Job 12:6-8 New English Translation
6 But[a] the tents of robbers are peaceful,
and those who provoke God are confident[b]—
who carry their god in their hands.[c]
Knowledge of God’s Wisdom[d]
7 “But now, ask the animals and they[e] will teach you,
or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.
8 Or speak[f] to the earth[g] and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Footnotes
- Job 12:6 tn The verse gives the other side of the coin now, the fact that the wicked prosper.
- Job 12:6 tn The plural is used to suggest the supreme degree of arrogant confidence (E. Dhorme, Job, 171).
- Job 12:6 sn The line is perhaps best understood as describing one who thinks he is invested with the power of God.
- Job 12:7 sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”
- Job 12:7 tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).
- Job 12:8 tn The word in the MT means “to complain,” not simply “to speak,” and one would expect animals as the object here in parallel to the last verse. So several commentators have replaced the word with words for animals or reptiles—totally different words (cf. NAB, “reptiles”). The RSV and NRSV have here the word “plants” (see 30:4, 7; and Gen 21:15).
- Job 12:8 tn A. B. Davidson (Job, 90) offers a solution by taking “earth” to mean all the lower forms of life that teem in the earth (a metonymy of subject).
New English Translation (NET)
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