9:4 He is wise in heart 1 and mighty 2 in strength 3 –
who has resisted 4 him and remained safe? 5
15:2 “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, 6
or fill his belly 7 with the east wind? 8
15:18 what wise men declare,
hiding nothing,
from the tradition of 9 their ancestors, 10
32:9 It is not the aged 11 who are wise,
nor old men who understand what is right.
34:2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;
hear 12 me, you learned men. 13
34:34 Men of understanding say to me –
any wise man listening to me says –
37:24 Therefore people fear him,
for he does not regard all the wise in heart.” 14
1 tn The genitive phrase translated “in heart” would be a genitive of specification, specifying that the wisdom of God is in his intelligent decisions.
sn The heart is the seat of intelligence and understanding, the faculty of decision making.
2 sn The words אַמִּיץ (’ammits) and כֹּחַ (koakh) are synonyms, the first meaning “sturdy; mighty; robust,” and the second “strength.” It too can be interpreted as a genitive of specification – God is mighty with respect to his power. But that comes close to expressing a superlative idea (like “song of songs” or “anger of his wrath”).
3 tn The first half of the verse simply has “wise of heart and mighty of strength.” The entire line is a casus pendens that will refer to the suffix on אֵלָיו (’elayv) in the second colon. So the question is “Who has resisted the one who is wise of heart and mighty of strength?” Again, the rhetorical question is affirming that no one has done this.
4 tn The verb is the Hiphil of the verb קָשָׁה (qashah, “to be hard”). It frequently is found with the word for “neck,” describing people as “stiff-necked,” i.e., stubborn, unbending. So the idea of resisting God fits well. The fact that this word occurs in Exodus with the idea of hardening the heart against God may indicate that there is an allusion to Pharaoh here.
5 tn The use of שָׁלֵם (shalem) in the Qal is rare. It has been translated “remain safe” by E. Dhorme, “survived” by the NEB, “remained unscathed” by the NAB and NIV, or “succeeded” by KJV, G. R. Driver.
6 tn The Hebrew is דַעַת־רוּחַ (da’at-ruakh). This means knowledge without any content, vain knowledge.
7 tn The image is rather graphic. It is saying that he puffs himself up with the wind and then brings out of his mouth blasts of this wind.
8 tn The word for “east wind,” קָדִים (qadim), is parallel to “spirit/wind” also in Hos 12:2. The east wind is maleficent, but here in the parallelism it is so much hot air.
9 tn The word “tradition” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.
10 tn Heb “their fathers.” Some commentators change one letter and follow the reading of the LXX: “and their fathers have not hidden.” Pope tries to get the same reading by classifying the מ (mem) as an enclitic mem. The MT on first glance would read “and did not hide from their fathers.” Some take the clause “and they did not hide” as adverbial and belonging to the first part of the verse: “what wise men declare, hiding nothing, according to the tradition of their fathers.”
11 tn The MT has “the great” or “the many,” meaning great in years according to the parallelism.
12 tn Heb “give ear to me.”
13 tn The Hebrew word means “the men who know,” and without a complement it means “to possess knowledge.”
14 sn The phrase “wise of heart” was used in Job 9:4 in a negative sense.