Job 32:13

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

Do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; let God refute him, not man.’

"Do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; God will rout him, not man.’

And don’t tell me, ‘He is too wise for us. Only God can convince him.’

And don't excuse yourselves by saying, 'We've done our best. Now it's up to God to talk sense into him.'

Take care that you do not say, Wisdom is here; God may overcome him, but not man.

Yet do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a human.’

Lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom’; God will vanquish him, not man.

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

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.