Job 9:12

If he snatches away, ¹  who can turn him back? ²  Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

Job 11:10; Job 23:13; Job 33:13; Job 34:29; Isa 45:9; Jer 18:6; Da 4:35; Mt 11:26; Mt 20:15; Ro 9:18-20; Ro 11:34; Eph 1:11

¹ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 133) surveys the usages and concludes that the verb חָתַף (khataf) normally describes the wicked actions of a man, especially by treachery or trickery against another. But a verb חָתַף (khataf) is found nowhere else; a noun “robber” is found in Prov 23:28. Dhorme sees no reason to emend the text, because he concludes that the two verbs are synonymous. Job is saying that if God acts like a plunderer, there is no one who can challenge what he does.

² tn The verb is the Hiphil imperfect (potential again) from שׁוּב (shuv). In this stem it can mean “turn back, refute, repel” (BDB 999 s.v. Hiph.5).