9:19 If it is a matter of strength, 1
most certainly 2 he is the strong one!
And if it is a matter of justice,
he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’ 3
9:33 Nor is there an arbiter 4 between us,
who 5 might lay 6 his hand on us both, 7
9:34 who 8 would take his 9 rod 10 away from me
so that his terror 11 would not make me afraid.
1 tn The MT has only “if of strength.”
2 tn “Most certainly” translates the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh).
3 tn The question could be taken as “who will summon me?” (see Jer 49:19 and 50:44). This does not make immediate sense. Some have simply changed the suffix to “who will summon him.” If the MT is retained, then supplying something like “he will say” could make the last clause fit the whole passage. Another option is to take it as “Who will reveal it to me?” – i.e., Job could be questioning his friends’ qualifications for being God’s emissaries to bring God’s charges against him (cf. KJV, NKJV; and see 10:2 where Job uses the same verb in the Hiphil to request that God reveal what his sin has been that has led to his suffering).
sn Job is saying that whether it is a trial of strength or an appeal to justice, he is unable to go against God.
4 tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).
sn The old translation of “daysman” came from a Latin expression describing the fixing of a day for arbitration.
5 tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.
6 tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).
7 sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.
8 tn The verse probably continues the description from the last verse, and so a relative pronoun may be supplied here as well.
9 tn According to some, the reference of this suffix would be to God. The arbiter would remove the rod of God from Job. But others take it as a separate sentence with God removing his rod.
10 sn The “rod” is a symbol of the power of God to decree whatever judgments and afflictions fall upon people.
11 tn “His terror” is metonymical; it refers to the awesome majesty of God that overwhelms Job and causes him to be afraid.