Job 32:13

So do not say, ¹  ‘We have found wisdom! God will refute ²  him, not man!’

Ge 14:23; Jud 7:2; Job 1:21; Job 2:10; Job 4:9; Job 6:4; Job 12:2; Job 15:8-10; Job 19:6,21; Isa 5:21; Isa 48:5,7; Jer 9:23; Eze 28:3; Zec 12:7; Joh 19:11; 1Co 1:19-21,27-29; 1Co 3:18

¹ tn Heb “lest you say.” R. Gordis (Job, 368) calls this a breviloquence: “beware lest [you say].” He then suggests the best reading for their quote to be, “We have attained wisdom, but only God can refute him, not man.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 209) suggests the meaning is a little different, namely, that they are saying they have found wisdom in Job, and only God can deal with it. Elihu is in effect saying that they do not need God, for he is quite capable for this.

² tn The root is נָדַף (nadaf, “to drive away; to drive off”). Here it is in the abstract sense of “succeed in doing something; confound,” and so “refute; rebut.” Dhorme wants to change the meaning of the word with a slight emendation in the text, deriving it from אָלַף (’alaf, “instruct”) the form becoming יַלְּפֶנוּ (yallÿfenu) instead of יִדְּפֶנּוּ (yiddÿfenu), obtaining the translation “God will instruct us.” This makes a smoother reading, but does not have much support for it.