Ayub 35:9

35:9 “People ¹  cry out

because of the excess of oppression; ² 

they cry out for help

because of the power ³  of the mighty. ⁴ 

Ayub 12:13

12:13 “With God ⁵  are wisdom and power;

counsel and understanding are his. ⁶ 

Ayub 12:19

12:19 He leads priests away stripped ⁷ 

and overthrows ⁸  the potentates. ⁹ 

Ayub 21:7

The Wicked Prosper

21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, ¹⁰ 

grow old, ¹¹  even increase in power?

Ayub 25:1

Bildad’s Third Speech ¹² 

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

Ayub 26:2

26:2 “How you have helped ¹³  the powerless! ¹⁴ 

How you have saved the person who has no strength! ¹⁵ 

Ayub 34:30

34:30 so that the godless man should not rule,

and not lay snares for the people. ¹⁶ 

Ayub 9:4

9:4 He is wise in heart ¹⁷  and mighty ¹⁸  in strength ¹⁹  –

who has resisted ²⁰  him and remained safe? ²¹ 

Ayub 12:10

12:10 in whose hand ²²  is the life ²³  of every creature

and the breath of all the human race. ²⁴ 

Ayub 12:21

12:21 He pours contempt on noblemen

and disarms ²⁵  the powerful. ²⁶ 

Ayub 34:24

34:24 He shatters the great without inquiry, ²⁷ 

and sets up others in their place.

Ayub 41:25

41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,

at its thrashing about they withdraw. ²⁸ 

Ayub 42:2

42:2 “I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

Ayub 34:17

34:17 Do you really think ²⁹ 

that one who hates justice can govern? ³⁰ 

And will you declare guilty

the supremely righteous ³¹  One,

Ayub 24:22

24:22 But God ³²  drags off the mighty by his power;

when God ³³  rises up against him, he has no faith in his life. ³⁴ 

Ayub 36:7

36:7 He does not take his eyes ³⁵  off the righteous;

but with kings on the throne

he seats the righteous ³⁶  and exalts them forever. ³⁷ 

[35:9]  ¹ tn The word “people” is supplied, because the sentence only has the masculine plural verb.

[35:9]  ² tn The final noun is an abstract plural, “oppression.” There is no reason to change it to “oppressors” to fit the early versions. The expression is literally “multitude of oppression.”

[35:9]  ³ tn Heb “the arm,” a metaphor for strength or power.

[35:9]  ⁴ tn Or “of the many” (see HALOT 1172 s.v. I רַב 6.a).

[12:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:13]  ⁶ sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 91) says, “These attributes of God’s [sic] confound and bring to nought everything bearing the same name among men.”

[12:19]  ⁷ tn Except for “priests,” the phraseology is identical to v. 17a.

[12:19]  ⁸ tn The verb has to be defined by its context: it can mean “falsify” (Exod 23:8), “make tortuous” (Prov 19:3), or “plunge” into misfortune (Prov 21:12). God overthrows those who seem to be solid.

[12:19]  ⁹ tn The original meaning of אֵיתָן (’eytan) is “perpetual.” It is usually an epithet for a torrent that is always flowing. It carries the connotations of permanence and stability; here applied to people in society, it refers to one whose power and influence does not change. These are the pillars of society.

[21:7]  ¹⁰ sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 154) clarifies that Job’s question is of a universal scope. In the government of God, why do the wicked exist at all? The verb could be translated “continue to live.”

[21:7]  ¹¹ tn The verb עָתַק (’ataq) means “to move; to proceed; to advance.” Here it is “to advance in years” or “to grow old.” This clause could serve as an independent clause, a separate sentence; but it more likely continues the question of the first colon and is parallel to the verb “live.”

[25:1]  ¹² sn The third speech of Bildad takes up Job 25, a short section of six verses. It is followed by two speeches from Job; and Zophar does not return with his third. Does this mean that the friends have run out of arguments, and that Job is just getting going? Many scholars note that in chs. 26 and 27 there is material that does not fit Job’s argument. Many have rearranged the material to show that there was a complete cycle of three speeches. In that light, 26:5-14 is viewed as part of Bildad’s speech. Some, however, take Bildad’s speech to be only ch. 25, and make 26:5-14 an interpolated hymn. For all the arguments and suggestions, one should see the introductions and the commentaries.

[26:2]  ¹³ tn The interrogative clause is used here as an exclamation, and sarcastic at that. Job is saying “you have in no way helped the powerless.” The verb uses the singular form, for Job is replying to Bildad.

[26:2]  ¹⁴ tn The “powerless” is expressed here by the negative before the word for “strength; power” – “him who has no power” (see GKC 482 §152.u, v).

[26:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the arm [with] no strength.” Here too the negative expression is serving as a relative clause to modify “arm,” the symbol of strength and power, which by metonymy stands for the whole person. “Man of arm” denoted the strong in 22:8.

[34:30]  ¹⁶ tn This last verse is difficult because it is unbalanced and cryptic. Some have joined the third line of v. 29 with this entire verse to make a couplet. But the same result is achieved by simply regarding this verse as the purpose of v. 29. But there still are some words that must be added. In the first colon, “[he is over the nations]…preventing from ruling.” And in the second colon, “laying” has to be supplied before “snares.”

[9:4]  ¹⁷ tn The genitive phrase translated “in heart” would be a genitive of specification, specifying that the wisdom of God is in his intelligent decisions.

[9:4]  sn The heart is the seat of intelligence and understanding, the faculty of decision making.

[9:4]  ¹⁸ sn The words אַמִּיץ (’ammits) and כֹּחַ (koakh) are synonyms, the first meaning “sturdy; mighty; robust,” and the second “strength.” It too can be interpreted as a genitive of specification – God is mighty with respect to his power. But that comes close to expressing a superlative idea (like “song of songs” or “anger of his wrath”).

[9:4]  ¹⁹ tn The first half of the verse simply has “wise of heart and mighty of strength.” The entire line is a casus pendens that will refer to the suffix on אֵלָיו (’elayv) in the second colon. So the question is “Who has resisted the one who is wise of heart and mighty of strength?” Again, the rhetorical question is affirming that no one has done this.

[9:4]  ²⁰ tn The verb is the Hiphil of the verb קָשָׁה (qashah, “to be hard”). It frequently is found with the word for “neck,” describing people as “stiff-necked,” i.e., stubborn, unbending. So the idea of resisting God fits well. The fact that this word occurs in Exodus with the idea of hardening the heart against God may indicate that there is an allusion to Pharaoh here.

[9:4]  ²¹ tn The use of שָׁלֵם (shalem) in the Qal is rare. It has been translated “remain safe” by E. Dhorme, “survived” by the NEB, “remained unscathed” by the NAB and NIV, or “succeeded” by KJV, G. R. Driver.

[12:10]  ²² tn The construction with the relative clause includes a resumptive pronoun referring to God: “who in his hand” = “in whose hand.”

[12:10]  ²³ tn The two words נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) and רוּחַ (ruakh) are synonymous in general. They could be translated “soul” and “spirit,” but “soul” is not precise for נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), and so “life” is to be preferred. Since that is the case for the first half of the verse, “breath” will be preferable in the second part.

[12:10]  ²⁴ tn Human life is made of “flesh” and “spirit.” So here the line reads “and the spirit of all flesh of man.” If the text had simply said “all flesh,” that would have applied to all flesh in which there is the breath of life (see Gen 6:17; 7:15). But to limit this to human beings requires the qualification with “man.”

[12:21]  ²⁵ tn The expression in Hebrew uses מְזִיחַ (mÿziakh, “belt”) and the Piel verb רִפָּה (rippah, “to loosen”) so that “to loosen the belt of the mighty” would indicate “to disarm/incapacitate the mighty.” Others have opted to change the text: P. Joüon emends to read “forehead” – “he humbles the brow of the mighty.”

[12:21]  ²⁶ tn The word אָפַק (’afaq, “to be strong”) is well-attested, and the form אָפִיק (’afiq) is a normal adjective formation. So a translation like “mighty” (KJV, NIV) or “powerful” is acceptable, and further emendations are unnecessary.

[34:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “[with] no investigation.”

[41:25]  ²⁸ tc This verse has created all kinds of problems for the commentators. The first part is workable: “when he raises himself up, the mighty [the gods] are terrified.” The mythological approach would render אֵלִים (’elim) as “gods.” But the last two words, which could be rendered “at the breaking [crashing, or breakers] they fail,” receive much attention. E. Dhorme (Job, 639) suggests “majesty” for “raising up” and “billows” (גַּלִּים, gallim) for אֵלִים (’elim), and gets a better parallelism: “the billows are afraid of his majesty, and the waves draw back.” But H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 263) does not think this is relevant to the context, which is talking about the creature’s defense against attack. The RSV works well for the first part, but the second part need some change; so Rowley adopts “in their dire consternation they are beside themselves.”

[34:17]  ²⁹ tn The force of הַאַף (ha’af) is “Is it truly the case?” The point is being made that if Job were right God could not be judging the world.

[34:17]  ³⁰ tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) has the basic idea of “to bind,” as in binding on the yoke, and then in the sense of subduing people under authority (cf. Assyrian absanu). The imperfect verb here is best expressed with the potential nuance.

[34:17]  ³¹ tn The two words could be taken separately, but they seem to form a fine nominal hendiadys, because the issue is God’s justice. So the word for power becomes the modifier.

[24:22]  ³² tn God has to be the subject of this clause. None is stated in the Hebrew text, but “God” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:22]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. See the note on the word “life” at the end of the line.

[24:22]  ³⁴ tn This line has been given a number of interpretations due to its cryptic form. The verb יָקוּם (yaqum) means “he rises up.” It probably is meant to have God as the subject, and be subordinated as a temporal clause to what follows. The words “against him” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to specify the object and indicate that “rise up” is meant in a hostile sense. The following verb וְלֹא־יַאֲמִין (vÿlo’-ya’amin), by its very meaning of “and he does not believe,” cannot have God as the subject, but must refer to the wicked.

[36:7]  ³⁵ tc Many commentators accept the change of “his eyes” to “his right” (reading דִּינוֹ [dino] for עֵינָיו [’enayv]). There is no compelling reason for the change; it makes the line commonplace.

[36:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the righteous) has been repeated from the first part of the verse for clarity.

[36:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “he seats them forever and exalts them.” The last verb can be understood as expressing a logical consequence of the preceding action (cf. GKC 328 §111.l = “he seats them forever so that he exalts them”). Or the two verbs can be taken as an adverbial hendiadys whereby the first modifies the second adverbially: “he exalts them by seating them forever” or “when he seats them forever” (cf. GKC 326 §111.d). Some interpret this verse to say that God seats kings on the throne, making a change in subject in the middle of the verse. But it makes better sense to see the righteous as the subject matter throughout – they are not only protected, but are exalted.