Job 9:33

Nor is there an arbiter ¹  between us, who ²  might lay ³  his hand on us both, ⁴ 

If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both,

"There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both.

If only there were a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none.

How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life--

There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us.

There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.

Nor is there an arbiter ¹  between us, who ²  might lay ³  his hand on us both, ⁴ 

¹ tn The participle מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiakh) is the “arbiter” or “mediator.” The word comes from the verb יָכַח (yakhakh, “decide, judge”), which is concerned with legal and nonlegal disputes. The verbal forms can be used to describe the beginning of a dispute, the disputation in progress, or the settling of it (here, and in Isa 1:18).

sn The old translation of “daysman” came from a Latin expression describing the fixing of a day for arbitration.

² tn The relative pronoun is understood in this clause.

³ tn The jussive in conditional sentences retains its voluntative sense: let something be so, and this must happen as a consequence (see GKC 323 §109.i).

⁴ sn The idiom of “lay his hand on the two of us” may come from a custom of a judge putting his hands on the two in order to show that he is taking them both under his jurisdiction. The expression can also be used for protection (see Ps 139:5). Job, however, has a problem in that the other party is God, who himself will be arbiter in judgment.