Ayub 34:5-6

34:5 For Job says, ‘I am innocent, ¹ 

but God turns away my right.

34:6 Concerning my right, should I lie? ² 

My wound ³  is incurable,

although I am without transgression.’ ⁴ 

[34:5]  ¹ tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.

[34:6]  ² tn The verb is the Piel imperfect of כָּזַב (kazav), meaning “to lie.” It could be a question: “Should I lie [against my right?] – when I am innocent. If it is repointed to the Pual, then it can be “I am made to lie,” or “I am deceived.” Taking it as a question makes good sense here, and so emendations are unnecessary.

[34:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has only “my arrow.” Some commentators emend that word slightly to get “my wound.” But the idea could be derived from “arrows” as well, the wounds caused by the arrows. The arrows are symbolic of God’s affliction.

[34:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “without transgression”; but this is parallel to the first part where the claim is innocence.