Job 34:12-14

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 34:13 tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) means “to visit; to appoint; to number.” Here it means “to entrust” for care and governing. The implication would be that there would be someone higher than God—which is what Elihu is repudiating by the rhetorical question. No one entrusted God with this.
2. Job 34:13 tn The preposition is implied from the first half of the verse.
3. Job 34:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4. Job 34:14 tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.
5. Job 34:14 tn Or perhaps “Spirit,” though this may be less likely in close proximity with “breath.” As a reference to the human spirit cf. Ps. 104:29; as a reference to God’s Spirit originating with him, cf. Ps 104:30.