1:16. Lightning is "fire of God" in the Hebrew, shepherds is "shepherd boys" and killing is "eating them up". So the original actually says that the fire of God went blazing among the shepherd boys eating them up. This is a children's story!! Herding tribes in the North Kenya scrub still send the boys out with the camels and in the unsettled conditions of the Somali border, raids still occurred in the 1980's.
1:21. Return. The original says "and naked shall I return there." I.e., to the womb of all things, mother earth. Psalm 139: For thou didst form me, weave me in my mother's womb...Thou knewest my soul of old and my bones were not hid from thee when I was made in secret, knit together in the world below.
2:3. More literally: ...a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning from evil and still he holds to his integrity - and you incite me against him to swallow him up for nothing.
God is charging the Satan with error (see 4:18), but the Satan persists and so puts himself in the balance with Job. One must rise and the other fall.
Notice "swallow him up". This is the Lord as God of Death, King of Terrors. See 18:14, 37:20. The ancient Canaanite myths spoke of Death eating the living. The grave was Death's mouth.
Carl Jung, in his "Answer to Job," says that Christ was God's answer to Job, after the enormity of what he had done sank in. Oswald Spengler, in the Decline of the West, says Job's author was the first Arab to worship God from the standpoint of pure Islam (=submission). That is, the first to push to its logical conclusion the concept that only God has a Will and that man therefore lives by Grace. Spengler contrasts this Job with Faust, the man of the West who has a Will of his own and who relates to God by a willful act of Contrition. But Job's unbroken integrity is the great theme of the book. The Power of God is important in the story for itself, yes, but more as the terrible condition within which Job successfully maintains his innocence.
2:9. Job's wife is mentioned again at 19:17 and again at 31:10. There is a great deal of interest in her. Why was she spared when Job's children were killed? As a plague to him thought St. John Chrysostom. As a helpmeet for Satan said Augustine and Calvin. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures from around 200 BC adds a whole paragraph:
3:8. Leviathan is a sea monster standing here for the forces of chaos. The "sea" is the god of the sea. Order must be overruled if the past is to be subverted. Psalm 74:12-14 describes an ancient battle in which God defeats the Sea and crushes the heads of Leviathan. Chapter 41 of Job is devoted entirely to Leviathan. See the notes there. Close relatives are Tannin the Dragon and Rahab the elusive serpent. See also Psalm 89:9-10, 104:26, Isaiah 27:1, 51:9, Ezekiel 29:3 and 32:3, Amos 9:3, Job 7:12, 9:8, 9:13, 26:12,13.
3:17. There the wicked
cease agitation/raging
And there they rest,
those weary of strength.
This verse and many other verses in Job require a gesture to be fully meaningful. At 11:13 Zophar tells Job to "stretch out your hand towards God". Zophar may be referring there to Job's gesture here at 3:17. His meaning then would be, "Look to God, not to the grave." The theme of gesturing with the hand is carried forward at 12:6, 15:25, 31:21 and 38:15. See also 18:21, 19:26, 20:29 and 35:12. These last four verses suggest a sweeping arm gesture that includes the entire audience.
3:25. There is a wonderful subtlety in this verse which is entirely characteristic of the Book of Job. What he fears comes to him, says Job, the man of integrity who fears God and shuns evil. So we understand why God appears in person to Job later in the story.
4:1. Eliphaz is the first of Job's three friends to speak, so he is likely to have been a man of great authority. It is from such slender clues that the characters of Job's friends must be deduced.
4:6. Fear meant fear of God, hence piety. In the author's day the verse would have slipped by all but the most watchful. But after all, how can fear be assurance? Thus the author tells us he is going to put the notion of fearing God in question. Job was in the "wisdom" tradition, as opposed to the prophetic tradition, which emphasized the fear of God. Wisdom accepts, it is said, while the prophets reject.
4:10,11. In these two verses five different words are used for 'lion'. The exact meanings of the words translated "lion on the hunt" and "mighty lion" are unknown. The Hebrew is even more compact than usual:
4:17. An important ambiguity here is lost in the English. The Hebrew phrase "just before God" also means "more just than God". Job is listening intently and this is a seed that will grow within him. He wants to be just before God. His friends, on the other hand, will accuse him of thinking he is more just than God.
4:18. See also 1:6, 15:15. The angels are the lesser gods, some good and some evil. At 21:22 Job may be referring to Eliphaz' attitude toward the angels. Psalm 82, which is thought to predate Job, describes God's charge against the gods: "How long will you defend the unjust and be partial to the wicked?"
4:20. This verse will serve to introduce some background information and to illustrate the kind of arguments that the scholars bring to bear upon the text. The argument here is between the standard versions, which translate "without regard", and three moderns who translate "without name": Mitchell Dahood, Marvin Pope and Norman Habel.
Some background: the Masoretes were Jewish scholars of the fifth to tenth centuries who did their best to pass on Biblical text accurately. They divided the original consonantal text into words and marked it with diacritics to indicate vowels. The result is called the received or Masoretic text (MT), and is the primary basis of most translations of the Bible. The MT is highly regarded. The Masoretes had written texts to work from predating anything now extant and they had an unbroken oral tradition from the earliest times to guide them.
More background: since 1928, excavations of the Ras Shamra mound on the north Syrian coast have yielded many cuneiform inscribed clay tablets from the latter centuries of the second millenium B.C. The deciphered Ugaritic texts - so called from the resurrected name of their city - have been a treasure of information about early Semitic religion and politics.
Dahood thinks the Masoretes mispointed the text. They were a thousand years or more removed from the date of Job, so the possibility that they made a mistake has to be considered, especially when their version makes little sense. Dahood reads 'mibbeli-m sem' instead of the Masoretic 'mibbeli mesim'. This repointing of the text was actually first suggested in 1900, but the trailing mem on mibbeli was superfluous in ancient Hebrew as then understood. However, in the Ugaritic texts there are examples of mem as an enclitic emphatic particle. (Cars-orama = traffic jam; orama = enclitic emphatic particle.) So a revision of the MT is defensible.
5:6,7. Plenty of trouble in these lines. The author was playing with the word for ground (adamah) and the word for man (adam). Not from adamah springs sorrow; adam trouble begets. The exchange between Job and his three friends is cast in the form of a verbal duel where wit is as important as the substance of any argument. The audience would have appreciated many nuances which are completely lost in translation. Digging for these nuances in the Hebrew is like panning for gold. It is plenty hard work, but the joy of finding a nugget is great.
5:7. The original says "And the sons of Resheph fly high," but since we don't know who the sons of Resheph are, it seems best to keep the inspired KJ "as sparks fly up". One intriguing possibility is that the sons of Resheph are vultures or eagles. Birds of prey are a theme in Job. See 12:7, 15:23, 16:18, 30:22, 35:11, 38:41, 39:26-30, 41:5, 28:7.
5:8. God...God Himself: El...Elohim. Literally Elohim is plural, as in 1:6, the sons of the gods. Ancient Hebrew, however, had a trick of rendering the superlative with the plural. Thus Elohim means great God. Behemoth from 40:15 is another such plural -- beast of beasts.
Chapter 5 from the eighth verse to the end is a most appealing passage, and please note, what Eliphaz says here will come true for Job. The book of Job is no simple fable. The friends of Job are wrong, but they are right. They harass Job with their narrow-mindedness, but somehow in the process he is healed. They were his friends; "seven days and seven nights they sat with him on the ground, and none said a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great." (2:13)
5:14. Day and night, innocence and wickedness, life and death, prosperity and calamity, freedom and constraint, hope and fear, wisdom and folly, master and slave -- paired themes of Job.
6:10c. Holy One. Perhaps short for Holy One of Israel as in Isaiah 41:16. This line is best taken, with 6:14a as a sign that Job is thinking dreadful thoughts about God. He knows he is one to speak his mind and he would rather die in torment. The author is setting the scene for Job's first outbreak against God at 7:11.
6:21. Job's first direct reference to his friends -- an indication he is coming out of his shell.
7:5. This strong translation is taken straight from the Anchor Bible version, and here is a story from the rabbinic tradition Marvin Pope tells to go with it: One day the worms in Job's flesh began to argue. Job separated them, putting each in its own hole, saying, "It is my flesh, yet you quarrel over it."
7:6. Thread of hope. A pun in the Hebrew, with one word, tiqwah, that means both thread and hope.
7:9. Sheol. The ancient antecedent of Hell, a land of shades similar to the Greek Hades even to the River round it. See 14:13, 33:18. The Land of No Return was a Babylonian epithet for the underworld.
7:12. The Lord of the Sea. A Ugaritic text describes Baal's defeat of Sea: "Sea tripped and fell. His bones rattled; his frame was shattered. Baal captured Sea and drank him; he drank Lord River." See also 38:8. Psalms 68:23 in the Anchor Bible reading: "I stifled the Serpent, muzzled the Deep Sea." An Akkadian text has Marduk, storm god and chief of the Babylonian gods, posting a watch on a dragon and charging the watchers to keep her waters confined. See Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern Texts.
7:15. Sickening bones. The Masoretic text has ma'asti at the beginning of verse 7:16, where it is usually translated "I loathe it." Moved back to 7:15b, which is a short line, the syntax can be stretched to cover it: "to these bones [which] I loathe." Asyndesis si! Hypotaxis no!
7:19. Swallow my spittle. An Arabic expression for a moment. Job is complaining to God that he needs a chance to express his momentary bitterness without being condemned for what he says -- a chance to swallow his spittle. As it happens, God is listening and does give him the chance.
7:20. Why am I your burden? The translation follows the LXX. The received text has "Why am I my burden?" One of the pious emendations of the scribes.
9:2. Going to court with God -- the central metaphor of Job. Eliphaz had suggested that no man could be in the right before God (4:17). Bildad had said that God does not distort the course of justice (8:3). Now Job answers that in his own court, God is both accuser and judge, so what justice is to be expected (9:14)? God is not righteous, Job charges (9:22). He appeals to him anyway, but God does not respond (13:13). Yet Job's witness testifies (16:19). And Job is sure he will at last find a defender (19:25). He proves his case against God (chapters 21-24) and takes a great oath that he himself is innocent (chapter 31). At last God answers (chapters 38,39) in person and when Job recognizes that he is out of his depth (42:3), God decides the case in his favor (42:6).
9:9. The Fool. Probably Orion.
9:13. In the context, which is that of God the Creator, Rahab probably refers to a sea monster destroyed by God when he brought order to the world. But Rahab in the Bible also means Egypt, so the reference here might be to the destruction of Pharoah's army at Exodus 14:26.
9:23. Of all Job's charges against God, this seems by far the most serious. Why would God mock the calamity of the innocent? Perhaps instead of "he laughs" we should translate "it (the scourge) laughs at the despair of the innocent." The early commentator Rashi says it must be Satan that laughs. Still, the given translation seems most likely, especially in light of Eliphaz' promise to Job at 5:22. "At destruction and famine you will laugh."
9:34. Rod. The same rod that comforts David in the 23rd Psalm.
10:8,9. See how Job has changed under the prodding of his friends. He began by saying he wanted to die, but now he wants to live.
10:15.
If I be wicked, then woe to me,
Or innocent, I raise not my head,
Sated with shame,
Looking upon my affliction.
Job seems to be saying that wicked or innocent, woe comes. Job still accepts the doctrine of divine retribution, but he no longer thinks that God is just. He fears God still, yet he sees that fear is no protection. He is struggling to be free of his confusion.
10:22. Light and darkness -- a recurring theme in Job. The Latin Vulgate outdoes the original: Terra tenebrosa, et operta mortis caligine: terra miseriae et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat. A land gloomy, and filled with blackness of death: a land of misery and gloom where the shadow of death and no order but eternal horror dwells!
11:2. Rabbi Dr. Victor Reichert gives his assessment of the three friends in his comment on this verse: "Zophar, less sensitive than the dignified Eliphaz and the gentle Bildad, appears annoyed..."
11:4.
You say, my assumptions are pure,
I am clean in thine eyes.
The distinction between direct and indirect discourse in Hebrew is problematical. There seems to have been no conception of the exact quote, or perhaps throwing a persons exact words back in their face was simply a thing not done.
11:12.
But a hollow man will get understanding
When a wild ass donkey is born a man.
A proverb too clever for the translators. An insult to Job's intelligence, anyway.
11:13. See the note at 3:17. The word translated "hand" here means more exactly the palm of the hand.
12:22. If war is the meaning of this verse, then perhaps the author is referring to Judah's struggle against Babylon in the early 6th century. Nebuchadnezzar carried off the top ranks of Judean society to Babylon in 597, and installed Jedekiah as his puppet king. Against the might of the Chaldeans, the Jews had no chance. Rebellion was folly, but the second echelon of leaders, Zedekiah included, were braver than they were wise: Judah had been stripped of her reason by the first exile. In 586 Babylon was made great and Judah was lead away into Exile.
13:8-12. These verses have implications for all morality that is based on fear and tradition instead of on honest feeling of what is right. As a man of integrity, Job has no need of sycophants and he is sure that God has even less use for them. In chapter 15 Eliphaz tells Job, "you are casting off fear." Indeed, that is what Job is doing. He is making himself ready to face God.
13:15. The received
text:
Behold he slays me I await not
[any good]
But my ways to his face I will
argue.
The much loved King James version:
Though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him:
but I will maintain mine own ways before
him.
The adopted translation:
He may kill me; I may have no hope,
But I will defend my ways to his face.
The elements of the difficulty: The received text has "not" but the margin of early MT manuscripts says "to him" should be read. The ancient versions, LXX, Vulgate, Syriac and Targum may have read "to him" and certainly did not read "not". In ancient Hebrew "not" and "to him" though they are spelled differently sound just the same, so a scribal error is likely enough. The verb "wait" always means to wait for or expect something good; sometimes it takes the preposition "to" and sometimes it takes no preposition. At 6:11 without "to" the same verb is translated "to have hope" and at 29:23 with "to" it is translated "to wait for". "Behold" can be taken as a conditional particle.
On textual grounds alone the matter could go either way, so it comes down to a question of interpretation. Job is about to summon God to court with him; in that sense he awaits him. And he has not cursed God as Satan said he would. Does that add up to trusting God?
13:16. The received
text:
Moreover, this/he to me for salvation
For not before his face does a hypocrite
come.
King James version:
He also shall be my salvation;
For an hypocrite shall not come before
him.
The adopted translation:
This might even be my salvation,
For no godless man would face him so.
The structures of ancient Hebrew and modern European verbs differ greatly. The Hebrew tenses were not as definite with respect to time as modern tenses are and for moods had only the indicative, imperative and perhaps something of the volitional. To relate time, condition or volition they used adverbial particles or relied on the context. Sometimes they expressed the jussive (let him, let her, may they, etc.) by an apocopation, an internal vowel shift. Instead of definite tense and mood, most verbs had perfect and imperfect forms in several voices. The perfect forms signified objective, completed or sure action. The imperfect forms signified subjective, ideal, interrupted, repeated, continuing, beginning or future action. The imperative was formed from the imperfect form of the verb. There were seven voices, but most verbs were not used in all seven: the Qal, simple active; the Niphal, simple passive; the Piel, intensive active; the Pual, intensive passive; the Hithpael, reflexive; the Hiphal, causative active; the Hophal, causative passive. In 13:16b, "come" is Qal imperfect third person masculine singular. The imperfect suggests that the very thought of coming before God would be rejected by the ungodly.
The difference in verbal structure often requires words to be added for the sake of the English from the feel of the Hebrew. Naturally there is some disagreement about the feel of the Hebrew! Compare English versions for difference of mood and tense.
Jewish Pub. Soc. (1960)
This also shall be my salvation,
That a hypocrite cannot come before
him.
Jewish Pub. Soc. (1982)
In this too is my salvation:
That no impious man can come into His
presence.
Moffatt
This should be in my favor,
that before him no godless man dare
come.
New English Bible
This at least assures my success,
that no godless man may appear before
him.
New International Version
Indeed, this might turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless man would dare come before
him.
Revised Standard Version
This will be my salvation,
that a godless man shall not come before
him.
14:13. There is a Jewish tale that when God was angry he would hide the saints under his throne so they would be safe from his wrath.
14:14c. Relief. I.e., a soldier's replacement, but this is a guess; the basic meaning of the word is "succession". The King James version has "till my change come." Christian commentators then refer the reader to the familiar passage in First Corinthians, chapter 15: "for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The given translation, though very different, also has Christian connotations, for in the Christian context, who is Job's relief if not Christ himself?
There is another answer to the mystery, though. Job's relief might be the actor who plays him. The root meaning of "relief" signifies a change, and it can signify a change of clothes in particular -- Gen 35:2, 45:22, Ps 102:26. A pretty good word for an actor, one who changes costume. Job's puzzling "defender" at 19:25 might also be the actor who plays him.
14:16.
For now you count my steps;
You do not keep a watch over my sin.
A difficult verse. It is tempting to follow the ancient Syriac version,
which reads a "not" in the first line:
But now you would not be counting my steps
And always spying out my sin.
15:7.
First Adam were you born,
Or brought forth before the hills?
The translation assumes, perhaps incorrectly, that this is an early reference to the "before-Adam" of later Jewish myth, Adam before Adam. Most English versions translate "First of mankind," which may be what was meant. Here is K. Schlottmann's lovely Hindu proverb, quoted in several commentaries - "Yes, indeed, he is the first man; no wonder he is wise!" See also 38:21, Prov 8:22 ff.
last changed November 17, 2014