16:11 God abandons me to evil 1 men, 2
and throws 3 me into the hands of wicked men.
34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;
hear 4 me, you learned men. 5
1 tn The word עֲוִיל (’avil) means “child,” and this cannot be right here. If it is read as עַוָּל (’avval) as in Job 27:7 it would be the unrighteous.
2 sn Job does not refer here to his friends, but more likely to the wicked men who set about to destroy him and his possessions, or to the rabble in ch. 30.
3 tn The word יִרְטֵנִי (yirteni) does not derive from the root רָטָה (ratah) as would fit the pointing in the MT, but from יָרַט (yarat), cognate to Arabic warrata, “to throw; to hurl.” E. Dhorme (Job, 236) thinks that since the normal form would have been יִירְטֵנִי (yirÿteni), it is probable that one of the yods (י) would have affected the word עֲוִיל (’avil) – but that does not make much sense.
4 tn Heb “give ear to me.”
5 tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”