17:4 Because 1 you have closed their 2 minds to understanding,
therefore you will not exalt them. 3
35:11 who teaches us 4 more than 5 the wild animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
32:31 For our enemies’ 10 rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; 11
Pharaoh’s wise advisers give stupid advice.
How dare you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?” 12
19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? 13
Let them tell you, let them find out
what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.
19:13 The officials of Zoan are fools,
the officials of Memphis 14 are misled;
the rulers 15 of her tribes lead Egypt astray.
19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; 16
they lead Egypt astray in all she does,
so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. 17
57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;
I attacked them and angrily rejected them, 18
yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. 19
1 tn This half-verse gives the reason for the next half-verse.
2 sn The pronoun their refers to Job’s friends. They have not pledged security for him because God has hidden or sealed off their understanding.
3 tn The object “them” is supplied. This is the simplest reading of the line, taking the verb is an active Polel. Some suggest that the subject is “their hand” and the verb is to be translated “is not raised.” This would carry through the thought of the last verse, but it is not necessary to the point.
4 tn The form in the text, the Piel participle from אָלַף (’alaf, “teach”) is written in a contracted form; the full form is מְאַלְּפֵנוּ (mÿ’allÿfenu).
5 tn Some would render this “teaches us by the beasts.” But Elihu is stressing the unique privilege humans have.
6 tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”
7 tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”
8 tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”
9 tn Heb “into your hand.”
10 tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
11 tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”
12 tn Heb “A son of wise men am I, a son of ancient kings.” The term בֶּן (ben, “son of”) could refer to literal descent, but many understand the word, at least in the first line, in its idiomatic sense of “member [of a guild].” See HALOT 138 s.v. בֶּן and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:371. If this is the case, then one can take the word in a figurative sense in the second line as well, the “son of ancient kings” being one devoted to their memory as preserved in their literature.
13 tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.
14 tn Heb “Noph” (so KJV); most recent English versions substitute the more familiar “Memphis.”
15 tn Heb “the cornerstone.” The singular form should be emended to a plural.
16 tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”
17 tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”
18 tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”
19 tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”
20 tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.
21 tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”
22 tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).