Job 12:5-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 12:5 tn The first word, לַפִּיד (lapid), could be rendered “a torch of scorn,” but this gives no satisfying meaning. The ל (lamed) is often taken as an otiose letter, and the noun פִּיד (pid) is “misfortune, calamity” (cf. Job 30:24; 31:29).
2. Job 12:5 tn The noun עַשְׁתּוּת (ʿashtut, preferably עַשְׁתּוֹת, ʿashtot) is an abstract noun from עָשַׁת (ʿashat, “to think”). The word שַׁאֲנָן (shaʾanan) means “easy in mind, carefree,” and “happy.”
3. Job 12:5 tn The form has traditionally been taken to mean “is ready” from the verb כּוּן (kun, “is fixed, sure”). But many commentators look for a word parallel to “calamity.” So the suggestion has been put forward that נָכוֹן (nakhon) be taken as a noun from נָכָה (nakhah, “strike, smite”): “a blow” (Schultens, Dhorme, Gordis), “thrust” or “kick” (HALOT 698 s.v. I נָכוֹן).
4. Job 12:6 tn The verse gives the other side of the coin now, the fact that the wicked prosper.
5. Job 12:6 tn The plural is used to suggest the supreme degree of arrogant confidence (E. Dhorme, Job, 171).
6. Job 12:6 sn The line is perhaps best understood as describing one who thinks he is invested with the power of God.
7. 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.”
8. Job 12:7 tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).