12:7 “But now, ask the animals and they 2 will teach you,
or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.
28:21 For 3 it has been hidden
from the eyes of every living creature,
and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.
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?’
1 sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”
2 tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).
3 tn The vav on the verb is unexpressed in the LXX. It should not be overlooked, for it introduces a subordinate clause of condition (R. Gordis, Job, 310).
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.