Ayub 22:18

22:18 But it was he ¹  who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked ² 

was far from me. ³ 

Ayub 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ⁴  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ⁵  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ⁶ 

[22:18]  ¹ tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.

[22:18]  ² tn See Job 10:3.

[22:18]  ³ tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).

[32:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ⁵ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ⁶ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.