11:14 if 1 iniquity is in your hand – put it far away, 2
and do not let evil reside in your tents.
15:10 The gray-haired 3 and the aged are on our side, 4
men far older than your father. 5
21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. 6
The counsel of the wicked is far from me! 7
22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; 8
if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,
25:5 If even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned, 9
37:3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,
even his lightning to the far corners 10 of the earth.
1 tn Verse 14 should be taken as a parenthesis and not a continuation of the protasis, because it does not fit with v. 13 in that way (D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 256).
2 tn Many commentators follow the Vulgate and read the line “if you put away the sin that is in your hand.” They do this because the imperative comes between the protasis (v. 13) and the apodosis (v. 15) and does not appear to be clearly part of the protasis. The idea is close to the MT, but the MT is much more forceful – if you find sin in your hand, get rid of it.
3 tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.
4 tn Heb “with us.”
5 tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age – they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.
6 tn Heb “is not in their hand.”
sn The implication of this statement is that their well-being is from God, which is the problem Job is raising in the chapter. A number of commentators make it a question, interpreting it to mean that the wicked enjoy prosperity as if it is their right. Some emend the text to say “his hands” – Gordis reads it, “Indeed, our prosperity is not in his hands.”
7 sn Even though their life seems so good in contrast to his own plight, Job cannot and will not embrace their principles – “far be from me their counsel.”
8 tc The MT has “you will be built up” (תִּבָּנֶה, tibbaneh). But the LXX has “humble yourself” (reading תְּעַנֶּה [tÿ’anneh] apparently). Many commentators read this; Dahood has “you will be healed.”
9 tn Heb “not pure in his eyes.”
10 tn Heb “wings,” and then figuratively for the extremities of garments, of land, etc.