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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:1 - 36:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1 Then Elihu continued and said:
2 Suffer me a little, and I will inform thee,
For there is something still to be said for Eloah.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And to my Creator will I ascribe right.
4 For truly my words are not lies,
One perfect in knowledge stands before thee.
Elihu's preceding three speeches were introduced by וַיַּעַן; this fourth, in honour of the number three, is introduced only as a continuation of the others. Job is to wait yet a little while, for he still has (= עֹוד לִּי), or: there still are, words in favour of Eloah; i.e., what may be said in vindication of God against Job's complaints and accusations is not yet exhausted. This appears to be the only instance of the Aramaic כַּתַּר being taken up as Hebr.; whereas הִוָּה, nunciare (Arab. wḥâ, I, IV), is a poetic Aramaism occurring even in Psa 19:3 (comp. on the construction Job 32:6); and זְעֵיר (a diminutive form, after the manner of the Arab. zu‛air) belongs in Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13 to the popular language (of Jerusalem), but is here used poetically. The verb נָשָׂא, Job 36:3, is not to be understood according to נשׂא משׁל, but according to 1Ki 10:11; and לְמֵרָחֹוק signifies, as also Job 39:29; Isa 37:26, e longinquo, viz., out of the wide realm of history and nature. The expression נָתַן צֶדֶק follows the analogy of (עז) נתן כבוד. דֵּעָה, Job 36:4, interchanges with the דֵּעַ which belongs exclusively to Elihu, since Elihu styles himself תְּמִים דֵּעֹות, as Job 37:16 God תְּמִים דֵּעִים (comp. 1Sa 2:3, אֵל דֵּעֹות). תמים in this combination with דעות cannot be intended of purity of character; but as Elihu there attributes absolute perfection of knowledge in every direction to God, so here, in reference to the theodicy which he opposes to Job, he claims faultlessness and clearness of perception.