33:5 Reply to me, if you can;
set your arguments 1 in order before me
and take your stand!
33:6 Look, I am just like you in relation to God;
I too have been molded 2 from clay.
33:7 Therefore no fear of me should terrify you,
nor should my pressure 3 be heavy on you. 4
33:32 If you have any words, 5 reply to me;
speak, for I want to justify you. 6
1 tn The Hebrew text does not contain the term “arguments,” but this verb has been used already for preparing or arranging a defense.
2 tn The verb means “nipped off,” as a potter breaks off a piece of clay when molding a vessel.
3 tc The noun means “my pressure; my burden” in the light of the verb אָכֲף (’akhaf, “to press on; to grip tightly”). In the parallel passages the text used “hand” and “rod” in the hand to terrify. The LXX has “hand” here for this word. But simply changing it to “hand” is ruled out because the verb is masculine.
4 tn See Job 9:34 and 13:21.
5 tn Heb “if there are words.”
6 tn The infinitive construct serves as the complement or object of “I desire.” It could be rendered “to justify you” or “your justification, “namely, “that you be justified.”