Job 13:10-12 New English Translation
10 He would certainly rebuke[a] you
if you secretly[b] showed partiality.
11 Would not his splendor[c] terrify[d] you
and the fear he inspires[e] fall on you?
12 Your maxims[f] are proverbs of ashes;[g]
your defenses[h] are defenses of clay.[i]
Footnotes
- Job 13:10 tn The verbal idea is intensified with the infinitive absolute. This is the same verb used in v. 3; here it would have the sense of “rebuke, convict.”sn Peake’s observation is worth noting, namely, that as Job attacks the unrighteousness of God boldly he nonetheless has confidence in God’s righteousness that would not allow liars to defend him.
- Job 13:10 sn The use of the word “in secret” or “secretly” suggests that what they do is a guilty action (31:27a).
- Job 13:11 sn The word translated “his majesty” or “his splendor” (שְׂאֵתוֹ, seʾeto) forms a play on the word “show partiality” (תִּשָּׂאוּן, tissaʾun) in the last verse. They are both from the verb נָשַׂא (nasaʾ, “to lift up”).
- Job 13:11 tn On this verb in the Piel, see 7:14.
- Job 13:11 tn Heb “His dread”; the suffix is a subjective genitive.
- Job 13:12 tn The word is זִכְרֹנֵיכֶם (zikhronekhem, “your remembrances”). The word זִכָּרֹן (zikkaron) not only can mean the act of remembering, but also what is remembered—what provokes memory or is worth being remembered. In the plural it can mean all the memorabilia, and in this verse all the sayings and teachings. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 99) suggests that in Job’s speech it could mean “all your memorized sayings.”
- Job 13:12 tn The parallelism of “dust” and “ashes” is fairly frequent in scripture. But “proverbs of ashes” is difficult. The genitive is certainly describing the proverbs; it could be classified as a genitive of apposition, proverbs that are/have become ashes. Ashes represent something that at one time may have been useful, but now has been reduced to what is worthless.
- Job 13:12 tn There is a division of opinion on the source of this word. Some take it from “answer,” related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Syriac words for “answer,” and so translate it “responses” (JB). Others take it from a word for “back,” with a derived meaning of the “boss” of the shield, and translate it “bulwark” or “defenses” (NEB, RSV, NIV). The idea of “answers” may fit the parallelism better, but “defenses” can be taken figuratively to refer to verbal defenses.
- Job 13:12 sn Any defense made with clay would crumble on impact.
New English Translation (NET)
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