5:26 You will come to your grave in a full age, 1
As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.
16:3 Will 2 there be an end to your 3 windy words? 4
Or what provokes 5 you that you answer? 6
1 tn The word translated “in a full age” has been given an array of meanings: “health; integrity”; “like a new blade of corn”; “in your strength [or vigor].” The numerical value of the letters in the word בְכֶלָח (bÿkhelakh, “in old age”) was 2, 20, 30, and 8, or 60. This led some of the commentators to say that at 60 one would enter the ripe old age (E. Dhorme, Job, 73).
2 tn Disjunctive questions are introduced with the sign of the interrogative; the second part is introduced with אוֹ (’o, see GKC 475 §150.g).
3 tn In v. 3 the second person singular is employed rather than the plural as in vv. 2 and 4. The singular might be an indication that the words of v. 3 were directed at Eliphaz specifically.
4 tn Heb “words of wind.”
5 tn The Hiphil of מָרַץ (marats) does not occur anywhere else. The word means “to compel; to force” (see 6:25).
6 tn The LXX seems to have gone a different way: “What, is there any reason in vain words, or what will hinder you from answering?”