Job 16:3-5 New English Translation
3 Will[a] there be an end to your[b] windy words?[c]
Or what provokes[d] you that you answer?[e]
4 I also could speak[f] like you,
if[g] you were in my place;
I could pile up[h] words against you
and I could shake my head at you.[i]
5 But[j] I would strengthen[k] you with my words;[l]
comfort from my lips would bring[m] you relief.
Footnotes
- Job 16:3 tn Disjunctive questions are introduced with the sign of the interrogative; the second part is introduced with אוֹ (ʾo, see GKC 475 §150.g).
- Job 16:3 tn In v. 3 the second person singular is employed rather than the plural as in vv. 2 and 4. The singular might be an indication that the words of v. 3 were directed at Eliphaz specifically.
- Job 16:3 tn Heb “words of wind.”
- Job 16:3 tn The Hiphil of מָרַץ (marats) does not occur anywhere else. The word means “to compel; to force” (see 6:25).
- Job 16:3 tn The LXX seems to have gone a different way: “What, is there any reason in vain words, or what will hinder you from answering?”
- Job 16:4 tn For the use of the cohortative in the apodosis of conditional sentences, see GKC 322 §109.f.
- Job 16:4 tn The conjunction לוּ (lu) is used to introduce the optative, a condition that is incapable of fulfillment (see GKC 494-95 §159.l).
- Job 16:4 tn This verb אַחְבִּירָה (ʾakhbirah) is usually connected to חָבַר (khavar, “to bind”). There are several suggestions for this word. J. J. Finkelstein proposed a second root, a homonym, meaning “to make a sound,” and so here “to harangue” (“Hebrew habar and Semitic HBR,” JBL 75 [1956]: 328-31; see also O. Loretz, “HBR in Job 16:4, ” CBQ 23 [1961]: 293-94, who renders it “I could make noisy speeches”). Other suggestions have been for new meanings based on cognate studies, such as “to make beautiful” (i.e., make polished speeches).
- Job 16:4 sn The action is a sign of mockery (see Ps 22:7 [8]; Isa 37:22; Matt 27:39).
- Job 16:5 tn “But” has been added in the translation to strengthen the contrast.
- Job 16:5 tn The Piel of אָמַץ (ʾamats) means “to strengthen, fortify.”
- Job 16:5 tn Heb “my mouth.”
- Job 16:5 tn The verb יַחְשֹׂךְ (yakhsokh) means “to restrain; to withhold.” There is no object, so many make it first person subject, “I will not restrain.” The LXX and the Syriac have a different person—“I would not restrain.” G. R. Driver, arguing that the verb is intransitive here, made it “the solace of my lips would not [added] be withheld” (see JTS 34 [1933]: 380). D. J. A. Clines says that what is definitive is the use of the verb in the next line, where it clearly means “soothed, assuaged.”
New English Translation (NET)
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