² tn Grk “the thing that restrains.”

³ tn Heb “Look! My lips I do not restrain.”

³ tn Heb “so that the rain won’t restrain you.”

³ tn Heb “I restrain [myself] concerning you not to cut you off.”

¹ tn Heb “There is not a man who has mastery over the wind to restrain the wind.”

² tn Heb “do not restrain for me the riding unless I say to you.”

¹ tc This translation follows the LXX. The MT reads: “restrains his hand from the poor,” which makes no sense here.

² sn The participle חוֹשֵׂךְ (khosekh) means “withholds; restrains; refrains; spares; holds in check,” etc. One who has knowledge speaks carefully.

¹ sn A shrewd person knows how to use knowledge wisely, and restrains himself from revealing all he knows.

¹ tn Heb “and he gave his voice in weeping,” meaning that Joseph could not restrain himself and wept out loud.

³ tn Heb “They do not restrain their feet.” The idea of “away from me” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn The sense of “restraining” for “helping” was proposed by Dillmann and supported by G. R. Driver (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).

³ sn This statement contains a great deal of restrained humor. The author clearly takes pleasure in the effectiveness of the measures that he had enacted.

⁴ tn The verb יַחְשֹׂךְ (yakhsokh) means “to restrain; to withhold.” There is no object, so many make it first person subject, “I will not restrain.” The LXX and the Syriac have a different person—“I would not restrain.” G. R. Driver, arguing that the verb is intransitive here, made it “the solace of my lips would not [added] be withheld” (see JTS 34 [1933]: 380). D. J. A. Clines says that what is definitive is the use of the verb in the next line, where it clearly means “soothed, assuaged.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (l^ekhalleʾ) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kalaʾ, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.

⁴ tc The LXX contains a scribal addition: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord, and the uninstructed do not restrain their tongues.” This is unlikely to be original.

² tn The verb צוּק (tsuq) means “to constrain; to urge; to press.” It is used in Judg 14:17; 16:16 with the sense of wearing someone down with repeated entreaties. Elihu cannot restrain himself any longer.

² tn BDAG 524 s.v. καταπαύω 2.b gives both “restrain” and “dissuade someone fr. someth.,” but “they scarcely dissuaded the crowds from offering sacrifice,” while accurate, is less common in contemporary English than saying “they scarcely persuaded the crowds not to offer sacrifice.” Paganism is portrayed as a powerful reality that is hard to reverse.

¹ sn The Beloved’s brothers knew that once a couple is betrothed, sexual temptations would be at their greatest. Thus, in v. 9 they devise a plan to protect the purity of their sister: If she is a virtuous young woman, they would reward her; however, if she is prone to temptation, they will restrain her and guard her from promiscuity.

¹ tn The participle and the verb are both from the root צָפָן (tsafan) “to store up,” and by extension perhaps, “to hide” (so KJV). To “store up” wind would entail “restraining” it (so NASB, NIV, ESV, Holman) or “containing” it, a gloss which is closer to the basic meaning of the term.