Ayub 4:12

Ungodly Complainers Provoke God’s Wrath

4:12 “Now a word was secretly ¹  brought ²  to me,

and my ear caught ³  a whisper ⁴  of it.

Ayub 5:27

5:27 Look, we have investigated this, so it is true.

Hear it, ⁵  and apply it for your own ⁶  good.” ⁷ 

Ayub 8:8-10

8:8 “For inquire now of the former ⁸  generation,

and pay attention ⁹  to the findings ¹⁰ 

of their ancestors; ¹¹ 

8:9 For we were born yesterday ¹²  and do not have knowledge,

since our days on earth are but a shadow. ¹³ 

8:10 Will they not ¹⁴  instruct you and ¹⁵  speak to you,

and bring forth words ¹⁶ 

from their understanding? ¹⁷ 

Ayub 15:17-18

15:17 “I will explain to you;

listen to me,

and what ¹⁸  I have seen, I will declare, ¹⁹ 

15:18 what wise men declare,

hiding nothing,

from the tradition of ²⁰  their ancestors, ²¹ 

Mazmur 78:3-4

78:3 What we have heard and learned ²²  –

that which our ancestors ²³  have told us –

78:4 we will not hide from their ²⁴  descendants.

We will tell the next generation

about the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, ²⁵ 

about his strength and the amazing things he has done.

Mazmur 78:1

Psalm 78 ²⁶ 

A well-written song ²⁷  by Asaph.

78:1 Pay attention, my people, to my instruction!

Listen to the words I speak! ²⁸ 

Yohanes 1:3

1:3 All things were created ²⁹  by him, and apart from him not one thing was created ³⁰  that has been created. ³¹ 

[4:12]  ¹ tn The LXX of this verse offers special problems. It reads, “But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have fallen upon you; shall not my ear receive excellent [information] from him?” The major error involves a dittography from the word for “secret,” yielding “truth.”

[4:12]  ² tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal.” The Pual form in this verse is probably to be taken as a preterite since it requires a past tense translation: “it was stolen for me” meaning it was brought to me stealthily (see 2 Sam 19:3).

[4:12]  ³ tn Heb “received.”

[4:12]  ⁴ tn The word שֵׁמֶץ (shemets, “whisper”) is found only here and in Job 26:14. A cognate form שִׁמְצָה (shimtsah) is found in Exod 32:25 with the sense of “a whisper.” In postbiblical Hebrew the word comes to mean “a little.” The point is that Eliphaz caught just a bit, just a whisper of it, and will recount it to Job.

[5:27]  ⁵ tn To make a better parallelism, some commentators have replaced the imperative with another finite verb, “we have found it.”

[5:27]  ⁶ tn The preposition with the suffix (referred to as the ethical dative) strengthens the imperative. An emphatic personal pronoun also precedes the imperative. The resulting force would be something like “and you had better apply it for your own good!”

[5:27]  ⁷ sn With this the speech by Eliphaz comes to a close. His two mistakes with it are: (1) that the tone was too cold and (2) the argument did not fit Job’s case (see further, A. B. Davidson, Job, 42).

[8:8]  ⁸ sn Bildad is not calling for Job to trace through the learning of antiquity, but of the most recent former generation. Hebrews were fond of recalling what the “fathers” had taught, for each generation recalled what their fathers had taught.

[8:8]  ⁹ tn The verb כוֹנֵן (khonen, from כּוּן, kun) normally would indicate “prepare yourself” or “fix” one’s heart on something, i.e., give attention to it. The verb with the ל (lamed) preposition after it does mean “to think on” or “to meditate” (Isa 51:13). But some commentators wish to change the כּ (kaf) to a בּ (bet) in the verb to get “to consider” (from בִּין, bin). However, M. Dahood shows a connection between כּנן (knn) and שׁאל (sh’l) in Ugaritic (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography,” Bib 46 [1965]: 329).

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew has “the search of their fathers,” but the word is probably intended to mean what that observation or search yielded (so “search” is a metonymy of cause).

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[8:9]  ¹² tn The Hebrew has “we are of yesterday,” the adverb functioning as a predicate. Bildad’s point is that they have not had time to acquire great knowledge because they are recent.

[8:9]  ¹³ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 116) observes that the shadow is the symbol of ephemeral things (14:2; 17:7; Ps 144:4). The shadow passes away quickly (116).

[8:10]  ¹⁴ tn The sentence begins emphatically: “Is it not they.”

[8:10]  ¹⁵ tn The “and” is not present in the line. The second clause seems to be in apposition to the first, explaining it more thoroughly: “Is it not they [who] will instruct you, [who] will speak to you.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn The noun may have been left indeterminate for the sake of emphasis (GKC 401-2 §125.c), meaning “important words.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from their heart.”

[15:17]  ¹⁸ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here as a nominative, to introduce an independent relative clause (see GKC 447 §138.h).

[15:17]  ¹⁹ tn Here the vav (ו) apodosis follows with the cohortative (see GKC 458 §143.d).

[15:18]  ²⁰ tn The word “tradition” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “their fathers.” Some commentators change one letter and follow the reading of the LXX: “and their fathers have not hidden.” Pope tries to get the same reading by classifying the מ (mem) as an enclitic mem. The MT on first glance would read “and did not hide from their fathers.” Some take the clause “and they did not hide” as adverbial and belonging to the first part of the verse: “what wise men declare, hiding nothing, according to the tradition of their fathers.”

[78:3]  ²² tn Or “known.”

[78:3]  ²³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 8, 12, 57).

[78:4]  ²⁴ tn The pronominal suffix refers back to the “fathers” (“our ancestors,” v. 3).

[78:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to a following generation telling the praises of the Lord.” “Praises” stand by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.

[78:1]  ²⁶ sn Psalm 78. The author of this lengthy didactic psalm rehearses Israel’s history. He praises God for his power, goodness and patience, but also reminds his audience that sin angers God and prompts his judgment. In the conclusion to the psalm the author elevates Jerusalem as God’s chosen city and David as his chosen king.

[78:1]  ²⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 74.

[78:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.”

[1:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “made”; Grk “came into existence.”

[1:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “made”; Grk “nothing came into existence.”

[1:3]  ³¹ tc There is a major punctuation problem here: Should this relative clause go with v. 3 or v. 4? The earliest mss have no punctuation (Ì^66,75* א* A B Δ al). Many of the later mss which do have punctuation place it before the phrase, thus putting it with v. 4 (Ì^75c C D L W^s 050* pc). NA²⁵ placed the phrase in v. 3; NA²⁶ moved the words to the beginning of v. 4. In a detailed article K. Aland defended the change (“Eine Untersuchung zu Johannes 1, 3-4. Über die Bedeutung eines Punktes,” ZNW 59 [1968]: 174-209). He sought to prove that the attribution of ὃ γέγονεν (}o gegonen) to v. 3 began to be carried out in the 4th century in the Greek church. This came out of the Arian controversy, and was intended as a safeguard for doctrine. The change was unknown in the West. Aland is probably correct in affirming that the phrase was attached to v. 4 by the Gnostics and the Eastern Church; only when the Arians began to use the phrase was it attached to v. 3. But this does not rule out the possibility that, by moving the words from v. 4 to v. 3, one is restoring the original reading. Understanding the words as part of v. 3 is natural and adds to the emphasis which is built up there, while it also gives a terse, forceful statement in v. 4. On the other hand, taking the phrase ὃ γέγονεν with v. 4 gives a complicated expression: C. K. Barrett says that both ways of understanding v. 4 with ὃ γέγονεν included “are almost impossibly clumsy” (St. John, 157): “That which came into being – in it the Word was life”; “That which came into being – in the Word was its life.” The following stylistic points should be noted in the solution of this problem: (1) John frequently starts sentences with ἐν (en); (2) he repeats frequently (“nothing was created that has been created”); (3) 5:26 and 6:53 both give a sense similar to v. 4 if it is understood without the phrase; (4) it makes far better Johannine sense to say that in the Word was life than to say that the created universe (what was made, ὃ γέγονεν) was life in him. In conclusion, the phrase is best taken with v. 3. Schnackenburg, Barrett, Carson, Haenchen, Morris, KJV, and NIV concur (against Brown, Beasley-Murray, and NEB). The arguments of R. Schnackenburg, St. John, 1:239-40, are particularly persuasive.

[1:3]  tn Or “made”; Grk “that has come into existence.”