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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 33:8 - 33:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
8 Verily thou hast said in mine ears,
And I heard the sound of thy words:
9 “I am pure, without transgression;
“Spotless am I, and I have no guilt.
10 “Behold, He findeth malicious things against me,
“He regardeth me as His enemy;
11 “He putteth my feet in the stocks,
“He observeth all my paths.”
12 Behold, therein thou art not right, I will answer thee,
For Eloah is too exalted for man.
With אַךְ אָמַרְתָּ Elihu establishes the undeniable fact, whether it be that אַךְ is intended as restrictive (only thou hast said, it is not otherwise than that thou ... ), or as we have translated, according to its primary meaning, affirmative (forsooth, it is undeniable). To say anything בְּאָזְנֵי of another is in Hebrew equivalent to not saying it secretly, and so as to be liable to misconstruction, but aloud and distinctly. In Job 33:9, Elihu falls back on Job's own utterances, as Job 9:21, תם אני; Job 16:17, תפלתי זכה; Job 12:4, where he calls himself צדיק תמים, comp. Job 10:7; Job 13:18, Job 13:23; Job 23:10, Job 27:5, Job 29:1, Job 31:1. The expression חַף, tersus, did not occur in the mouth of Job; Geiger connects חף with the Arab. hanı̂f (vid., on Job 13:15); it is, however, the adj. of the Semitic verb חַף, Arab. ḥff, to rub off, scrape off; Arab. to make smooth by scraping off the hair; Targ., Talm., Syr., to make smooth by washing and rubbing (after which Targ. שְׁזִיג, lotus).
(Note: Vid., Nöldecke in Genfey's Zeitschrift, 1863, S. 383.)
אָנֹכִי has here, as an exception, retained its accentuation of the final syllable in pause. In Job 33:10 Elihu also makes use of a word that does not occur in Job's mouth, viz., תְּנוּאֹות, which, according to Num 14:34, signifies “alienation,” from נוּא (הֵנִיא), to hinder, restrain, turn aside, abalienare, Num 32:7; and according to the Arab. na'a (to rise heavily),
(Note: Nevertheless Zamachschari does not derive Arab. nâwâ, to treat with enmity, from Arab. n', but from nwy, so that nâwa fulânan signifies “to have evil designs against any one, to meditate evil against one.” The phrases iluh ‛alêji nijât, he has evil intentions (wicked designs) against me, nı̂jetuh zerı̂je aleik, he has evil intentions against thee, and similar, are very common. - Wetzst.)
III to lean one's self upon, to oppose any one; it might also signify directly, “hostile risings;” but according to the Hebr. it signifies grounds and occasions for hostile aversion. Moreover, Elihu here recapitulates what Job has in reality often in meaning said, e.g., Job 10:13-17; and Job 33:10 are his own words, Job 13:24, ותחשׁבני לאויב לך; Job 19:11, ויחשׁבני לו כצריו; Job 30:21, תהפךְ לאכזר לי. In like manner, Job 33:11 is a verbatim quotation from Job 13:27; יָשֵׁם is poetic contracted fut. for יָשִׂים rof .. It is a principal trait of Job's speeches which Elihu here makes prominent: his maintenance of his own righteousness at the expense of the divine justice. In Job 33:12 he first of all refutes this צַשֵּׁק נַפְשֹׁו מֵֽאֱלֹהִים in general. The verb צָדַק does not here signify to be righteous, but to be in the right (as Job 11:2; Job 13:18) - the prevailing signification in Arabic (sadaqa, to speak the truth, be truthful). זֹאת (with Munach, not Dechâ) is acc. adv.: herein, in this case, comp. on Job 19:26. רָבָה מִן is like Deu 14:24 (of the length of the way exceeding any one's strength), but used, as nowhere else, of God's superhuman greatness; the Arabic version has the preposition Arab. ‛an in this instance for מִן. God is too exalted to enter into a defence of Himself against such vainglorying interwoven with accusations against Him. And for this reason Elihu will enter the lists for God.