Job 33:1-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 33:1 tn Heb “give ear,” the Hiphil denominative verb from “ear.”
2. Job 33:1 tn Heb “hear all my words.”
3. Job 33:2 tn The perfect verbs in this verse should be classified as perfects of resolve: “I have decided to open…speak.”
4. Job 33:2 sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 210) says, “The self-importance of Elihu is boundless, and he is the master of banality.” He adds that whoever wrote these speeches this way clearly intended to expose the character rather than exalt him.
5. Job 33:3 tc This expression is unusual; R. Gordis (Job, 371) says it can be translated, “the purity of my heart [is reflected] in my words,” but that is far-fetched and awkward. So there have been suggestions for emending יֹשֶׁר (yosher, “uprightness”). Kissane’s makes the most sense if a change is desired: “shall reveal” (an Arabic sense of yasher), although Holscher interpreted “shall affirm” (yasher, with a Syriac sense). Dhorme has “my heart will repeat” (יָשׁוּר, yashur), but this is doubtful. If Kissane’s view is taken, it would say, “my heart will reveal my words.” Some commentators would join “and knowledge” to this colon, and read “words of knowledge”—but that requires even more emendations.
6. Job 33:3 tn More literally, “and the knowledge of my lips they will speak purely.”
7. Job 33:4 tc Some commentators want to put this verse after v. 6, while others omit the verse entirely. Elihu is claiming here that he is inspired by God.tn The verb תְּחַיֵּנִי (t^ekhayyeni) is the Piel imperfect of the verb “to live.” It can mean “gives me life,” but it can also mean “quickens me, enlivens me.”
8. Job 33:5 tn The Hebrew text does not contain the term “arguments,” but this verb has been used already for preparing or arranging a defense.
9. Job 33:6 tn The verb means “nipped off,” as a potter breaks off a piece of clay when molding a vessel.
10. Job 33:7 tc The noun means “my pressure; my burden” in the light of the verb אָכֲף (ʾakhaf, “to press on; to grip tightly”). In the parallel passages the text used “hand” and “rod” in the hand to terrify. The LXX has “hand” here for this word. But simply changing it to “hand” is ruled out because the verb is masculine.
11. Job 33:7 tn See Job 9:34 and 13:21.