398 Christopher Hays “an alternate form of lpt”, i.e., lpt (II), “to whitewash”. However, lpf there is a better option: lpt (I), “to utter stupidity, speak foolishly”. In fact, the irregular Akkadian cognate of the latter root would seem to be t≥ap˝lu, “to scorn, slander, insult” (G/D; cf. also ∏: “disseminate slanders, put to shame” (19)—and this root seems clearly relevant to the understanding of ylpf in Job 13,4. The Akk. verb t≥ap˝lu could be used to describe the maligning of deities (20), and it is found in the Amarna letters (21), supporting the possibility of a West Semitic cognate. Friedrich Horst noted the phrase amat taπgirti t≥apilti PN ana PN2 idbubma (“[Urπa] made treacherous statements against PN to PN2”) (22) in the annals of Sargon II (23). Oddly, however, Horst seems to have assumed that the Akkadian root had the same sense of “smearing” as the Hebrew root, which it does not. Might not other biblical attestations of lpf be better translated “slander” or “insult” rather than “smear”? For example, Ps 119,69’s μydz rqv yl[ wlpf would be better rendered, “The arrogant have wrongly uttered a lie against me”, instead of “smeared a lie upon me. This is not to claim that the roots lpf/t, meaning “to smear, whitewash”, do not exist — they do — but rather that they seem to have coalesced and been confused with another set of roots lpf/t, “to speak falsely, slander, insult”. Connecting ylpf to the aforementioned root brings 13,4 in line with the book’s broader concern about blasphemy. The nominal form hl;p]fi is found in Job 1,22: μyhlal hlpt ˆtn al, “[Job] did not give blasphemy to God” (24) (cf. also 42,7-8). The friends do, however, blaspheme. Job repeatedly asserts his innocence, and in 13,3-4 he contrasts the promise of true speech from God with the friends’ false speech. By framing the matter in this way, with this apparent intertextual reference, the author of Job intensifies the blame on the friends. Job asserts that he and God must both be in the right, but that corrupt intermediaries stand in the way of mutual understanding. If all this is correct, then Job, instead of charging that the friends have failed to fulfill a medical role in healing him, is complaining that they have spoken falsely as sources of wisdom and would mislead their hearers — just as the spirits of the dead were so often said to have done (25). By comparing his friends to the Rephaim, he condemns them as representatives of apostasy and heresy. The verse might thus be translated in this way: “You, however, are (19) See CAD Đ, 47-48; also S. PARPOLA (ed.), Assyrian-English-Assyrian Dictionary (Helsinki 2007) 126. (20) Iπtar speaks of allû dGIπ.GIN.MAπ πa ut≥appilanni — “that Gilgamesh who has slandered me” (Epic of Gilgamesh, SBV, VI.155; SAACT 1, 93); cf. CAD Đ, 48; also S. DALLEY, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford 1989) 82. (21) EA 1:91: “You humiliated them (tut≥eppilπunu) before the country where you are. Cf. W.L. MORAN, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore, MD 1992) 2, 5, n. 36. (22) F. HORST, Hiob (BKAT 16/1; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1968) 198. (23) Cf. A.G. LIE, The Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (Paris 1929) 102. Also CAD T, 286. (24) I agree with HALOT, 734, against NRSV and NIV, which seem to think it is God who is in danger of wrongdoing. (25) E.g., Isa 8,19; 19,3.