11:11 For he 1 knows deceitful 2 men;
when he sees evil, will he not 3 consider it? 4
15:18 what wise men declare,
hiding nothing,
from the tradition of 5 their ancestors, 6
17:8 Upright men are appalled 7 at this;
the innocent man is troubled 8 with the godless.
22:15 Will you keep to the old path 9
that evil men have walked –
24:2 Men 10 move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them. 11
29:9 the chief men refrained from talking
and covered their mouths with their hands;
31:33 if 12 I have covered my transgressions as men do, 13
by hiding 14 iniquity in my heart, 15
32:9 It is not the aged 18 who are wise,
nor old men who understand what is right.
34:8 He goes about 19 in company 20 with evildoers,
he goes along 21 with wicked men. 22
34:18 who says to a king, 23 ‘Worthless man’ 24
and to nobles, ‘Wicked men,’
34:34 Men of understanding say to me –
any wise man listening to me says –
1 tn The pronoun is emphatic implying that Zophar indicates that God indeed knows Job’s sin even if Job does not.
2 tn The expression is literally “men of emptiness” (see Ps 26:4). These are false men, for שָׁוְא (shavÿ’) can mean “vain, empty, or false, deceitful.”
3 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 162) reads the prepositional phrase “to him” rather than the negative; he translates the line as “he sees iniquity and observes it closely.”
4 tn Some commentators do not take this last clause as a question, but simply as a statement, namely, that when God sees evil he does not need to ponder or consider it – he knows it instantly. In that case it would be a circumstantial clause: “without considering it.” D. J. A. Clines lists quite an array of other interpretations for the line (Job [WBC], 255); for example, “and he is himself unobserved”; taking the word לֹא (lo’) as an emphatic; taking the negative as a noun, “considering them as nothing”; and others that change the verb to “they do not understand it.” But none of these are compelling; they offer no major improvement.
5 tn The word “tradition” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.
6 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.”
7 tn This verb שָׁמַם (shamam, “appalled”) is the one found in Isa 52:14, translated there “astonished.”
8 tn The verb means “to rouse oneself to excitement.” It naturally means “to be agitated; to be stirred up.”
9 tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.
10 tn The line is short: “they move boundary stones.” So some commentators have supplied a subject, such as “wicked men.” The reason for its being wicked men is that to move the boundary stone was to encroach dishonestly on the lands of others (Deut 19:14; 27:17).
11 tc The LXX reads “and their shepherd.” Many commentators accept this reading. But the MT says that they graze the flocks that they have stolen. The difficulty with the MT reading is that there is no suffix on the final verb – but that is not an insurmountable difference.
12 tn Now the protasis continues again.
13 sn Some commentators suggest taking the meaning here to be “as Adam,” referring to the Paradise story of the sin and denial.
14 tn The infinitive is epexegetical, explaining the first line.
15 tn The MT has “in my bosom.” This is the only place in the OT where this word is found. But its meaning is well attested from Aramaic.
16 tn The first clause beginning with a vav (ו) consecutive and the preterite can be subordinated to the next similar verb as a temporal clause.
17 tn Heb “that there was no reply in the mouth of the three men.”
18 tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.
19 tn The perfect verb with the vav (ו) consecutive carries the sequence forward from the last description.
20 tn The word חֶבְרַה (khevrah, “company”) is a hapax legomenon. But its meaning is clear enough from the connections to related words and this context as well.
21 tn The infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition may continue the clause with the finite verb (see GKC 351 §114.p).
22 tn Heb “men of wickedness”; the genitive is attributive (= “wicked men”).
23 tc Heb “Does one say,” although some smooth it out to say “Is it fit to say?” For the reading “who says,” the form has to be repointed to הַאֹמֵר (ha’omer) meaning, “who is the one saying.” This reading is supported by the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac. Also it seems to flow better with the following verse. It would be saying that God is over the rulers and can rebuke them. The former view is saying that no one rebukes kings, much less Job rebuking God.
24 tn The word בְּלִיָּעַל (bÿliyya’al) means both “worthless” and “wicked.” It is common in proverbial literature, and in later writings it became a description of Satan. It is usually found with “son of.”