This verse is probably best understood as a warning against corruption and injustice. Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing: wrath translates a word which normally has that meaning in the Old Testament. King James Version understands it to refer to God’s wrath, but Revised Standard Version takes it to be Job’s anger. However, there is no indication here as to what may call forth Job’s anger. The noun translated wrath is feminine, but the verb form of entice is masculine. Moreover, as they stand, there is no apparent relation between the lines. Therefore the interpretation of the first line must depend upon the understanding of the second line, which is much clearer, referring as it does to corruption from bribes. Some interpreters recognize the word translated wrath in line a as a form of the verb “to see,” and so translate as Good News Translation “Be careful.” Revised Standard Version, which retains wrath, supplies Beware translationally. Scoffing translates a word which may mean either “sufficiency” as in 20.22, or “clap” as in 27.23. It is the second sense which gives Revised Standard Version scoffing. Most translations take the first meaning and translate “riches, wealth, money,” as in Good News Translation. So Elihu’s warning to Job is “Be careful not to let money deceive you.”

And let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside gives the impression that someone is being held for payment of ransom. Ransom here means “bribe.” It translates a word meaning “to cover.” It is used in Genesis 32.21, in which Jacob “covers Esau’s face” with gifts to appease him. It is used in 1 Samuel 12.3, in which Samuel asks “from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it?” See also Proverbs 6.35; Amos 5.12. Turn you aside means “corrupt you.” Good News Translation has shifted “bribes” to the first line for stylistic purposes. This line may be rendered, for example, “and don’t let bribery corrupt you” or “and don’t be corrupted by people paying you bribe money.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .