6:13 Is 1 not my power to help myself nothing,
and has not every resource 2 been driven from me?
21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” 3
24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar
and reduce my words to nothing?” 4
1 tn For the use of the particle אִם (’im) in this kind of interrogative clause, see GKC 475 §150.g, note.
2 tn The word means something like “recovery,” or the powers of recovery; it was used in Job 5:12. In 11:6 it applies to a condition of the mind, such as mental resource. Job is thinking not so much of relief or rescue from his troubles, but of strength to bear them.
3 tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.
4 tn The word אַל (’al, “not”) is used here substantivally (“nothing”).