10:4 “Do you have eyes of flesh, 1
or do you see 2 as a human being sees? 3
15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council? 4
Do you limit 5 wisdom to yourself?
39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane? 6
1 tn Here “flesh” is the sign of humanity. The expression “eyes of flesh” means essentially “human eyes,” i.e., the outlook and vision of humans.
2 sn The verb translated “see” could also include the figurative category of perceive as well. The answer to Job’s question is found in 1 Sam 16:7: “The
3 sn In this verse Job asks whether or not God is liable to making mistakes or errors of judgment. He wonders if God has no more insight than his friends have. Of course, the questions are rhetorical, for he knows otherwise. But his point is that God seems to be making a big mistake here.
4 tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the
5 tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”
6 tn The second half of the verse contains this hapax legomenon, which is usually connected with the word רַעְמָה (ra’mah, “thunder”). A. B. Davidson thought it referred to the quivering of the neck rather than the mane. Gray thought the sound and not the movement was the point. But without better evidence, a reading that has “quivering mane” may not be far off the mark. But it may be simplest to translate it “mane” and assume that the idea of “quivering” is part of the meaning.