Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/1705

 mysteries still remaining to human shortsightedness, their future solution. =Chap. 35=

Verses 1-4
Job 35:1-4  1  Then began Elihu, and said:   2  Dost thou consider this to be right, Sayest thou: my righteousness exceedeth God's,  3  That thou sayest, what advantage is it to thee, What doth it profit me more than my sin? 4 I will answer thee words, And thy companions with thee. The neutral זאת, Job 35:2, refers prospectively to כּי־תאמר, Job 35:3: this that thou sayest. חשׁב with acc. of the obj. and ל of the predicate, as Job 33:10, comp. Job 13:24, and freq. The second interrogative clause, Job 35:2, is co-ordinate with the first, and the collective thought of this ponderous construction, Job 35:2, Job 35:3, is this: Considerest thou this to be right, and thinkest thou on this account to be able to put thy righteousness above the divine, that, as thou maintainest, no righteousness on the side of God corresponds to this thy righteousness, because God makes no distinction between righteousness and the sin of man, and allows the former to go unrewarded? צדקי (for which Olsh. wishes to read צדקתּי, as Job 9:27 אמרתי for אמרי) forms with מאל a substantival clause: justitia mea est prae Deo (prae divina); מן comparative as Job 32:2, comp. on the matter Job 34:5, not equivalent to ἀπό as Job 4:17. כי־תאמר is first followed by the oratio obliqua: what it (viz., צדקך) advantageth thee, then by the ''or. directa (on this change vid., Ew. §338, a): what profit have I (viz., בצדקי), prae peccato meo;'' this מן is also comparative; the constantly ambiguous combination would be allowable from the fact that, according to the usage of the language, “to