Job 32:16

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Shall I wait, because they don't speak, Because they stand still, and answer no more?

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי

yâchal

H3176

“and · to wait”

Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 42× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 8:12

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 859

to wait, hope, expect - (Niphal) to wait - (Piel) - to wait, await, tarry - to wait for, hope for - (Hiphil) to wait, tarry, wait for, hope for

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי to wait H3176 occurs in 41 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
2 conjunctions
1 adverb
2 particles

Verb forms

וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ Piel · Imperfect
עָ֝מְד֗וּ Qal · Perfect
עָ֥נוּ Qal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

כִּי that H3588 ×2
לֹ֣א not H3808 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Job 32:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Job 13:5 Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.
Amos 5:13 Therefore he who is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; For it is an evil time.
James 1:19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Job 32:16 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי כִּי לֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ כִּ֥י עָ֝מְד֗וּ לֹא עָ֥נוּ עֽוֹד

Shall I wait, because they don't speak, Because they stand still, and answer no more?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Job 32:16 Septuagint · lemma form

ὑπομένω οὐ γάρ λαλέω ὅτι ἵστημι οὐ ἀποκρίνω

I waited, (for I had not spoken,) because they stood still, they answered not.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Job 32:16 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

16–17. Job_32:16 is most naturally to be taken as a question,

16. And shall I wait because they speak not,

Because they stand still and answer no more?

17. I will answer also my part, &c.

The discomfiture and silence of the three friends shall not have the effect of imposing silence on him.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Job 32:16 When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, [and] answered no more;)

Ver. 16. When I had waited, for they spake not, but stood still] Or, Seeing I have waited, but they have not spoken, &c. Nothing appears but a dumb show, a deep silence, such as Elihu much marvelled at, and therefore setteth it forth in many words, all to one purpose. See Job 32:15.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 16. When I had waited] I waited to hear if they had any thing to reply to Job; and when I found them in effect speechless, then I ventured to come forward.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) When I had waited.—Or, as some render it, “And shall I wait because they speak not?” But they stand still and make no further reply.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

When one had waited,.... To observe whether they would make any reply to what he had said, or any objection to his engaging in the controversy:

for they spake not; were as mute as fishes:

but stood still; like statues, had no power to move, neither to sit down nor to depart, but were as if all life, sense, and motion, were gone from them:

and answered no more; or not at all; for it does not appear that they had given him any answer before, as well as not now.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Which he repeats as a strange and unreasonable thing, that they should be silent when they had such obligations to speak for the vindication both of God’s justice, and of their own truth and reputation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

16. When I had waited — This may be regarded as a question. Should I wait because they speak not, because they stand still? etc.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

When I had waited (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more); rather, as in the Revised Version, and shall 1 wait" because they speak not, because they stand still" and answer no more? Am I to wait until they shall have recovered themselves, and found something to answer? Surely this is not necessary. Neither courtesy nor etiquette prescribes it. Especially when I have waited so long, and have so much to say, and am so exceedingly anxious to say it (see vers. 18-20). Elihu shows all the impatience and ardour of a young speaker (see ver. 6), and feels the confidence that young men so often feel in the wisdom and persuasiveness of their words. (comp. Job_33:1-6)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Job, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yâchal (“to wait”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to wait” (yâchal) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 8:12, which shares the word «to wait», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “that” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי» is a Hiphil Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 15 words in this verse.
“that” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.