5:23 For you will have a pact with the stones 1 of the field,
and the wild animals 2 will be at peace 3 with you.
12:7 “But now, ask the animals and they 5 will teach you,
or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.
35:11 who teaches us 6 more than 7 the wild animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
1 tn Heb “your covenant is with the stones of the field.” The line has been variously interpreted and translated. It is omitted in the LXX. It seems to mean there is a deep sympathy between man and nature. Some think it means that the boundaries will not be violated by enemies; Rashi thought it represented some species of beings, like genii of the field, and so read אֲדֹנֵי (’adone, “lords”) for אַבְנֵי (’avne, “stones”). Ball takes the word as בְּנֵי (bÿne, “sons”), as in “sons of the field,” to get the idea that the reference is to the beasts. E. Dhorme (Job, 71) rejects these ideas as too contrived; he says to have a pact with the stones of the field simply means the stones will not come and spoil the ground, making it less fertile.
2 tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”
3 tn This is the only occurrence of the Hophal of the verb שָׁלֵם (shalem, “to make or have peace” with someone). Compare Isa 11:6-9 and Ps 91:13. The verb form is the perfect; here it is the perfect consecutive following a noun clause (see GKC 494 §159.g).
4 sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”
5 tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).
6 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).
7 tn Some would render this “teaches us by the beasts.” But Elihu is stressing the unique privilege humans have.