Aron Pinker, «On the Meaning of Job 4,18», Vol. 93 (2012) 500-519
This paper argues that the terms wydb( and wyk)lm in Job 4,18 should be understood as referring to the set motions of the sun, moon, and stars as well as to sporadic meteorological events, respectively. Such understanding does not dilute the validity and force of the qal wahomer in 4,18-19. The comparison is between the inanimate but permanent (sun, moon, stars, meteorological phenomena) and the animate but impermanent (humans). The difficult hlht is assumed to have been originally hhflft;@ from hhl, «languish, faint». Taking hlht as having the meaning «weakness» provides a sense that eminently fits a natural event.
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504 ARON PINKER
2. The term My#y
The term My#y usually means “he will put, place, setâ€. The Sep-
tuagint renders My#y by “he perceives†(e0peno/hse); Targums by
“imputes†(yw#y); Symmachus by “find†(eu9rh/sei) and is followed
by the Vulgate (repperit) and by the Peshitta “he struck†(Mysn).
Driver and Gray render b My#y by “to lay in†(= “attribute toâ€)
based on 1 Sam 11,15 18. Relying on the same source, the following
are some of the translations that have been offered:
Chaham ― “decides that there is†19;
Ewald, Duhm, Gallischewski ― “placesâ€, “legt er bei†20;
Driver & Gray, Fullerton, Tur-Sinai, Gibson, Pope, Clines,
Gordis ― “charges with, imputesâ€;21
Dillman, Blommerde, Habel, Good ― “ascribes†22;
Jastrow, Horst, Grabbe ― “he notes†23; and,
Beuken ― “he points out†24.
It is obvious that the Versions had no idea how to translate here
My#y, and resorted to meanings that they thought would fit the con-
text. The parallelism between the passages 4,18; 15,15; and 25,5
suggests that: hlht My#yâ•‘wyny(b wkz )l.
S.R. DRIVER – G.B. GRAY, A Critical Exegetical Commentary on the
18
Book of Job (ICC; Edinburgh 1921) II, 26.
CHAHAM, bwy), 35.
19
G.H.A. EWALD, Commentary on the Book of Job (London 1882) 108;
20
DUHM, Hiob, 28; E. GALLISCHEWSKI, “Die Erste Elifaz-Rede Hiob Kap. 4 und
5â€, ZAW 39 (1921) 294; etc.
S.R. DRIVER – G.B. GRAY, A Critical Exegetical Commentary on the
21
Book of Job (ICC; Edinburgh 1921) I, 47; K. FULLERTON, “Double Entendre
in the First Speech of Eliphazâ€, JBL 49 (1930) 323; TUR-SINAI, Job, 84; J.C.L.
GIBSON, “Eliphaz the Temanite: Portrait of a Hebrew Philosopherâ€, SJT 28
(1975) 266; POPE, Job, 35; CLINES, Job, 107; R. GORDIS, The Book of God
and Man (Chicago, IL 1965) 240; etc.
A. DILLMANN, Hiob (Leipzig 1891) 38; A.C.M. BLOMMERDE, Northwest Se-
22
mitic Grammar and Job (Rome 1969) 28; HABEL, Job, 113; and, E.M. GOOD, In
Turns of Tempest. A Reading of Job with a Translation (Stanford, CA 1990) 59; etc.
JASTROW, Job, 212; F. HORST, Hiob (Neukirchen-Vluyn 1968) 58; L.L.
23
GRABBE, Comparative Philology and the Text of Job: A Study in Methodology
(SBLDS 34; Missoula, MT 1975) 41.
W.A.M. BEUKEN, “Eliphaz – one among the prophets or ironist spokesman?:
24
The enigma of being a wise man in one’s own right (Job 4-5)â€, Das Buch Hiob
und seine Interpretationen. Beiträge zum Hiob-Symposium auf dem Monte VeritÃ
vom 14.-19. August 2005 (eds. T. KRÜGER et al.) (Zürich 2007) 302.
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