inscription as well as in Biblical Aramaic. It has the meaning “to be timid” (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 208).

[32:6]  ⁷ tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.

[32:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “days.”

[32:7]  ⁹ tn The imperfect here is to be classified as an obligatory imperfect.

[32:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “abundance of years.”