Job 20:2

“This is why ¹  my troubled thoughts bring me back ²  – because of my feelings ³  within me.

"My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

"Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond, Even because of my inward agitation.

"I must reply because I am greatly disturbed.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing! You've put my teeth on edge, my stomach in a knot.

For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.

"Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer, because of the agitation within me.

"Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, Because of the turmoil within me.

“This is why ¹  my troubled thoughts bring me back ²  – because of my feelings ³  within me.

¹ tn The ordinary meaning of לָכֵן (lakhen) is “therefore,” coming after an argument. But at the beginning of a speech it is an allusion to what follows.

² tn The verb is שׁוּב (shuv, “to return”), but in the Hiphil, “bring me back,” i.e., prompt me to make another speech. The text makes good sense as it is, and there is no reason to change the reading to make a closer parallel with the second half – indeed, the second part explains the first.

³ tn The word is normally taken from the root “to hasten,” and rendered “because of my haste within me.” But K&D 11:374 proposed another root, and similarly, but closer to the text, E. Dhorme (Job, 289-90) found an Arabic word with the meaning “feeling, sensation.” He argues that from this idea developed the meanings in the cognates of “thoughts” as well. Similarly, Gordis translates it “my feeling pain.” See also Eccl 2:25.