Discovery BoxJob 32:3-6 
Context32:3 With Job’s 1 three friends he was also angry, because they could not find 2 an answer, and so declared Job guilty. 3 32:4 Now Elihu had waited before speaking 4 to Job, because the others 5 were older than he was. 32:5 But when Elihu saw 6 that the three men had no further reply, 7 he became very angry.
32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: 8
“I am young, 9 but you are elderly;
that is why I was fearful, 10
and afraid to explain 11 to you what I know.
1 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.
2 tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.
3 tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.
4 tc This reading requires repointing the word בִּדְבָרִים (bidbarim, “with words”) to בְּדָבְּרָם (bÿdabbÿram, “while they spoke [with Job]”). If the MT is retained, it would mean “he waited for Job with words,” which while understandable is awkward.
5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the other friends) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn The first clause beginning with a vav (ו) consecutive and the preterite can be subordinated to the next similar verb as a temporal clause.
7 tn Heb “that there was no reply in the mouth of the three men.”
8 tn Heb “answered and said.”
9 tn The text has “small in days.”
10 tn The verb זָחַלְתִּי (zakhalti) is found only here in the OT, but it is found in a ninth century Aramaic inscription as well as in Biblical Aramaic. It has the meaning “to be timid” (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 208).
11 tn The Piel infinitive with the preposition (מֵחַוֹּת, mekhavvot) means “from explaining.” The phrase is the complement: “explain” what Elihu feared.
