5:6 For evil does not come up from the dust, 1
nor does trouble spring up from the ground,
6:5 “Does the wild donkey 2 bray 3 when it is near grass? 4
Or 5 does the ox low near its fodder? 6
8:20 “Surely, God does not reject a blameless man, 7
nor does he grasp the hand 8
of the evildoers.
14:21 If 9 his sons are honored, 10
he does not know it; 11
if they are brought low,
he does not see 12 it.
35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? 13
If your transgressions are many,
what does it do to him? 14
35:13 Surely it is an empty cry 15 – God does not hear it;
the Almighty does not take notice of it.
35:15 And further, 16 when you say
that his anger does not punish, 17
and that he does not know transgression! 18
1 sn The previous discussion shows how trouble rises, namely, from the rebelliousness of the fool. Here Eliphaz simply summarizes the points made with this general principle – trouble does not come from outside man, nor does it come as a part of the natural order, but rather it comes from the evil nature of man.
2 tn There have been suggestions to identify this animal as something other than a wild donkey, but the traditional interpretation has been confirmed (see P. Humbert, “En marge du dictionnaire hébraïque,” ZAW 62 [1950]: 199-207).
3 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq, “bray”) occurs in Arabic and Aramaic and only in Job 30:7 in Hebrew, where it refers to unfortunate people in the wilderness who utter cries like the hungry wild donkey.
4 sn In this brief section Job indicates that it would be wiser to seek the reason for the crying than to complain of the cry. The wild donkey will bray when it finds no food (see Jer 14:6).
5 tn The construction forms a double question (אִם...הֲ, ha…’im) but not to express mutually exclusive questions in this instance. Instead, it is used to repeat the same question in different words (see GKC 475 §150.h).
6 tc The LXX captures the meaning of the verse, but renders it in a more expansive way.
tn This word occurs here and in Isa 30:24. In contrast to the grass that grows on the fields for the wild donkey, this is fodder prepared for the domesticated animals.
7 sn This is the description that the book gave to Job at the outset, a description that he deserved according to God’s revelation. The theme “God will not reject the blameless man” becomes Job’s main point (see 9:20,21; 10:3).
8 sn The idiom “to grasp the hand” of someone means to support or help the person.
9 tn The clause may be interpreted as a conditional clause, with the second clause beginning with the conjunction serving as the apodosis.
10 tn There is no expressed subject for the verb “they honor,” and so it may be taken as a passive.
11 sn Death is separation from the living, from the land of the living. And ignorance of what goes on in this life, good or bad, is part of death. See also Eccl 9:5-6, which makes a similar point.
12 tn The verb is בִּין (bin, “to perceive; to discern”). The parallelism between “know” and “perceive” stress the point that in death a man does not realize what is happening here in the present life.
13 tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn See Job 7:20.
15 tn Heb “surely – vanity, he does not hear.” The cry is an empty cry, not a prayer to God. Dhorme translates it, “It is a pure waste of words.”
16 tn The expression “and now” introduces a new complaint of Elihu – in addition to the preceding. Here the verb of v. 14, “you say,” is understood after the temporal ki (כִּי).
17 tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit” (also “to appoint; to muster; to number”). When God visits, it means that he intervenes in one’s life for blessing or cursing (punishing, destroying).
18 tn The word פַּשׁ (pash) is a hapax legomenon. K&D 12:275 derived it from an Arabic word meaning “belch,” leading to the idea of “overflow.” BDB 832 s.v. defines it as “folly.” Several define it as “transgression” on the basis of the versions (Theodotion, Symmachus, Vulgate). The RSV took it as “greatly heed,” but that is not exactly “greatly know,” when the text beyond that requires “not know at all.” The NIV has “he does not take the least notice of wickedness.”