Ayub 12:12

12:12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? ¹ 

Does not long life bring understanding?

Ayub 12:24

12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth ² 

of their understanding; ³ 

he makes them wander

in a trackless desert waste. ⁴ 

Daniel 4:33-34

4:33 Now in that very moment ⁵  this pronouncement about ⁶  Nebuchadnezzar came true. ⁷  He was driven from human society, he ate grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until his hair became long like an eagle’s feathers, and his nails like a bird’s claws. ⁸ 

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ⁹  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ¹⁰  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

[12:12]  ¹ tn The statement in the Hebrew Bible simply has “among the aged – wisdom.” Since this seems to be more the idea of the friends than of Job, scholars have variously tried to rearrange it. Some have proposed that Job is citing his friends: “With the old men, you say, is wisdom” (Budde, Gray, Hitzig). Others have simply made it a question (Weiser). But others take לֹא (lo’) from the previous verse and make it the negative here, to say, “wisdom is not….” But Job will draw on the wisdom of the aged, only with discernment, for ultimately all wisdom is with God.

[12:24]  ² tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”

[12:24]  ³ tn Heb “heart.”

[12:24]  ⁴ tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).

[4:33]  ⁵ tn Aram “hour.”

[4:33]  ⁶ tn Or “on.”

[4:33]  ⁷ tn Aram “was fulfilled.”

[4:33]  ⁸ tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[4:34]  ⁹ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”