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Job 12:7-11
New English Translation
Job 12:7-11
New English Translation
Knowledge of God’s Wisdom[a]
7 “But now, ask the animals and they[b] will teach you,
or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.
8 Or speak[c] to the earth[d] and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea declare to you.
9 Which of all these[e] does not know
that the hand of the Lord[f] has done[g] this?
10 In his hand[h] is the life[i] of every creature
and the breath of all the human race.[j]
11 Does not the ear test words,
as[k] the tongue[l] tastes food?[m]
Footnotes
- 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).
- Job 12:9 tn This line could also be translated “by all these,” meaning “who is not instructed by nature?” (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 93). But D. J. A. Clines points out that the verses have presented the animals as having knowledge and communicating it, so the former reading would be best (Job [WBC], 279).
- Job 12:9 tc Some commentators have trouble with the name “Yahweh” in this verse, which is not the pattern in the poetic section of Job. Three mss of Kennicott and two of de Rossi have “God.” If this is so the reminiscence of Isaiah 41:20 led the copyist to introduce the tetragrammaton. But one could argue equally that the few mss with “God” were the copyists’ attempt to correct the text in accord with usage elsewhere.
- Job 12:9 sn The expression “has done this” probably refers to everything that has been discussed, namely, the way that God in his wisdom rules over the world, but specifically it refers to the infliction of suffering in the world.
- Job 12:10 tn The construction with the relative clause includes a resumptive pronoun referring to God: “who in his hand” = “in his hand.”
- Job 12:10 tn The two words נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) and רוּחַ (ruakh) are synonymous in general. They could be translated “soul” and “spirit,” but “soul” is not precise for נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), and so “life” is to be preferred. Since that is the case for the first half of the verse, “breath” will be preferable in the second part.
- Job 12:10 tn Human life is made of “flesh” and “spirit.” So here the line reads “and the spirit of all flesh of man.” If the text had simply said “all flesh,” that would have applied to all flesh in which there is the breath of life (see Gen 6:17; 7:15). But to limit this to human beings requires the qualification with “man.”
- Job 12:11 tn The ו (vav) introduces the comparison here (see 5:7; 11:12); see GKC 499 §161.a.
- Job 12:11 tn Heb “the palate.”
- Job 12:11 tn The final preposition with its suffix is to be understood as a pleonastic dativus ethicus and not translated (see GKC 439 §135.i).sn In the rest of the chapter Job turns his attention away from creation to the wisdom of ancient men. In Job 13:1 when Job looks back to this part, he refers to both the eye and the ear. In vv. 13-25 Job refers to many catastrophes which he could not have seen, but must have heard about.
Proverbs 16:4
New English Translation
Proverbs 16:4
New English Translation
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Footnotes
- Proverbs 16:4 tn The Hebrew verb פָּעַל (paʿal) means “to work out; to bring about; to accomplish.” As the perfect form of a dynamic root, it is past or perfective. By using a past nuance, the proverb asserts that this is not just something that will work out some day. It affirms that God has done so and views this action as prototypical of what God does. Elsewhere with this verb, the preposition ל (lamed) indicates the purpose of the work (when followed by an infinitive, e.g. Exod 15:7), or who the action was for/against (when followed by a person, e.g. Isa 26:12). In the only other case where the verb פָּעַל (paʿal) has a direct object and the preposition ל (lamed) it means to make, or modify, the thing into something else (Ps 7:13). Applying that same syntax here could mean “God has turned everything to his own purpose.” God has done so by turning what was meant to harm into good (as with Joseph, Gen 50:20) and here by preparing the wicked for disaster. If it means to turn one thing into another, then the verse affirms God’s sovereignty while not making him directly responsible for evil acts chosen by the wicked.
- Proverbs 16:4 tc The Latin Vulgate implies the form לְמַעֲנֵהוּ (lemaʿanehu) “for his/its sake/purpose” rather than the Masoretic text’s לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ (lammaʿanehu) “for his/its purpose/answer.” Both are reading the same consonantal text but understanding the vowels differently. tn At the core of the phrase לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ (lammaʿanehu) in the Masoretic text, lies the word מַעֲנֶה (maʿaneh), which is proposed to mean “answer” or “purpose.” HALOT proposes that they are two homonyms (HALOT I, 614) going back to different homonymous verbal roots. If this is the noun meaning “answer,” it may imply the consequence. God ensures that everyone’s actions and the consequences of those actions correspond—certainly the wicked for the day of calamity. In God’s order there is just retribution for every act.
- Proverbs 16:4 sn This is an example of synthetic parallelism (“A, what’s more B”). The A-line affirms a truth, and the B-line expands on it with a specific application about the wicked—whatever disaster comes their way is an appropriate correspondent for their life.
New English Translation (NET)
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