31:25 if I have rejoiced because of the extent of my wealth,
or because of the great wealth my hand had gained,
31:34 because I was terrified 1 of the great multitude, 2
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I remained silent
and would not go outdoors – 3
37:23 As for the Almighty, 4 we cannot attain to him!
He is great in power,
but justice 5 and abundant righteousness he does not oppress.
1 tn Here too the verb will be the customary imperfect – it explains what he continually did in past time.
2 tn Heb “the great multitude.” But some commentators take רַבָּה (rabbah) adverbially: “greatly” (see RSV).
3 sn There is no clear apodosis for all these clauses. Some commentators transfer the verses around to make them fit the constructions. But the better view is that there is no apodosis – that Job broke off here, feeling it was useless to go further. Now he will address God and not men. But in vv. 38-40b he does return to a self-imprecation. However, there is not sufficient reason to start rearranging all the verses.
4 tn The name “Almighty” is here a casus pendens, isolating the name at the front of the sentence and resuming it with a pronoun.
5 tn The MT places the major disjunctive accent (the atnach) under “power,” indicating that “and justice” as a disjunctive clause starting the second half of the verse (with ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT). Ignoring the Masoretic accent, NRSV has “he is great in power and justice.”