Ayub 12:12-13

12:12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? ¹ 

Does not long life bring understanding?

12:13 “With God ²  are wisdom and power;

counsel and understanding are his. ³ 

[12:12]  ¹ tn The statement in the Hebrew Bible simply has “among the aged – wisdom.” Since this seems to be more the idea of the friends than of Job, scholars have variously tried to rearrange it. Some have proposed that Job is citing his friends: “With the old men, you say, is wisdom” (Budde, Gray, Hitzig). Others have simply made it a question (Weiser). But others take לֹא (lo’) from the previous verse and make it the negative here, to say, “wisdom is not….” But Job will draw on the wisdom of the aged, only with discernment, for ultimately all wisdom is with God.

[12:13]  ² tn Heb “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:13]  ³ sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 91) says, “These attributes of God’s [sic] confound and bring to nought everything bearing the same name among men.”