22:5 Is not your wickedness great 1
and is there no end to your iniquity?
27:4 my 2 lips will not speak wickedness,
and my tongue will whisper 3 no deceit.
34:26 He strikes them for their wickedness, 4
in a place where people can see, 5
35:8 Your wickedness affects only 6 a person like yourself,
and your righteousness only other people. 7
1 tn The adjective רַבָּה (rabbah) normally has the idea of “great” in quantity (“abundant,” ESV) rather than “great” in quality.
2 tn The verse begins with אִם (’im), the formula used for the content of the oath (“God lives…if I do/do not…”). Thus, the content of the oath proper is here in v. 4.
3 tn The verb means “to utter; to mumble; to meditate.” The implication is that he will not communicate deceitful things, no matter how quiet or subtle.
4 tn Heb “under wicked men,” or “under wickednesses.” J. C. Greenfield shows that the preposition can mean “among” as well (“Prepositions B Tachat in Jes 57:5,” ZAW 32 [1961]: 227). That would allow “among wicked men.” It could also be “instead of” or even “in return for [their wickedness]” which is what the RSV does.
5 tn The text simply uses רֹאִים (ro’im): “[in the place where there are] seers,” i.e., spectators.
6 tn The phrase “affects only” is supplied in the translation of this nominal sentence.
sn According to Strahan, “Elihu exalts God’s greatness at the cost of His grace, His transcendence at the expense of His immanence. He sets up a material instead of a spiritual stand of profit and loss. He does not realize that God does gain what He desires most by the goodness of men, and loses what He most loves by their evil.”
7 tn Heb “and to [or for] a son of man, your righteousness.”