Footnotes

1. Job 33:23 sn The verse is describing the way God can preserve someone from dying by sending a messenger (translated here as “angel”), who could be human or angelic. This messenger will interpret/mediate God’s will. By “one…out of a thousand” Elihu could have meant either that one of the thousands of messengers at God’s disposal might be sent or that the messenger would be unique (see Eccl 7:28; Job 9:3).
2. Job 33:23 tn This is a smoother reading. The MT has “to tell to a man his uprightness,” to reveal what is right for him. The LXX translated this word “duty”; the choice is adopted by some commentaries. However, that is too far from the text, which indicates that the angel/messenger is to call the person to uprightness.
3. Job 33:24 tn This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.
4. Job 33:24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5. Job 33:24 tc The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (padaʿ, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (paraʿ, “to let loose,” so Wright).
6. Job 33:24 sn This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7-9, 15 (8-10, 16 HT) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.
7. Job 33:25 tc The word רֻטֲפַשׁ (rutafash) is found nowhere else. One suggestion is that it should be יִרְטַב (yirtav, “to become fresh”), connected to רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered [or moist]”). It is also possible that it was a combination of רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered”) and טָפַשׁ (tafash, “to grow fat”). But these are all guesses in the commentaries.
8. Job 33:25 tn The word describes the period when the man is healthy and vigorous, ripe for what life brings his way.
9. Job 33:26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10. Job 33:26 tn Heb “his face”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.sn This is usually taken to mean that as a worshiper this individual comes into the presence of the Lord in prayer, and in the sanctuary he sees God’s face, i.e., he sees the evidence of God’s presence.
11. Job 33:26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12. Job 33:26 tc Many commentators think this line is superfluous and so delete it. The RSV changed the verb to “he recounts,” making the idea that the man publishes the news of his victory or salvation (taking “righteousness” as a metonymy of cause).
13. Job 33:27 tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).
14. Job 33:27 tn Heb “to men.”
15. Job 33:27 tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”
16. Job 33:28 sn See note on “him” in v. 24.