“If someone ¹  should attempt ²  a word with you, will you be impatient? ³  But who can refrain from speaking ⁴ ?

biblegateway Job 4:2

"If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?

Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking?

"If someone tries to talk to you, will you become impatient? But who can keep from talking?

biblegateway Job 4:2

"If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?

"If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?

bibleoremus Job 4:2

"If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking?

If one should venture a word with you, would you lose patience? Yet who could curb his tongue any longer?

biblegateway Job 4:2

" If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

[If] we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

biblegateway Job 4:2

“If someone ¹  should attempt ²  a word with you, will you be impatient? ³  But who can refrain from speaking ⁴ ?

¹ tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so may be translated with “one” or “someone.”

² tn The Piel perfect is difficult here. It would normally be translated “has one tried (words with you)?” Most commentaries posit a conditional clause, however.

³ tn The verb means “to be weary.” But it can have the extended sense of being either exhausted or impatient (see v. 5). A. B. Davidson (Job, 29) takes it in the sense of “will it be too much for you?” There is nothing in the sentence that indicates this should be an interrogative clause; it is simply an imperfect. But in view of the juxtaposition of the first part, this seems to make good sense. E. Dhorme (Job, 42) has “Shall we address you? You are dejected.”

⁴ tn The construction uses a noun with the preposition: “and to refrain with words – who is able?” The Aramaic plural of “words” (מִלִּין, millin) occurs 13 times in Job, with the Hebrew plural ten times. The commentaries show that Eliphaz’s speech had a distinctly Aramaic coloring to it.