Ayub 12:2

12:2 “Without a doubt you are the people, ¹ 

and wisdom will die with you. ² 

Ayub 16:2

16:2 “I have heard many things like these before.

What miserable comforters ³  are you all!

Ayub 28:1

III. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)

No Known Road to Wisdom ⁴ 

28:1 “Surely ⁵  there is a mine ⁶  for silver,

and a place where gold is refined. ⁷ 

Ayub 28:6

28:6 a place whose stones are sapphires ⁸ 

and which contains dust of gold; ⁹ 

Ayub 28:9

28:9 On the flinty rock man has set to work ¹⁰  with his hand;

he has overturned mountains at their bases. ¹¹ 

Ayub 30:13

30:13 They destroy ¹²  my path;

they succeed in destroying me ¹³ 

without anyone assisting ¹⁴  them.

Ayub 31:4

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

Ayub 31:31

31:31 if ¹⁵  the members of my household ¹⁶  have never said, ¹⁷ 

‘If only there were ¹⁸  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ¹⁹  meat!’ –

Ayub 33:2

33:2 See now, I have opened ²⁰  my mouth;

my tongue in my mouth has spoken. ²¹ 

Ayub 34:2

34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;

hear ²²  me, you learned men. ²³ 

Ayub 34:5

34:5 For Job says, ‘I am innocent, ²⁴ 

but God turns away my right.

Ayub 39:3

39:3 They crouch, they bear ²⁵  their young,

they bring forth the offspring they have carried. ²⁶ 

[12:2]  ¹ tn The expression “you are the people” is a way of saying that the friends hold the popular opinion – they represent it. The line is sarcastic. Commentators do not think the parallelism is served well by this, and so offer changes for “people.” Some have suggested “you are complete” (based on Arabic), “you are the strong one” (based on Ugaritic), etc. J. A. Davies tried to solve the difficulty by making the second clause in the verse a paratactic relative clause: “you are the people with whom wisdom will die” (“Note on Job 12:2,” VT 25 [1975]: 670-71).

[12:2]  ² sn The sarcasm of Job admits their claim to wisdom, as if no one has it besides them. But the rest of his speech will show that they do not have a monopoly on it.

[16:2]  ³ tn The expression uses the Piel participle in construct: מְנַחֲמֵי עָמָל (mÿnahame ’amal, “comforters of trouble”), i.e., comforters who increase trouble instead of relieving it. D. W. Thomas translates this “breathers out of trouble” (“A Note on the Hebrew Root naham,” ExpTim 44 [1932/33]: 192).

[28:1]  ⁴ sn As the book is now arranged, this chapter forms an additional speech by Job, although some argue that it comes from the writer of the book. The mood of the chapter is not despair, but wisdom; it anticipates the divine speeches in the end of the book. This poem, like many psalms in the Bible, has a refrain (vv. 12 and 20). These refrains outline the chapter, giving three sections: there is no known road to wisdom (1-11); no price can buy it (12-19); and only God has it, and only by revelation can man posses it (20-28).

[28:1]  ⁵ tn The poem opens with כִּי (ki). Some commentators think this should have been “for,” and that the poem once stood in another setting. But there are places in the Bible where this word occurs with the sense of “surely” and no other meaning (cf. Gen 18:20).

[28:1]  ⁶ tn The word מוֹצָא (motsa’, from יָצָא [yatsa’, “go out”]) is the word for “mine,” or more simply, “source.” Mining was not an enormous industry in the land of Canaan or Israel; mined products were imported. Some editors have suggested alternative readings: Dahood found in the word the root for “shine” and translated the MT as “smelter.” But that is going too far. P. Joüon suggested “place of finding,” reading מִמְצָא (mimtsa’) for מוֹצָא (motsa’; see Bib 11 [1930]: 323).

[28:1]  ⁷ tn The verb יָזֹקּוּ (yazoqqu) translated “refined,” comes from זָקַק (zaqaq), a word that basically means “to blow.” From the meaning “to blow; to distend; to inflate” derives the meaning for refining.

[28:6]  ⁸ tn It is probably best to take “place” in construct to the rest of the colon, with an understood relative clause: “a place, the rocks of which are sapphires.”

[28:6]  sn The modern stone known as sapphire is thought not to have been used until Roman times, and so some other stone is probably meant here, perhaps lapis lazuli.

[28:6]  ⁹ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 181) suggests that if it is lapis lazuli, then the dust of gold would refer to the particles of iron pyrite found in lapis lazuli which glitter like gold.

[28:9]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “to stretch out; to send” (שָׁלח, shalakh). With יָדוֹ (yado, “his hand”) the idea is that of laying one’s hand on the rock, i.e., getting to work on the hardest of rocks.

[28:9]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ (mishoresh) means “from/at [their] root [or base].” In mining, people have gone below ground, under the mountains, and overturned rock and dirt. It is also interesting that here in a small way humans do what God does – overturn mountains (cf. 9:5).

[30:13]  ¹² tn This verb נָתְסוּ (natÿsu) is found nowhere else. It is probably a variant of the verb in Job 19:10. R. Gordis (Job, 333-34) notes the Arabic noun natsun (“thorns”), suggesting a denominative idea “they have placed thorns in my path.” Most take it to mean they ruin the way of escape.

[30:13]  ¹³ tc The MT has “they further my misfortune.” The line is difficult, with slight textual problems. The verb יֹעִילוּ (yo’ilu) means “to profit,” and so “to succeed” or “to set forward.” Good sense can be made from the MT as it stands, and many suggested changes are suspect.

[30:13]  ¹⁴ tn The sense of “restraining” for “helping” was proposed by Dillmann and supported by G. R. Driver (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).

[31:31]  ¹⁵ tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

[31:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

[31:31]  ¹⁷ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

[31:31]  ¹⁸ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

[31:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:2]  ²⁰ tn The perfect verbs in this verse should be classified as perfects of resolve: “I have decided to open…speak.”

[33:2]  ²¹ 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.

[34:2]  ²² tn Heb “give ear to me.”

[34:2]  ²³ tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”

[34:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.

[39:3]  ²⁵ tc The Hebrew verb used here means “to cleave,” and this would not have the object “their young.” Olshausen and others after him change the ח (khet) to ט (tet) and get a verb “to drop,” meaning “drop [= give birth to] young” as used in Job 21:10. G. R. Driver holds out for the MT, arguing it is an idiom, “to breach the womb” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 92-93).

[39:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they cast forth their labor pains.” This word usually means “birth pangs” but here can mean what caused the pains (metonymy of effect). This fits better with the parallelism, and the verb (“cast forth”). The words “their offspring” are supplied in the translation for clarity; direct objects were often omitted when clear from the context, although English expects them to be included.