{"id":180,"date":"2009-11-04T00:02:27","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T13:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=180"},"modified":"2009-12-02T23:21:31","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T12:21:31","slug":"the-prayer-of-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"the prayer of job?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Barry<\/a> has suggested that Job 42:7, which reads:<\/p>\n

\u05d7\u05e8\u05d4 \u05d0\u05e4\u05d9 \u05d1\u05da \u05d5\u05d1\u05e9\u05e0\u05d9 \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9\u05da \u05db\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d0 \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05ea\u05dd \u05d0\u05dc\u05d9 \u05e0\u05db\u05d5\u05e0\u05d4 \u05db\u05e2\u05d1\u05d3\u05d9 \u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05d1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ought to be rendered thus:<\/p>\n

My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken to<\/em> me what is right, as my servant Job has.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The significant difference to most interpretations and translations is the “spoken to” in place of “spoken about.” Andrew’s suggestion is based on the observation that the Hebrew here, \u05db\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d0 \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05ea\u05dd \u05d0\u05dc\u05d9, employs the preposition \u05d0\u05dc following the verb \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 which elsewhere almost always means “speak to.” Consequently, Andrew reads Job 42:7 as referring to prayer \u2014\u00a0to speech directed to God, not discussions about him.<\/p>\n

Grammatically and statistically the reading “spoke to me” is both possible and well attested \u2014 indeed, even at the beginning of Job 42:7 we have an instance of \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 \u202b+\u202c \u05d0\u05dc describing Yhwh’s speaking to<\/em> Job (\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 \u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u2026 \u05d0\u05dc \u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05d1). As Andrew points out, the majority of uses of the verb \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 in the piel<\/em> followed by the preposition \u05d0\u05dc mean “speak to.” Nonetheless, there are a few exceptions such as 2Chron 32:19; Jer 28:16; 33:14; 51:12 (although outside Job 42:7\u20138 there are no exceptions within Job).<\/p>\n

In light of these observations, what reasons can be offered in support of the more common\/traditional rendering? None of the commentaries I have at hand offer any discussion of the point, but I think a case can be made for the common understanding:<\/p>\n

1. There is some indication of mixing of \u05d0\u05dc and \u05e2\u05dc in BH, particularly later texts (although \u05e2\u05dc tends to replace \u05d0\u05dc, not the other way around). \u05e2\u05dc would more clearly mean “speak about.”<\/p>\n

2. There are examples where \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 + \u05d0\u05dc does mean “speak about,” so it is a possibility (see above). We can’t simply go on statistics or else all language would be impossibly wooden \u2014 it simply doesn’t work that way.<\/p>\n

3. The LXX translates the preposition with \u03b5\u03bd\u03c9\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd rather than with \u03b5\u03b9\u03c2, \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 or a dative, suggesting that the early translators read it as God rebuking Job’s friends for what they had said about him rather than to him.<\/p>\n

4. Perhaps the strongest point in favour of the traditional reading, however, is the context. Context plays a far more important role in determining the appropriate meaning of words than should statistics, after all. Within the book of Job, Job’s friends had not spoken to<\/em> God at all, so to rebuke them for not saying the right thing to God seems odd. OTOH, they had made lots of claims about<\/em> God, specifically about his response to sin and so made him the cause of Job’s suffering and made the reason some supposed transgression on Job’s part.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, there are few examples where Job is recorded as speaking to Yhwh. Andrew points to Job 1:21 which is perhaps one of the few actual occasions where Job is recorded addressing Yhwh (although in 1:21 he does so rather circuitously). In Job 5:8 Job expresses his desire to present his case to God (and do so by speaking to him). Job’s desire to speak with God is manifest in the speech cycles of Job 4\u201327, but that’s not quite speaking to God either. In fact, Job isn’t recorded as directly addressing God until Yhwh himself calls for a response from him and he replies in Job 40:4\u20135. At that point, Job’s words to Yhwh amount to an admission of his ignorance in light of Yhwh’s array of questions which all highlight Job’s lack of knowledge.<\/p>\n

Consequently, Job 42:7 may well be indicating that God approves of Job’s words to him admitting his limits, while Job’s friends all proceeded from the point of view that they held certain knowledge which they then sought to apply to Job’s sufferings \u2014\u00a0information which we know (from the prologue) to be ill-informed (at least in Job’s case).<\/p>\n

As to whether the book is about prayer, I don’t think that is correct. Certainly it has something to say about how we should pray, about the importance of prayer, and so about prayer. But this is not the main message of the book. Nor, for that matter, is suffering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Barry has suggested that Job 42:7, which reads: \u05d7\u05e8\u05d4 \u05d0\u05e4\u05d9 \u05d1\u05da \u05d5\u05d1\u05e9\u05e0\u05d9 \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9\u05da \u05db\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d0 \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05ea\u05dd \u05d0\u05dc\u05d9 \u05e0\u05db\u05d5\u05e0\u05d4 \u05db\u05e2\u05d1\u05d3\u05d9 \u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05d1 ought to be rendered thus: My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right, as my servant Job has. The significant difference to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-job","category-old-testament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}