Job 29:21

“People ¹  listened to me and waited silently; ²  they kept silent for my advice.

Job 29:9,10; Job 32:11,12

¹ tn “People” is supplied; the verb is plural.

² tc The last verb of the first half, “wait, hope,” and the first verb in the second colon, “be silent,” are usually reversed by the commentators (see G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 86). But if “wait” has the idea of being silent as they wait for him to speak, then the second line would say they were silent for the reason of his advice. The reading of the MT is not impossible.