The Book of Job in Form A Literary Translation With Commentary PDF

The Book of Job in Form
Studia Semitica Neerlandica

Editor-in-Chief
Prof. dr. K.A.D. Smelik
Editorial Board
Prof. dr. P.C. Beentjes, Prof. dr. W.J. van Bekkum,
Dr. W.C. Delsman, Prof. dr. H. Gzella,
Dr. W. Th. van Peursen, Prof. dr. J. Van Steenbergen,
Prof. dr. E. Talstra, Prof. dr. M. Tanret
VOLUME 58
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ssn

The Book of Job in Form
A Literary Translation with Commentary
Translated from the Hebrew, Annotated and Introduced by

Jan P. Fokkelman
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fokkelman, J. P.
[Het boek Job in vorm. English]
The book of Job in form : a literary translation with commentary / translated from the Hebrew,
annotated and introduced by Jan P. Fokkelman.
p. cm. – (Studia Semitica Neerlandica, ISSN 0081-6914 ; v. 58)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-23158-0 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-23234-1 (e-book : alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T. Job–Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1415.52.F6513 2012
223'.105209–dc23
2012018008
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covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
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ISSN 0081-6914
ISBN 978 90 04 23158 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 90 04 23234 1 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

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CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
This English Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
PART I
INTRODUCTION
A Great Work of Poetry and the Competent Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Poetics and Competent Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How Quality and Quantity Work Together: Two Examples . . . . . . . . 10
The Way to the Text Itself: Knowledge and Foreknowledge,
Decisive Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Remarks on the Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Notes to Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
PART II
THE BOOK OF JOB
A LITERARY TRANSLATION IN STROPHIC FORM
Introductory Prose and Job’s Prologue (Curses and Complaint),

Chs. 1–3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The First Round of the Debate, Chs. 4–14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
First Speech by Eliphaz, Chs. 4–5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 6–7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
First Speech by Bildad, Ch. 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Chs. 9–10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The First Speech of Zophar, Ch. 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Job’s Answer to Zophar, Chs. 12–14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Second Round of the Debate, Chs. 15–21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Second Speech by Eliphaz, Ch. 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 16–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Second Speech by Bildad, Ch. 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Ch. 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Second Speech by Zophar, Ch. 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Job’s Answer to Zophar, Ch. 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
vi contents
The Third Round of the Debate, Chs. 22–28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Third Speech by Eliphaz, Ch. 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 23–24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Third Speech by Bildad, Ch. 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Chs. 26–27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Job’s Final Judgment on Wisdom, Ch. 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Climax I, Chs 29–31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Job’s Survey of His Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
The Intervention of a Fourth Friend, Elihu, Chs. 32–37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Climax II, The Last Long Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
God Speaks Four Poems, Chs. 38–41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Job’s Answer, 42:1–6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The Writer Concludes with Narrative Prose, 42:7–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PART III
READING AIDS, NOTES, MEASURES
Introductory Prose, Chs. 1–2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

The First Poem: Job’s Prologue, Ch. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
The First Round of the Debate, Chs. 4–14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Eliphaz’ First Speech, Chs. 4–5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Job’s First Answer, Chs. 6–7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Bildad’s First Contribution, Ch. 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Job’s Second Answer, Chs. 9–10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
The First Speech By Zophar, Ch. 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Job’s Third Answer, Three Poems, Chs. 12–14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
The Second Round of the Debate, Chs. 15–21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Chapter 15: Eliphaz’ Second Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 16–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Bildad’s Second Speech and Job’s Answer, Chs. 18–19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Zophar’s Second Speech and Job’s Answer, Chs. 20–21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
The Third Round of the Debate, Chs. 22–28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Chapter 22: Eliphaz’ Third Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Job Answers in Two Parts, Chs. 23–24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
A Resumé En Route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
The Last Exchange, Chs. 25–27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Conclusion after Debate, Ch. 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
contents vii
First Climax After Debate: Survey In Three Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Chapter 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Chapter 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Chapter 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Evaluation: A Growth Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Elihu, a Younger Friend, Contributes, Chs. 32–37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Introduction, the Appearance of a Fourth Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Chapter 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Chapter 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Chapter 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Chapter 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Chapter 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Chapter 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Climax II: God’s Answer from the Storm and Job’s Final Words . . . . . . . . 301
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
God’s First Round: Two Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Conversation in the Middle: 40:1–5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
God’s Second Round: Again Two Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The Concluding Chapter, Ch. 42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
The Conclusion of the Conclusion: Verse 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
The Narrator Concludes the Book, Verses 7–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Notes to Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Some Bible Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Glossary (Literary Terms) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Subject Index to Parts I and III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
PREFACE
The Book of Job is an exceptional, eminently literary work. It is the only well-
sustained work of poetry with a well-thought-out plan, and of considerable
length, within a body of literature which itself is of an exceptional quality
and variety in its cultural milieu—the Ancient Near East. The collection of
which Job is a part is known in the Christianized world by the somewhat
unfortunate name of ‘Old’ Testament; the more recent title ‘First Testament’
leads to fewer misunderstandings.
The writer did not make things easy for himself. He struggled with fun-
damental questions: is integrity possible and credible, even when subjected
to an extreme test? What does this entail for our image of man? And for
readers who are believers and who hope to link up with the Israelite who
is the anonymous author of the Book of Job: what does it entail for our
image of God? Can one be uninhibitedly furious, sad or desperate when one
addresses God?
The Book of Job is a particularly ‘unwieldy’ text. Like its author, neither
translator nor readers can make things easy for themselves. The forms
(translations) in which the text is available are of little help, because they
print the masses of verses without breaks. It is a tall order not to become
dejected and not to get stuck when working through such unarticulated
matter. Moreover, biblical scholarship has not concerned itself with the
proper framing of a theory which could clear up the foundations, the rules,
and the conventions of this poetry.
I have concerned myself extensively with poetics, as readers of my Read-
ing Biblical Poetry (2001) know. I have demonstrated that the poets of the
Book of Psalms, Lamentations, Song of Songs, Job, Proverbs, and other
poetry were in full command of their craft on all levels of the text. They con-
tinually watched the proportions of verses, strophes and stanzas and man-
aged to make them subservient to expression and content. Now that this
has been elaborately documented, we can print and read the poetry in the
forms and proportions which have characterized it from the beginning. My
translation of the Book of Job makes the text much more accessible by the
application of blank lines; they make every little step in the speaker’s train
of thought visible. My annotations provide aids to reading and follow the
plot in which the debate of Job and his friends is embedded, together with
God’s ‘reply from the storm’. Furthermore, I establish connections between
x preface
higher units of text, so that the cohesion and the depth of the text can come
out well. At the last moment, the new translation of Job 42:6 fifnally brings
out the true proportions of the hero’s portrait.
This English Version
The original version of this book is in Dutch, appeared in October 2009 in

the Netherlands and it is called Het boek Job in vorm. The English version
of the central part, the Job text proper, is from my hand. I am grateful to
Mrs. P. Visser-Hagedoorn, M.A., for her translation of the parts I and III
(the Introduction and the Reading Guides) and to my friend Dr. Lloyd Haft,
who meticulously checked the entire text and polished some details where
needed. I wish to thank my Californian friends from the Peninsula Bible
Church Cupertino: their support, well coordinated by Mrs. Melody Moh,
covered an important part of my translation costs.
There is one major change in this book. For those readers who like to
check my version of Job with the original text I have added the full Hebrew
text in such a way that the central part of this book has become bilingual.
The left pages have the Hebrew and show those verses which on the right
pages are presented in English.
The main aim of this book is to present a platform for an intensive and
highly personal encounter with a unique and major work of art. Therefore
the presence of the Hebrew text has a subservient function. In the scope of
this book some subtleties of the Masoretic text are not relevant, so that I
have skipped them. The book of Job has some forty cases of Ketib and Qere.
Most of them are mainly or merely of an orthographical nature; then the
Qere is attractive. For the rest, I maintain and print the Ketib in Job 9:30a,
13:15a, 19:29c, 21:13a, 24:6a, 30:22b, 33:19b and 28ab, 41:4a and 42:16b.
PART I
INTRODUCTION
A GREAT WORK OF POETRY AND THE COMPETENT READER
The Book of Job, part of the Hebrew Bible, is a formidable work of poetry
within a slender frame of narrative prose. For more than one reason it is an
exceptional text. First of all, this book is the only sizeable work of poetry in
the Hebrew Bible, and it is an excellent, well-sustained composition. Point
two: the author has created poetry of great earnestness, poems in which half
a dozen speakers are concerned with diffifcult, fundamental questions of
human existence. The central problem is the meaning of innocent suffering.
That is a question of unfathomable depth, which, moreover, casts a heavy
shadow over the relationship which the believer has or tries to continue
with his or her God. Ultimately, in the Book of Job one is wrestling for the
correct concepts of both man and God.
The third reason why the Book of Job may be called exceptional becomes
visible if I shift for a moment from the Palestine of some centuries before
Christ to classical Greece. The fiferce debate which Job has with his friends
during two-thirds of the book, shows a certain similarity with Plato’s dia-
logues as to its nature and concern. Leaving aside the considerable differ-
ences, we see in both cases a literary text which defifes the passage of cen-
turies because of its quality and which offers an account of a penetrating
extended conversation about serious matters. Plato tells us how his hero,
Socrates, converses with students and philosophical opponents on subjects
like the destination of the soul, the validity of knowledge, the wished-for
form of government, the enchantment of poetry, and many others. The
author of the Book of Job in turn stages the elaborate exchange between Job
and his visitors, and here, too, the concerns are central things like integrity,
wisdom, and the pressing question whether God can still be called good or
just in the face of innocent suffering (the theodicy).
Then the fourth reason: the mutual pervasiveness of prose and poetry.
The simple prose sentence with which the author introduces the speech-
es—‘then x from y said’ or ‘then Job answered’—is the standard formula of
quotation which we encounter numberless times in the stories from Gene-
sis up to and including Kings, and in younger books like Ezra-Nehemia and
Chronicles. This introductory sentence in prose signals direct discourse, and
it reveals that it is he, the author, and no one else who is holding the strings;
he alone decides who can say what and when. The repetition of the formula
is a thin but strong red thread running all through the poetry, and it ensures
4 a great work of poetry and the competent reader
that all the spoken words in the main body, from chapter 3 on into chap-
ter 42, ultimately remain embedded text, that is, speeches by characters
within a narrative text. Even if their speeches in those chapters are poetry,
the author remains, in his capacity as narrator, the fifrst and the last person
responsible for the long series of poems.
And yet, however strong the author’s grip may be and however much
the narrative frame gives the debate in verses unobtrusive rhythm and
proportions, a main characteristic of the Book of Job remains that its body,
the long series of speeches, is in the form of poems. The type of text chosen
is that of didactic literature, but in strikingly renovated form. It is about
the genre that is called Wisdom. Its normative form we fifnd in the Book of
Proverbs, which is also poetry: worldly wisdom and exploration of morals
in the form of loosely organized collections of proverbs. The Book of Job, it
is true, follows this genre, but in quite an idiosyncratic sense. It is unusually
powerful in two ways: for a long time the speeches are concerned with a
single theme and its attendant motifs, and together the forty poems form a
strong composition which builds up to an outstanding conclusion. Because
of the unique fusion of this art of poetry with the thin red thread of quotation
and with the prose which encloses the body like an envelope, the author lifts
his own exercise in wisdom to the level of dramatic art.1
Looking at this Bible book through eyes which have perused Aristotle’s
Poetics more than once, I recognize yet another quality, one that the father
of scholarship in those days ascribed to epic and tragedy: that its hero is
distinguished, not an average citizen. The Book of Job does not represent
an epic, but the hero after whom it is named, the man Job, is not only a
man of high standing socially, but also emotionally and spiritually a striking
personality, and his struggle against the injustice that is done to him—at
least he thinks in those terms for a long time—is dignififed and immense.
All this means that the Book of Job has great pretensions. Reading, under-
going and evaluating such claims makes a great demand on the reader;
without patience and perseverance we will not get very far. But there is
no reason for the reader (m/f) to get discouraged, on condition that he/she
gives him/herself and the text time and that he/she has adequate compe-
tence. It is exactly that quality, or rather: ability, which I want to support and
increase with this introduction. The translation I offer is characterized by
qualities which are new and which are productive in two directions: regard-
ing the text itself and the reader. I shall explain myself.
a great work of poetry and the competent reader 5
Poetics and Competent Reading
The new thing that I am offering here has everything to do with poetics. The
Book of Job can only show itself to full advantage if we learn how to read
and value the poetry as it wants to be read and listened to: as poetry. If we
are aware of the rules and conventions of making verses in those days, we
will be much better able to understand the book, and to distinguish what
matters in the six gentlemen’s argumentation. In the world of professional
literary studies, people have become more alive to the literary quality of a
text2, but not yet nearly enough. The dimension of the structure of strophes
and stanzas has not yet been mapped accurately and convincingly. I have
addressed that lack with a four-volume work of literary scholarship that
makes it now possible for me to reap the fruits of that research in my own
translation of the Book of Job and in the relevant notes.3
The translation I have made has two characteristics intended to be of use
for productive reading. I have indented the second half-verse of each poetic
line, and each poem is presented in strophic form by the use of blank lines.
I shall return to this before long, but fifrst I must mention and explain some
terminology which is unavoidable in discussing the art of biblical verse:
‘verse’, ‘colon’, ‘strophe’, and ‘prosody’.
The original of Job was composed and written in classical Hebrew. That
language uses fewer words than Dutch or English to say the same thing. An
example: the statement ‘I have listened to you’ has fifve words, but Hebrew
expresses the same thing in one word of four syllables, and compared with
Dutch or English it includes an additional detail as regards information. The
Hebrew form also reveals whether the ‘you’ is male or female; Dutch and
English do not show this distinction. These differences between the source
and target languages have an important consequence for the typography or
layout of poems. The two-part poetic line, the most frequent form of verse
in Hebrew, easily fifts on one line in a book, but not in our language. That is
why for years and years our translations have divided such a full verse over
two lines: each half-verse gets its own line. It is not a bad solution, if only
because this division reflfects how the poet makes use of his syntactic units:
often his half-verse coincides with a complete, short sentence (the clause, as
the linguist calls it). And if the poet makes a compound sentence, the main
clause gets its own colon and the subordinate clause as well.
The word ‘colon’ can now replace the term ‘half-verse’. The great majority
of the poetic lines consist of two parts (i.e., they are bicolic), but there are
also three-part (tricolic) verses, and in that case the word half-verse is not
appropriate. In the Book of Psalms 12.8 percent of the total 2695 verses are
tricolic, and in the Book of Job somewhat fewer: 7.8 percent of the 1005
verses. The word colon comes from the Greek and it means ‘member, part.’ It
is now being used more and more, since other terms, like stiche, hemistiche,
line and couplet do not always mean the same thing for all biblical exegetes
and therefore cause a lot of confusion. The term ‘colon’ is welcome and
indispensable because it is unambiguous. Sometimes I also use the word
‘line segment’ for such a part of the verse. If we want to look more closely at
a poetic line, I shall call the fifrst part the A-colon, and the second part will
be the B-colon. They are the ‘half-verses’ of the binary line. And if there is a
tricolon (a three-part poetic line), the third line-segment will be called the
C-colon.
The older Dutch translations were so wise as to have each B-colon (and
the C-colon, if there was one) indented. This was true of the Dutch Autho-
rized Version (the Dutch counterpart of the King James Bible), the Leyden
Bible of more than a century ago, the widely read 1951 version of the Dutch
Bible Society, and the fifrst and second editions of the Roman Catholic Trans-
lation. Some time ago things changed; more recent versions have aban-
doned this typography, and that is a serious step backward. All cola now
begin at the same place along the left margin. On the page this creates the
image of a mass of lines which has been articulated too little: a slightly dis-
couraging pulp of text.4 If the second colon is indented, the reader will see
immediately and without trouble how the verses run and where they end. It
enables him/her to go with the rhythm of the clauses and of the verses, and
to enjoy reading with a minimum of breaks. Indentation, however modest a
typographical measure, actually is well suited to the essence of this poetry,
because the difference, made visible, between A- and B-cola helps us expe-
rience the creative play which takes place, verse after verse, between the
fifrst and second (and sometimes third) line segments. In verse after verse,
one half-verse is geared to the other by form and content, by techniques of
completion, argument, repetition or intensififcation. Thus each pair of line
segments becomes an interesting duel or duet. Versions which skip inden-
tation deny their readers an essential service.
The term ‘verse’ also demands some explanation. When people talk about
a Bible verse—whether it is in prose or in poetry—they mostly mean the
numbered unit of text. Its numbering, which does not date back to the orig-
inal manuscripts but is much younger, is there for practical purposes: for
reference to a passage. In this case the term ‘verse’ is of little literary impor-
tance. However, the word is given a specififcally literary meaning when we
are engaged with Job, the Book of Psalms, or other poetry. Then it means
‘complete poetic line’. In the Books of Job and Proverbs, the numbering of
Biblical verses almost always coincides with the progression of the actual
poetic verses—a convenient situation. In the Book of Psalms and in the
poetry of the prophets, however, this is not at all always the case, and the
reader must be alert to the difference.
Just as the poet’s verse nearly always consists of two or three cola, two or
three verses nearly always form a strophe. This term, too, comes from Greek,
where it simply means ‘turn’. But, the reader wonders: can we actually use
a word from quite a different culture in poems from the Near East which
make use of a Semitic language, Hebrew? Elaborate investigation yields a
pleasant surprise: the term ‘strophe’ links up perfectly with the way in which
the poets of ancient Israel grouped their verses.5 The biblical strophe has two
variants: it is either short or long, depending on whether it comprises two or
three verses. Accordingly, I shall speak of the S-strophe and the L-strophe in
the notes that follow my translation. The Hebrew poet’s habit of making
a ‘turn’ after every two or three verses is of fundamental importance for
understanding the train of thought. So for the reader biblical poetry is a
constant appeal to stay flfexible: if we are to remain faithful to the text, we
must reply to the poet’s challenge and to his manoeuvers by always staying
with him, again and again making the turn which is put before us. The new
Dutch national Bible version of 2004 has broken new ground by showing
this strophic division of biblical poetry. Opening the Book of Psalms, one
fifnds a blank line after each pair of two or three verses, which is there to
make the strophes visible.6 It helps us readers not to get lost in breathless
reading, and to articulate the reading experience by means of welcome short
intervals.
We now come to another term which is derived from Greek: prosody. This
word stands for the command of quantities, for the regulation of measures
on the various levels of text. The poem is organized as a hierarchy which
extends from very small to very large units. There are syllables and words,
cola and verses, strophes and stanzas, and the poet keeps an eye on the
proportions of all those layers. He knows exactly how many syllables and
words go into his cola, and he obeys rules which determine how many there
may be at the least and at the most. He also knows exactly how many verses
and strophes emerge from his hands.
On the levels beyond the word, the numbers 2 and 3 are highly normative.
I have already mentioned that a verse consists of two or three line segments,
that a strophe nearly always is two or three verses long; I will now add that
two or three strophes usually group themselves into a stanza. Very long
poems have an extra level, which we simply might call parts or sections.
This is the case, for instance, in Psalms 18, 78, and 89.
All this can be proved by counting. Is that really advisable? Isn’t a poem
after all an entity that is determined by meanings of words, by the content
of sentences, by motives and themes? Yes, I say wholeheartedly, that is and
remains the main thing, but I must add that the proportions of the texts and
our numerical understanding of them yield an unexpected additional value.
Counting produces great surprises.7
Here I must restrict myself drastically, and offer only a small selection
of examples of numerical perfection. Counting the smallest units (syllables
and words) must be done in the original Hebrew, whereas this book is
primarily meant for the ‘common’ reader who does not have a command
of Hebrew. However, I cannot help mentioning, every now and then, some
deeply detailed fifgures, if only to give the reader an impression of how
accurately the poet was working.
Perhaps a fifrst impression can best be gained on the central level of
strophes. The fifgures of these units do not differ in translation from the
original.8 The poetry of the Book of Job consists of 232 short and 180 long
strophes. Their sum, 412, does not look very particular.9 But this changes
radically when we examine how the strophes are spread over the speak-
ers.10 Then it turns out that exactly fiffty percent of the total falls to only
one of the six speakers, and that is the hero himself, Job. Job speaks 206
strophes and the other 206 strophes are divided over his four friends (actu-
ally three plus one: the Elihu section follows when Eliphaz, Bildad and
Zophar have fifnished) plus God. And anyone still wishing to call this fiffty-
fiffty division a coincidence in spite of its glaring inequality (one versus fifve
speakers), can no longer maintain this when we go a step further. The 206
strophes that Job himself speaks are also exactly divided into two equal
halves as regards S- and L-units: 103 strophes by him are short (two-line
strophes) and 103 are long (three-line strophes). This form of balance is a
specififc characteristic of the Book of Job, for in the Book of Psalms it is not
used.
For a second impression of the numerical perfection which the poet
has as it were hidden in his text and interwoven with it, I go down to the
level of syllables and words. Three-quarters of the cola in the Book of Job
have a length of seven, eight, or nine syllables. The same measures are less
frequent, but still constitute a great majority, in the Book of Psalms. These
fifgures 7–8–9 are normative numbers which the poets have in the back of
their minds while creating verses. More than half of the 148 poems in the
Book of Psalms score an exact 7, 8, or 9 as the average number of syllables per
colon. A single example may serve by way of illustration. In the beginning of
the Book of Psalms there are four songs which have 144 syllables; the reader
will recognize this fifgure as the square of the holy number 12. Psalm 1 begins
with it and places its 144 syllables in 16 cola. When we divide the 144 by the
number of cola, we do not get a fraction, but a precise integer: 9. There are a
dozen other Psalms which score the same average, but there is not even one
that extends beyond that 9, so that I believe Psalm 1, as the beginning of the
collection, has the prosodic intention of immediately indicating a ceiling.
The other three Psalms with 144 syllables have eighteen cola, so that division
leads to exactly eight syllables as the average per colon.11
There are tens of songs in the Book of Psalms which score this exact 8
when we divide the number of their syllables by the number of cola. The
fifgures 7 and 9 also occur regularly, but less often than 8. The number 8 is
the central normative number in classical Hebrew poetry. It also turns up on
other levels, as I shall show presently. One of them I shall mention right
now: the body of the Book of Job contains forty poems, and that number is
prestigious in the Bible.12
But in the meantime—I can imagine—the reader wonders: is it useful
for me to know this? I think it is, for it enhances our sensitivity to propor-
tions. After the correct delineation of the strophes the normative numbers
regularly appear to be in the service of the structure of the poem. They help
us fifnd the heart of the message. Though I am resolved not to glut the reader
with numbers, I will shed some light on them wherever they matter.
On reflfection, I still need to go deeper into the normative power of the
number 8. The inflfuence of this fifgure makes itself felt on the levels of the
verse and the strophe as well. The poet regularly creates a verse with a
balanced 8+8 syllables for its two halves. Thus the double 8 has a powerful
claim to being the norm for the standard verse. And the same holds good for
the four- or six-part structure one level up. When climbing up to the regular
S-strophe of two bipartite poetic lines, we may confifdently expect the poet
to enjoy now and then giving to the entire quartet of cola the symmetry
of 8+8//8+8 syllables. A step further and there is the regular L-strophe:
three bicola which always have the 8 as measure. Thus 32 and 48 become
the normative numbers on the level of strophes.13 To attain these totals for
the strophe, the poet has many variants at his disposal. The 32, for example,
can take the form of two verses of 7+9 and 10+6 syllables. Similarly, the total
of 48 for the L-strophe can be built up by a symmetrical series of 9 + 8, 7 + 7,
and 8+9 syllables.
How Quality and Quantity Work Together: Two Examples
For me, the meaning and content of a poem always remain primary. Some-
times it is tempting to deduct the design or the structure of a literary text
from numerical data, but to me that seems improper and incorrect. My own
analyses of the style and structure of biblical poems remain independent of,
and mostly precede, any conscious process of measuring and counting. But
having said this, I fifnd in practice that numerical data do sometimes offer
amazing corroboration as to the correct division of strophes and stanzas.
First I shall look at an example of something that went wrong in the recent
Dutch version. I open Psalm 33 in that translation and look at the typogra-
phy, especially at the position of the blank lines that mark the strophes. The
translators want us to believe that the fifrst and last verses are separate and
that the body of the song, vv. 2–21, consists of ten regular S-strophes. Could
this really be true?
Isolating the fifrst and last verses is most unfortunate; to see that, one does
not need to know Hebrew at all. Anybody reading vv. 1–3 will see at once that
these verses all say the same thing. The poet asks a group to praise God. The
verses are variants of each other as concerns theme or message, and they
share two other characteristics: each half-verse (except one) is determined
by the imperative mood, and the use of the second person (plural in the
original) is specififc and does not occur in subsequent verses.
In reality the poet started with a long strophe. In each verse a collective
is addressed; these ‘you’ are people from his community, fellow citizens,
fellow believers. But saying ‘you’ implies that there is a person who does the
addressing; and that is the poet himself. If we now add him to the group,
there is a simple sum: you + I = we, and this fifrst person plural of all people
gets its turn in the last three verses (and nowhere else). These poetic lines,
too, are united by being each other’s variants or synonyms. We conclude
that the head and tail of the composition are both formed by long strophes
which are each other’s pendants, and that in this way the poem has been
nicely framed and marked as a complete whole.
Psalm 33 is a tripartite composition: there are three stanzas, each of
which has three strophes. Around the middle (stanza II, vv. 8–15) the
strophic units are balanced; by their different lengths parts I and III show
this symmetry:
L S S//S S L
This mirroring of seven plus seven verses and the correspondence we have
just found of the fifrst and last strophes raise the suspicion that the poet
has been composing with a concentric structure in mind. This surmise is

confifrmed when we look at the centre. Stanza II, vv. 8–15, consists of eight
verses. If we follow their structure, we immediately see the pivot around
which the composition as a whole swivels. This time I will copy out the text:
Let all the earth fear Yahweh, (strophe 4)
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nought; (strophe 5)

he frustrates the plans of the peoples;
but the counsel of Yahweh stands for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
Yahweh looks down from heaven, (strophe 6)

he sees all the sons of men;
from where he sits enthroned he looks forth
on all the inhabitants of the earth.
He who fashions the hearts of them all,
he observes all their deeds.
The words are mainly taken from the RSV, except for God’s proper name,
which I refuse to censor. If my division of the poem as 3 × 3 strophes is
correct, the division in the Dutch version means that a linguistic work of
art has been ruined. That is the result of putting fifve blank lines in the
wrong places. A short explanation will do to prove the correct arrangement,
and here again, one does not need to know Hebrew to make the correct
connections.
Strophes 4 and 6 are each other’s pendants by virtue of speaking of
God as creator and of his unceasing guarding or care for his creation. The
repetition of words for those ‘who inhabit the earth’ urges us to make the
connection. It also strikes us how far the poet casts his net: ‘the whole
earth’ corresponds with the much-used ‘all’ of strophe 6. Finally there is
the complementarity of heaven and earth, for the Israelite the halves of the
universe since Genesis 1:1. The fifgure of speech which such a pair constitutes
is called merism.
Between these two strophes is the heart of the poem, strophe 5. This unit
is the middle of the nine in total. Because it is long, the poet can make
its middle verse (v. 11) the pivot which explains why the world is durable.
Around it he now places a nice contrast: the mass of the peoples versus
one particular nation, and that is of course Israel, the chosen people. The
negative (of ‘frustrating’) stands opposite to the positive (election), and the
perfect balance of the strophe is fifrmly grounded by the correspondence
of ‘peoples/nations’ in v. 10 and ‘people/nation’ in v. 12. This relation is a
parallelism and at the same time an antithesis. Opposed to the plans that
lead nowhere is the one plan on which history is based. The repetition of
the word ‘plan’ draws our attention to it. As the middle of the middle, v. 11
radiates a supreme calm which mocks the madding world’s ignoble strife. The
dimension of time (eternity) is specififc to the centre.
Psalm 33 turns out to be largely a ring composition.14 The arrangement
in nine units15 can be justififed with the observation that all these strophes
(except one) introduce God’s proper name, ‘Yahweh’, at once: right in their
fifrst half-verses. As far as I know this is unique. Now it is obvious who, to the
poet’s mind, is the hero. The question remains how things stand with the
prosody of the original, the command of quantities.
Psalm 33 is very regular. All verses are bipartite, and 84 percent of the
half-verses have 7 to 9 syllables in the original. In total there are 352 syllables;
that number raises the question whether we may read it as 320 + 32, that is,
forty-plus-four times the central normative number eight. The answer is yes
when we consider the fifgures for the short strophes; these fifve units have
32–32–33–32–31 syllables respectively. It is clear that the 33 and the 31 offset
each other. The conclusion is simple: 32 is the normative number for the
S-strophes.
The L-strophes which form the head and the tail also offset each other,
for their lengths are 47+49 syllables. The small variation cannot conceal
that 48 (read: six times 8, fiftting a unit of six cola) is their inspiration. Then
there are strophes 5 and 6 (which contain vv. 10–12, the heart of the matter,
and vv. 13–15 respectively). They differ markedly in length, viz. 52 and 44
syllables. But when we add those two fifgures, we discover that their sum,
96, again is twofold and again presupposes 48 as normative number for the
L-strophe with its six cola.
How accurately the poet is working and counting appears in yet another
striking case of symmetry.16 Here are the fifgures for strophes 2 and 3, which
mirror each other on the levels of colon and verse and both of which result
in a total of 32:
(strophe 2) 7+9 = 16 8+8 = 16 (strophe 3)

8+8 = 16 7+9 = 16
We now have an overview of what the fifve S-strophes and the four L-
strophes do, numerically. The short units work with fifve times 32, which
is 160 (read: 20 times eight), and the long ones work with four times 48,
in all 192 (or 24 times eight). The poem as a whole has 44 cola with 352
syllables, and that yields an exact 8 as the average per colon. This result
is attained without me having to emend even one syllable of the original
text.
I hope that all this counting and the many fifgures have not overtired the
reader. Where does this fifnger exercise lead? What is the meaning or the use
of all these fifgures? With their sums and their web of numbers that covers
the whole poem, they constitute a numerical proof that the composition is
really a series of three times three strophes. And thus they point to the heart
of the poet’s argument: election and durability, as presented by v. 12, the axis
of the middle strophe:
… the counsel of Yahweh stands for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
My second example comes from the Book of Job itself. In chapter 9, Job
begins his reaction to the fifrst speech of his friend Bildad. This poem is
by far the longest of the entire fifrst round of the debate, and it consists of
twelve strophes. The outline of the three parts (long stanzas) is as follows:
Job points at the creator’s power, next (vv. 13–24) he wonders how he, a weak
mortal, can go against it—evidently I cannot; even if I am blameless, God
declares me guilty—and in the end (vv. 25–35) he longs for justice: he thinks
it incomprehensible how God maltreats him.
Job 9, too, betrays great precision on the poet’s part. If I count the words
of the original text, there are 256 (note well: 2 to the power of eight) and
they are spread over 17+17 verses exactly as 128 + 128 words. When I have
analyzed the structure and delineated the strophes, this poem turns out to
have ten long and two short strophes:
L L L S /L L L L/ S L L L
Ah, the two shorter ones have been placed very strategically round the
centre! We will soon see what they have to say and if they have a message
in common. Both strophes have to do with volatility. In v. 11 it is about God
who remains elusive: one cannot pin him down when one wants to demand
an explanation from him, Job complains. And in vv. 25–26 Job is concerned
about his own life, which escapes him at high speed.
More remarks about the content will be found later, after the translation,
but for the moment I will go deeper into the proportions. The strophes
cooperate in pairs. I call these pairs substanzas, and their size, embodied
in the most delicate measuring of syllables, is striking:
Strophe no. 12 34 56 78 9 10 11 12
Syllables 47–51 44–33 48–50 49–50 32–46 48–51
98 77 98 99 78 99
The numbers in boldface are those for the substanzas (the six pairs of
strophes). It is striking how the fifgures for the fifrst three are all increased
by one in the second three.17 Of course this can be traced back to the
components one line up: the fifgures for the strophes. There, too, is a play on
one more or one less: compare the fifrst pair, 47 + 51, with the third, 48 + 50; a
comparable variation occurs between the fourth pair, 49 + 50, and the sixth,
48+51.
The Way to the Text Itself:

Knowledge and Foreknowledge, Decisive Authority
The prose that leads us up to the work of poetry is an indispensable requisite

for listening to the great debate, and in particular for doing so on the basis
of the right information and a proper attitude. This was exactly what the
Old Testament scholarship of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was
not prepared to do. It followed the so-called historical-critical method and
wasted a lot of energy addressing wrong and unproductive questions to the
texts from Ancient Israel. Those questions all have to do with origins. They
can be summarized as ‘how would the text have come into being?’ and they
were asked in an attitude of suspicion or scarcely veiled distrust. Together
with this question goes the thought that one can only judge a text after
one has wholly mapped out the course of its genesis. And behind it lies
the curious idea that the explanation of a text is the fifnal goal of a causal
chain: only if we know who the author was, to which school he belonged
ideologically and from which sources he drew, can we draw up a causal
‘explanation’ of the text which compellingly shows how all those factors
could not but lead to the given text.
All this zeal means—I now say severely—a dogged refusal to listen to
the text itself, a refusal in spite of the primary quality of the text—that it
is a speaking subject as soon as someone lends it an ear. Is there a good
alternative to causal explanation? Certainly. It is the insight that a text by
defifnition wants to convey something, and the willingness to reply to that
wish of the text’s—such reaching out for communication—with openness
and straightforward listening. With these reflfections I say goodbye to the
disastrous operation which historical criticism performed on the Book of
Job when it maintained that its prose must be by a different author and date
from a different time than its body of verse.
The author opens the Book of Job in his role as omniscient narrator. That
quality enables him to inform us of what goes on in the heavenly council.
He lets us listen in while God is talking to an angel on duty, a sort of District
Attorney. In the original he is called sataan, with the stress on the end; not
till centuries later did this word get the meaning of Satan or devil. In classical
Hebrew it means ‘prosecutor’. This person remains absolutely subordinate
to God’s command. In spite of this, it is he who makes a fatal proposal, and
when God agrees to this incentive, Job becomes the object of a horrible
wager.
The qualififcation of the author as omniscient is not a theological but
a narratological statement, and it holds good for all traditional narration
about the world. And, vice versa, when a believer says ‘God is omniscient’,
it is not a narrative but a theological assertion. When we take note of the
beginning of the Book of Job, we must realize that in reading the opening
of a story we enter into a contract concerning the narrator’s authority, and
that a sharp distinction must be maintained between art of narrative and
knowledge of narrative. I shall explain this with a comparable, shocking text
from the Book of Genesis.
Suppose the narrator of Genesis 22 began with the words in verse 2, God’s
order to Abraham, which in short is: ‘Sacrififce your only son to me!’ Such a
beginning would be too crude and immoral to cope with, at least for a reader
who was not made of stone. The writer of Genesis knew as much, so he does
not start with embedded text (the direct speech which we fifnd in verse 2)
but with his own informative text. It says, in somewhat older English than
recent translations: ‘After these things [in ch. 21 we have just heard that the
elderly Abraham and Sarah had a son at last] it happened that God tested
Abraham.’ The real beginning of Genesis 22 relieves the reader’s pain about
the horrible command to a father, because the writer/narrator shares his
superior knowledge of the event with the reader. That is why the reader at
once in vv. 1–2 realizes: ‘Ah, just a second, this is only a test. Let me just
wait and see how it ends.’ The reader suspends his judgement until he has
reached the goal of the story (in vv. 16–18), and he already begins to relax
when in v. 11 he is informed that an angel holds Abraham’s hand with the
knife. All’s well that ends well.
The maker of Genesis 22 is a writer who knows how to titrate that tension
and who prevents an excessive shock for the reader by applying the lead of
his foreknowledge like a good psychologist. As a narrator he is omniscient,
in terms of our conception of narrative. The author writes narrative and
offers a primary text. A reader with some learning practises narratology

and when he writes down his reactions—as I am doing now—he produces
secondary literature.
As soon as we open a narrative chapter from the Bible, whether it is
Genesis 1 or 22, the short Book of Jonah or the prose with which the Book
of Job begins, our reading can only succeed if we adopt a loyal attitude
and accept the narrator’s authority. Whoever starts reading, enters into
a contract and implicitly says to the narrator: I accept your authority; I
understand that I must give you all credit, because otherwise it would make
no sense to go on reading. We oblige ourselves to practise suspension of
disbelief, in Coleridge’s phrase. This unspoken but fundamentally important
agreement also entails that we as readers must cover a double trajectory.
In the fifrst place we obediently follow the linear axis of the language and
we receive a message comprising a series of actions and events. But in the
meantime (and in the second place), we also keep our ears pricked up for the
rare moments when the narrator passes judgement or hints at a judgement,
and for the way in which he characterizes his people. This takes us to the
beginning of Job.
The fifrst verse begins as brieflfy as can be by indicating the hero and the
country where he lives, outside Palestine. But then! All at once, in the same
verse 1, the narrator takes his time (in the text it is space: an entire series of
words) to characterize the man Job. At the earliest possible stage he gives
away quite a lot in words that sound the depths of Job:
That man was blameless and upright,
fearing God and shunning evil.
This rendering of mine contains some words of the RSV and continues with
a slight variation, in order to report accurately that the narrator does not
characterize Job adequately in a single word—something that certainly lies
within his power—but with two pairs. The fifrst pair consists of single words,
the adjectives ‘blameless and upright’. The fifrst-mentioned of these two
words means, in other contexts, primarily ‘complete’, ‘sound’, in a physical
sense, but in our text ‘sound’ in a moral sense has to be considered; several
versions say ‘blameless.’
As if this were not enough, we now get to hear another pair of qualififca-
tions of Job; in the original they consist of two words each, literally ‘fearing
God and shunning evil’. What long ago was called ‘the fear of God’ does
not so much speak of fright, as of fiftting awe. We now have an overview
of verse 1 and we can determine that the terms for Job’s excellence in the
fifrst instance are articulated as two pairs, but also that they realize a pat-
tern of 3+1. There are three positive terms, but the fourth one deviates by
negation of the negative: ‘turning away from/shunning evil’; it is an example
of the formula ‘minus times minus equals plus’, which is not infrequent with
Hebrew poets. The ending of verse 1 uses the contrast God-versus-evil, and
via the word ‘shunning’ converts it to synonymy: turning away from evil has
become a form of ‘fearing God’. The reader keeps to the contract and now
understands: when the narrator says all this about Job, it is true. Reading
loyally presupposes and accepts the narrator’s authority. Reading on, we are
told how rich Job is, we see his family, and how he looks after his offspring,
vv. 2–5.
The sequence which then follows contains a lot of speech. Omniscient
as the narrator is, he lets us listen in to the conversation between the
Prosecutor and his master. God himself sounds outright proud when he says
in verse 8:
Have you considered my servant Job?
There is none like him on the earth:
A man blameless and upright,
Fearing God and shunning evil.
We note that there is an accumulation of authority. The words with which
the author characterized Job ‘just happen’ to be exactly the words with
which God describes him to his district attorney, the angel on duty sataan.
The authority of one speaker completely covers the authority of the other
one.
Is there a hierarchy in the authority with which Job is spoken about?
The believing reader inclines to see God as number One, and only then
is there the narrator. This is understandable, but it is a judgement of a
theological (or at least religious) kind. It is not a judgement of narrative
power. God is a character in the story Job 1–2 tells, and the master of the
story is the narrator. In his capacity as omniscient narrator the author has
decided that he wants to give us a look into the heavenly council, but before
that he had already decided to be the fifrst to reveal Job’s integrity, even
before his account of the conversation in heaven. The question as to the
ranking of authority requires less a theological answer than a narratological
one: number One is the author, who as narrator pulls all the strings, and
if it pleases him, God may be number Two. Put rather bluntly: in v. 8
God parrots the narrator. And yet, however valid this order may be, the
author, a believing Israelite we assume, knows very well that his audience
believes in the God who in Exodus 3 has manifested himself and identififed
himself as Yahweh, and of course he also intends the laudatory words
which God speaks about Job to strengthen his own words in his contempo-
raries’ estimation.
Why have I been so elaborate about the two plus two predicates? Because
the description of Job’s excellence by two unsurpassable authorities forms
the solid ground that we will be in dire need of under our feet, from the
moment when we are cast into the deep by the author-poet: the unruly
poetry of so many chapters and the high-running emotions of a fiferce
debate. Now that Job’s integrity is beyond all doubt, there arises in the
reader’s mind a space for understanding: understanding that will remain
at all those moments when Job gets furious and says very nasty things about
God.
The author also makes this understanding possible by his skilful handling
of two levels of knowledge. The horrible accidents that befell Job rapid-
fifre—the loss of his children, and that of all his property up to and including
his own health—are the result of a wager. The one who conceives this bet,
it is true, is the Prosecutor, but its execution is only possible with God’s
approval, and ultimately God is the truly responsible one for the disasters
which Job has to go through. After the heavenly deliberation, Job becomes
a guinea-pig, and everyone that matters knows this: within the story they
are God and his heavenly council, including the Prosecutor (who in some
versions is called Satan: a serious mistranslation), and outside or above the
story they are the writer and his readers.
The only one who does not know that for a long time Job will be a
guinea-pig in a horrible wager, and whose ignorance matters, is Job himself.
This means that in Job 1–2 two levels of knowledge are created which remain
active until just before the end of the book. The hero does not know what we
know right from the beginning. That is why we read Job 3–42 with a double
perspective: we understand his ignorance; we ourselves know more. And
because we understand his position, we all feel pity—if not fury about the
cruel exercise—with Job, and we have no diffifculty in pardoning him when
he furiously or bitterly storms at God. With that we are in the same position
as the celestials; for they also know more.
The backbone of a story is the plot. In Job 1 the plot originates from
a question by the Prosecutor, which is as sneaky as it is brilliant. ‘Does
Job really have no reason for standing in such great awe of God?’ This
question presupposes the thought, the interpretation or the surmise by
Job that his well-being and prosperity are a reward by God for his sincer-
ity and avoidance of evil. We will regularly encounter the same approach
among the friends, but from a reversed point of view. When they see Job’s
suffering and begin to speak after mourning for a long time, they try to
make things somewhat palatable to themselves by a logical operation in

three steps:
a) the disasters have been inflficted on him by God—an interpretation
which is not incorrect, but which does not really satisfy us because it
is ignorant of the true background and the framework in which the
blows are dealt: the embarrassing wager;
b) this intervention by God means punishment of Job by God, and
c) because God is just (the friends think), this punishment must have
been provoked by serious sins or trespasses on Job’s part. On these they
are going to nag him endlessly … Put nicely, this three-stage reasoning
is the classical form of the so-called theodicy (from theos = God and
dike = right, again in Greek). It is the doctrine that tries to maintain
both the innocent man’s suffering and God’s kindness or right: an all
but impossible task.
Back to the plot. God agrees to the Prosecutor’s challenge and grants him
permission to attack Job so severely that little more than his breath remains
to him. This creates expectations in the reader—peering forward on the
edge of his chair—and the question: will Job break, or will he stick to
righteousness and morals?
Ultimately that is of course the crucial question: is Job’s faith in God pure?
Will he keep trusting in or hoping for God, in spite of everything? Apparently
God does trust in ‘his servant’. It is a bit too facile to take refuge in the
theological reasoning that says: because God is omniscient (and also has
foreknowledge of what is coming) he foresees the good outcome. We may
not appeal to that, if only out of respect for the man and for the author. This
reasoning would also ruin the nature of the text—the tension buildup that is
generated by the story—and the rich exploration of the subject (the debate
in verses).
The Book of Job is exceptional, I wrote earlier. This emerges even more
clearly when we realize what the book is not. Let us consider the place that
this text occupies in the Hebrew Bible—the collection of writings which
in the Christianized world is known under the misnomer ‘Old Testament.’
The tens of ‘books’ are mainly concerned with the origin, the history, and
the identity of the people of Israel. Not so the Book of Job. The hero of the
book, the man Job, is not even an Israelite! And the author allows him to use
the name of Yahweh freely! What is happening here?
Looking for an answer, let us listen to the messages of the prose. The high
point of the action is a low point for the hero. Through four disasters Job is
deprived of everything but his breath of life. But the author does not report
this in his own hand; he subcontracts this job to others. He reports to us how
the blows are reported to Job, and then at once he employs a breathless style:
the reports by the messengers who arrive at Job’s with their tidings of woe
are strung together without a break in 1:16 and 17 and 18, with the words:
‘While he was yet speaking, there came another and said (…)’: a threefold
chain.
Such a composition and the fact that all the disasters more or less take
place within one part of the day, whereas they come about in different
locations, evoke the thought that such a piling up of calamities (almost a
synchronism) is too strong ever to occur in the reality of people’s lives. The
series is as it were too smooth and too quick for that. And this brings me to
a conclusion in terms of genre. What is reported here is not historiography,
and Job is not a character to be pinned down in history. The story of
the breathtaking series of tidings of woe is, on the contrary, a pastiche of
historiography. Then the question arises: why? What is the genre?
The most important help we get in correctly determining the genre is
from an exile in Iraq, who was a priest and a prophet: Ezekiel. In ch. 14 of
the book of the same name, we hear, four times, about three men who on a
day of national downfall can save only themselves, and that thanks to their
own righteousness. In Ez. 14:14 and 20 their names appear: Noah, Daniel and
Job.18 These are names with a prestigious aura, and they belong to legendary
men of consequence from prehistoric times. The story of the Deluge from
Genesis with Noah as its hero is notoriously fifctional, and in a different way
this is also true of the brief Book of Daniel, the youngest composition in the
Hebrew Bible.19
Our writer, too, has chosen the name of a legendary hero from prehistoric
times. The name was appropriate both for his overall purpose and his man-
ner of exposition. The Book of Job is an exercise in thinking, an example, a
case. Take a character who inspires reverence, characterize him as morally
absolutely blameless, and see what happens when that man is cut down
undeservedly by the worst fate imaginable—that is the thought-experiment
being carried out here. The rabbis from Mesopotamia of the fiffth century
(the second Babylonian exile) whose deliberations are to be found in the
Talmud, and the most famous Jewish philosopher, Maimonides (twelfth
century), also said: Job is an examplar; this Book is not historiography but a
parable.
In the end the reader asks: when was this book written? No one knows
even approximately. I myself venture an estimation that could easily be a
century off: perhaps in the fiffth century before Christ. Ideologically speak-
ing, the writer has a distant cousin: Qohelet (= Ecclesiastes), the only philos-
opher of the Hebrew Bible, a radical thinker who freely explores forms of
Wisdom in argumentative prose that now and then develops into poetry.
I mention him because he can be placed accurately on account of his lan-
guage. His Hebrew already includes forms that can no longer be called clas-
sical; it is already on its way toward the so-called Mishnah-Hebrew of the
Palestine of the fifrst and second centuries of our era. In short, the Preacher
is identififable as a voice from the third century before Christ.20 The fact that
the Book of Job does not yet use younger forms of language, but after due
comparison with the lyric poetry in the Book of Psalms may be called solidly
classical, warns me not to date this document too late.
Dating it too early, however, would be equally unsupportable. I am im-
pressed by the similarities in language and in passion between Job 3 (the
hero’s prologue, with curses which might qualify this poem for the title
‘fifercest text in the Bible’) and the very personal poem in Jeremiah 20. The
contexts are quite different: the prophet’s pain, despair and fury are con-
nected with his own task and with the fate of his country, the small perish-
ing realm of Judah. But its language, emotions, and poetical framing have
remarkable points of contact with Job 3, so that I suspect some contact and
inflfuence. In one direction: the prophet may have affected the poet of wis-
dom. In that case Jeremiah’s time (sixth century before Christ), is a terminus
a quo (as the jargon has it) for the Book of Job.
Many practitioners of the humanities are obsessed with being able to
date the important writings, and this is understandable (I had almost writ-
ten: excusable). They experience it as a serious problem if a text defifes more
or less reliable dating. I myself prefer the reverse approach. The fact that Job
is diffifcult to pin down as regards origin, is something that this book has in
common with many of the Psalms. But the fact that it is diffifcult to date
results from the very nature of these lyrical and didactic texts. One of their
most important objectives involves an inner process: that of communica-
tion with the listener or reader. They seek to raise as few barriers as possible
for their readers, so that they can identify with the voice that speaks the
poems. Biblical poetry is always fifercely emotional, but at the same time it
is emotional in such a way that it reaches out for the universal, mostly suc-
cessfully. Job’s fate and his emotions are not strange to us, and the Book of
Job explores the extremes for us. And ‘we’—we are of all times.
Remarks on the Translation
My use of language agrees with the two most important and well-considered
principles of the recent Dutch translation, viz.: stay faithful to the source
text and attuned to the target language. I personally try to keep even some-
what nearer to the original. Wherever my text is not flfuent, this quality
mirrors the unruliness of the original. This work of Hebrew poetry has never
been easy, not even for the poet’s contemporaries. It is not the task of a cor-
rect translation to obscure this. So I shall not follow the principle that is the
main characteristic of the Good News Bible (and its equivalents in other
modern languages): that broad obviousness of meaning is always desirable.
Making things nicer, more supposedly simple, does our poet an injustice.
This translation was completed years after I had already done elaborate
studies of the style and structure of the Book of Job. Its strophic form is one
of the results of that work. The correct delineation of such units of text can
only emerge when the examiner has doggedly striven to distinguish all the
aspects of form and to weigh them off against each other. For that, more
patience is needed than most people can muster who think they can just
‘go for the contents’. With this book, the reader (m/f) can now go the way
in reverse. The strophes are there for him/her and they serve as his/her
starting-point. Thanks to their articulation, important indicators of style
and structure can become visible in the target language, so that the reader
may penetrate the real Job—the linguistic work of art—more deeply. Again
I will give an example.
Being a son of his literary tradition, the poet sometimes constructs a
hymnal series of verses such as we encounter them here and there in the
Psalms.21 Such series are not easy to recognize in modern versions, because
each line receives an independent verb. However, in the original this in-
volves participles which denote qualities of God’s, not incidental actions.
I deal with this by consistently putting adjectival subordinate clauses in
a row. As they begin with the word ‘who,’ the reader can now recognize
them more easily as a hymnal series: as actions by the deity beyond time.
See for example 5:8–14 (a series of three strophes), a text which is meant
to be laudatory on the part of Job’s friend Eliphaz, but also 9:5–10 (Job’s
answer), or 12:14–25 (a series of no fewer than four strophes), by which Job
turns the genre of panegyric upside down and quite sharply portrays God as
a destroyer and an unpredictable, violent criminal. Here I often repeat the
word ‘he’ at the beginning of the lines.
The word ‘strophe’ means turn, as we have seen. The strophic form that
this translation restores to Job is an invitation to the reader to experience
the turns in full. They can be indicated by many means: change of theme
or subject matter; the change from one grammatical person to another, for
example when the speaker has been speaking about God in the third person
but then addresses him in the second person; marking the beginning of a
strophe by use of the imperative voice, or by a signal like ‘look!’, or by the
introduction of a rhetorical question. A complete list of the many ways in
which strophes can distinguish themselves from their surroundings can be
found in the concise but complete poetics I wrote for readers who do not
know Hebrew: Reading Biblical Poetry: An Introductory Guide (2001).
In my translation of Job I do not use metre. The man who did attempt
this deserves appreciation for his courage.22 Because my translation makes
visible and productive the higher levels of prosody, especially by means
of strophe boundaries, there is no need for me to pursue the virtually
impossible: an English verse form which purports to catch the rhythm of the
Hebrew verses. (Biblical poetry consists of accentual verses, which means
that per colon there are two to four main stresses which function as metric
accents; the number of unstressed syllables surrounding those stresses is of
little importance).
The translation is based on the standard Hebrew text, used all over the
world, which for more than a century has been printed in Stuttgart.23 The
original has been slightly damaged during its tradition of more than two
thousand years, but much less than many experts think. I am confifdent that I
can limit myself to some thirty small emendations; this is substantially fewer
than the average commentator makes.24
In the text of the translation, the strophic units are distinguished by blank
lines. Each strophe is given a letter in the right margin, and the stanzas
which they form, mostly in twos or threes, are there indicated by a Roman
numeral.
In the Book of Job we encounter different names for the deity. Besides the
common word for God (god, gods) there is a short form El (pronunciation:
ale). I maintain it because the word functions as a proper name. A number
of times it is accompanied in an adjacent half-verse by a kind of epithet,
Shaddai. That, too, is maintained, not only because it functions as a name,
but also because we do not really know what its origin and its meaning are.
The most important thing, fifnally, is the proper name of the God of Israel:
Yahweh. It occurs about 6800 times in the First Testament—and is crossed
out an equal number of times by Jews and Christians alike. They replace
the name by a word which fifts in with their ideology but which is sexist,
authoritarian, and one-sided: Lord. And they assert that they do this out of
respect. Yet, it is outright bizarre to whoever reads Exodus 3. There Moses,
who is given the supreme task of his life, asks the deity that addresses him
what he is called. God is so obliging as to reveal to him his proper name:
Yahweh, and even to offer an explanation, after which he expressly allows
him to use that name as the legitimation of his mission, leading the people
away from the house of slavery, Egypt. So, subjecting the proper name to
relentless censorship is not justififed in biblical-theological terms. Nothing
is more natural and polite than returning Yahweh’s proper name to him.
I would like to be thrifty with capital letters, but now and then I feel
obliged to write ‘He’ when talking about God, in those places which might
otherwise confuse the reader into thinking that the third person refers to
Job or a friend of his.
NOTES TO PART I
1. Françoise Mies, L’espérance de Job, 2006, considers which label best suits
the genre of Job—a diffifcult question—and fifnally opts for the well-argued
term ‘drama’.
2. As a result the new Dutch Bible Translation (NBV) which was published
in 2004, has the pretension of being a literary translation. Among commen-
tators on the Book of Job, Norman C. Habel stands out with his contribu-
tion to the Old Testament Library series (OTL): The Book of Job, 1985. In
Holland there is the study Rhetorical Criticism & the Poetry of the Book of
Job by Pieter van der Lugt, a theologian who has not yet met real literary
scholarship halfway and whose divisions I often reject; unfortunately his
book is not free from diachronic speculations. An honourable mention is
deserved by the elaborate study by Françoise Mies mentioned in the pre-
ceding note.
3. Between 1998 and 2004 I published the series Major Poems of the Hebrew
Bible: At the Interface of Prosody and Structural Analysis. In it I study struc-
ture, style and prosody of all the Psalms and the poetry of the Book of Job.
Until recently, Bible explanation was the monopoly of divines: people that
are exposed to the danger of ‘going for the contents’, resulting in a serious
lack of fundamental understanding of the literary way-of-being of the texts
and all it implies. One glaring example: David Clines’ recent commentary,
in the Word Biblical Commentary series, studies the language pleasantly in
detail and is sound in its kind; but of the more than one thousand pages
of volumes I and II (up to and including Job 37) not one has been reserved
for an introduction (if only a minimal one) on verse or strophe structure,
or on any other aspect of poetics. Clines is also the umpteenth person who
cuts and pastes texts radically, especially in and around ch. 27, and he places
Elihu’s part radically somewhere else.
4. We are, it is true, offered a little comfort by the small (and superscript)

print of the numbers of verses, but this is accompanied by a trap: as said
before, the numbers of the so-called ‘biblical verses’ need not cover the
divisions or transitions of the actual verses (the full poetic lines), especially
not in the Book of Psalms. There is even more comfort if there are blank lines
26 notes to part i
to distinguish the strophes, but for the time being that is only to be found in
the Psalms (as found in the recent Dutch version).
5. This elaborate investigation has been done in my tetralogy Major Poems

of the Hebrew Bible, in which I justify the boundaries of more than 1600
strophic units with the help of arguments regarding language, style, and
structure.
6. In the recent Dutch version there are more than one thousand blank
lines in the poems of the Book of Psalms. Nine-tenths of them have been
directly derived from my explorations of structure and strophe-building in
the Psalms in volumes II and III of my Major Poems. As volume IV (about
Job) was not published until 2004 (as it happened on the very same day as
the recent Dutch version itself), the makers of this translation have not yet
been able to provide the pages of the Book of Job with blank lines.
7. The original Hebrew of centuries before Christ sounded somewhat differ-

ent from the biblical Hebrew which has come down to us with vowel and
stress signs added by rabbis who lived a millennium after the completion of
the canon. This phase of Hebrew is called Masoretic Hebrew. The poets of
the Book of Psalms, of Job and of the oracles (for they are also poetry) in the
books of the Prophets spoke pre-Masoretic Hebrew, and it had a somewhat
different syllable structure. In Major Poems, I counted the pre-Masoretic,
viz. the original syllables of all the poems in the Psalms and in Job, thereby
exposing a dimension that was unknown in biblical scholarship: the poets
counted their syllables—which is actually done in many literary traditions
all over the world.
8. Readers that know at least some Hebrew will fifnd the complete text of
the poetry in the Book of Job in strophic form and in Hebrew without vowel
marks (without them because I have counted the syllables of the original,
viz. pre-Masoretic Hebrew): all 412 units are given in the back of volume IV
of my Major Poems. Numerous examples of numerical perfection which go
beyond the scope of the present book can be found ad locum: for ch. 3 in
Major Poems vol. I, for chs. 4–14 in vol. II and for 15–42 in vol. IV (where I
have again set out in appendices the numerical material per poem for all
the speeches and poems).
9. This concerns the body, the great mass of poetry in Job 3–42. I do not
count the two verses embedded in the prose beginning, viz. 1:21.
notes to part i 27
10. When I had completed my analyses of Job in 2003, I laboured under the
delusion that I had counted just about everything that might be counted.
But while vol. IV of Major Poems was being translated I discovered I had not
yet counted how the strophes were divided among the speakers. The result
of that count was a formidable surprise to me: it is the numerical confifr-
mation that my delineation and distinction of the strophes—a dimension
which is quite independent of all the counting, since it preceded the latter—
is simply correct.
11. They are Psalms 3, 11 and 14.
12. In order to arrive at this number 40 a manipulation is needed which

can be defended on the basis of content and proportions. Chapters 3 up
to and including 39 are as many poems, thus 37 in all. Together with chs.
40:7–32 and 41 (the last two poems which are spoken by God) they make 39.
These literary units are all quite sizeable (except Bildad’s mediocre effort
in ch. 25), mostly consisting of more than twenty verses. The beginning of
ch. 40 and the one stanza in 42:2–6 form the halves of a short conversation
between God and Job, because two fragments of 40:2–5 (only one poetic line
by God and two by Job) are emphatically quoted in Job’s reaction in 42:2–6.
I read this combination as a fortieth poem. Notice the proportions of these
fragments: one verse > one S-strophe > one stanza.
13. For the real fans: of the total of 412 strophes, more than three-quarters
show regular measures: there are 187 regular S-strophes (i.e., consisting of
two bicola) and 148 regular L-strophes (three bicola). There are 93 verses of
8 +8 syllables, 59 verses of 7+7 syllables and 44 verses of 9 + 9 syllables. There
are 30 S-strophes which contain 32 syllables and 18 L-strophes which have
48 syllables.
14. If Ps. 33 were a ring composition from beginning to end, one could indi-
cate its arrangement as ABCD-X-D’C’B’A’. The capitals betray the mirroring
and the letter X indicates the uniqe middle. I personally fifnd the correspon-
dences A–A’ and the centre D X D’ compelling. The number 33 of the Psalm
is not important. As Pss. 9 and 10 together form a single poem (a small major-
ity of the experts recognize it as such) and as also Pss. 42 and 43 are one
song (which is recognized practically unanimously), Ps. 33 is actually the
32nd song of the Book of Psalms and there are not 150 but 148 Psalms. [I also
notice that strophes 2 and 3 are a tight pair by both mentioning ‘the word
of Yahweh’; that strophe 8 is a fifne response to that by following with ‘the
28 notes to part i
eye of Yahweh’; that strophes 2 and 8 correspond because of the fact that
both discuss ‘Yahweh’s solidarity’; and that the negative element in v. 7 (the
chaotic might of the water!) as a pendant gets the negative (= critical) verses
versus potentates of strophe 7 (vv. 16–17).]
15. There are ten poems in the Book of Psalms which consist of nine stro-
phes: Pss. 19, 33, 48, 49, 51, 72, 80, 90, 132, and 144. In the case of Pss. 33, 48, 49,
51, 90, and 144 there is a heart-strophe: a central unit, a pivot. Those who can
read Hebrew can see this very well in the book The Psalms in Form (2002),
in which the text is printed with vowel marks in strophic form.
16. Verses 18–19 (strophe 8) have 9+7 = 16, and 7 + 8 = 15 syllables; these
fifgures are mirrored in vv. 21 and 22, which contain 7 + 8 = 15 and 9 + 7 = 16
syllables respectively. In Ps. 33 there are exactly eight verses which result in
sixteen syllables.
17. The counts for Job 9, with all the details, are in vol. II of my Major Poems,
pp. 482–483. There I made an annoying mistake on one point: strophe 7 has
not 48 but 49 syllables (and so substanza IIB does not have 98, but 99 points).
The correction brings out even better the true cohesion of the big numbers.
Corrigendum for the fanatic few and those that know Hebrew: the error
in the addition must now also be adjusted on pp. 351, 521, and 537–538 of
vol. II; the total for Job 9 is not 548 (as in vol. II p. 346), but 549 syllables. The
same correction should be carried through in vol. IV: pp. 385, 398, and 406.
18. The group of words ‘three men’ is to be found in Ez. 14:14a, 16a, and 18a,
and the names themselves form head and tail of the series. The author also
applies the scheme 3+1, for in v. 21 we read the announcement by God of
four punishments, which are enumerated. Two important terms take care of
the intertextual connection with Job’s prose: justice (which materially falls
in with the integrity that characterizes Job) and the keywords in v. 23 (the
fifnal sentence of Ez. 14) ‘without reason’= ‘for nought’: the Prosecutor’s fatal
words. Moreover, the speaker’s (the deity’s) language betrays that he, too, is
engaged in an exercise of his imagination.
19. The Book of Daniel was written in or shortly after 164 bc, in the period of
the Maccabees, and the author unabashedly fiflls out the New-Babylonian
court (we recall Nebuchadnezzar, the conqueror of Jerusalem in 586 bc)
with data that actually belong to the Persian court. He is wrong about
all kinds of data about Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius (as duly
notes to part i 29
summed up in present-day commentaries on Daniel), which only indicates

that it is not relevant to judge him by the standard of historical accuracy.
And as to the prestige of the name of Daniel: thanks to the discovery and
deciphering of Ugaritic (a sister dialect of Hebrew, fiffteenth-thirteenth cen-
tury bc) we now have a text in epic verses about a king of Ugarit who himself
was called Daniel (in those days: Daniʾilu, this is the name in international
notation), viz. ‘God (El) administers justice’. This name may then have been
famous for a millennium.
20. Good documentation of this is to be found in W.C. Delsman, Die Datie-

rung des Buches Qohelet.
21. See e.g. Pss. 18:34ff., 65:7ff., 103:3–5, vv. 2–4, 10, and 13–14 of Ps. 104, or
Ps. 146:6–7, 147:15–17. A great part of Ps. 136 is a list of laudatory participles;
and compare 74:12–17, 89:9–15, and 145 from v. 13cd (rightly corrected in the
Dutch translation).
22. Marc Rozelaar, Mijn leven is een ademtocht. Het boek Job. Kampen (Kok)
1984/1988. He renders the poems in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
23. It is the fourth edition of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, under the
supervision of K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, 1967/1977.
24. Those who know Hebrew will fifnd the complete list of emendations in
the back of my Major Poems, vol. IV, pp. 415–417; on the next pages they will
fifnd the poetry from Job in strophic form, in Hebrew without vowel signs.
PART II
THE BOOK OF JOB
A LITERARY TRANSLATION
IN STROPHIC FORM
‫איוב‬
‫‪ִ֛ 1:1‬אישׁ ָה ָ֥יה ְב ֶֽא ֶרץ־֖ﬠוּץ ִא ֣יּוֹב ְשׁ֑מוֹ ְוָה ָי֣ה ׀ ָה ִ֣אישׁ ַה֗הוּא ָ֧תּם ְו ָי ָ ֛שׁר‬
‫ִוי ֵ֥רא ֱא􀀉 ִ֖הים ְו ָ֥סר ֵמ ָֽרﬠ‪ַ 2 :‬ו ִיּ ָ֥וְּלדוּ ֛לוֹ ִשְׁב ָ֥ﬠה ָב ִ֖נים ְוָשׁ֥לוֹשׁ ָבּ ֽנוֹת‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 3‬ו ְי ִ֣הי ִ֠מְק ֵנהוּ ִֽשְׁבַ֨ﬠת ַאְלֵפי־ ֜צ ֹאן וְּשׁ֧􀀉ֶשׁת ַאְל ֵ֣פי ְגַמִ֗לּים ַוֲחֵ֨משׁ ֵמ֤אוֹת‬
‫אד ַו ְיִה ֨י ָה ִ֣אישׁ ַה֔הוּא‬ ‫ֶֽצֶמד־ָבָּק֙ר ַוֲח ֵ ֣משׁ ֵמ֣אוֹת ֲאתוֹ ֔נוֹת ַוֲﬠֻב ָ֖דּה ַר ָ֣בּה ְמ ֑ ֹ‬
‫ָגּ ֖דוֹל ִמָכּל־ְבּ ֵני־ ֶֽק ֶדם‪ְ 4 :‬וָהְל֤כוּ ָב ָני ֨ו ְוָﬠ֣שׂוּ ִמְשֶׁ֔תּה ֵ֖בּית ִ֣אישׁ יוֹ֑מוֹ ְוָשְׁל֗חוּ‬
‫ְוָק ְרא ֨וּ ִלְשׁ֣􀀉ֶשׁת ַאְחי ֵֹתיֶהם ֶלֱא ֥כֹל ְוִלְשׁ֖תּוֹת ִﬠָמּ ֶֽהם‪ַ 5 :‬ו ְיִ֡הי‬
‫ִ֣כּי ִהִקּיֽפ ֩וּ ְיֵ֨מי ַהִמְּשֶׁ֜תּה ַו ִיְּשׁ ַ֧לח ִא ֣יּוֹב ַֽו ְיַק ְדֵּ֗שׁם ְוִהְשׁ ִ֣כּים ַבּבֶֹּק֮ר ְוֶהֱﬠ ָ֣לה‬
‫ם ִ֚כּי ָא ַ ֣מר ִא ֔יּוֹב אוַּל ֨י ָחְט֣אוּ ָב ַ֔ני וֵּב ֲר֥כוּ ֱא􀀉 ִ֖הים‬ ‫ﬠלוֹ֮ת ִמְס ַ֣פּר ֻכָּלּ ֒‬ ‫ֹ‬
‫ִבְּלָב ָ֑בם ָ֛כָּכה ַיֲﬠֶ֥שׂה ִא ֖יּוֹב ָכּל־ַה ָיִּֽמים‪ :‬פ ‪ַ 6‬ו ְי ִ֣הי ַה ֔יּוֹם ַו ָיּ ֨בֹא ֨וּ‬
‫ְבּ ֵ֣ני ָהֱא􀀉ִ֔הים ְלִהְת ַי ֵ֖צּב ַﬠל־ ְיהָ֑וה ַו ָיּ֥בוֹא ַֽגם־ַהָשּׂ ָ֖טן ְבּתוֹ ָֽכם‪ַ 7 :‬ו ֧יּ ֹאֶמר‬
‫ְיהָ֛וה ֶאל־ַהָשּׂ ָ֖טן ֵמ ַ֣א ִין ָתּ ֑ב ֹא ַו ַ֨יַּﬠן ַהָשּׂ ָ֤טן ֶאת־ ְיה ָו֙ה ַויּ ֹאַ֔מר ִמ֣שּׁוּט ָבָּ֔א ֶרץ‬
‫וֵּֽמִהְתַה ֵ֖לּ􀀇 ָֽבּהּ‪ַ 8 :‬ו ֤יּ ֹאֶמר ְיה ָו֙ה ֶאל־ַהָשָּׂ֔טן ֲהַ֥שְׂמָתּ ִלְבּ֖􀀈 ַﬠל־ַﬠְב ִ֣דּי‬
‫מה ֨וּ ָבָּ֔א ֶרץ ִ֣אישׁ ָ֧תּם ְו ָי ָ ֛שׁר ְי ֵ֥רא ֱא􀀉 ִ֖הים ְו ָ֥סר ֵמ ָֽרﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫ִא ֑יּוֹב ִ֣כּי ֵ֤אין ָכּ ֨ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 9‬ו ַ֧יַּﬠן ַהָשּׂ ָ֛טן ֶאת־ ְיה ָ֖וה ַויּ ֹא ַ ֑מר ַֽהִח ָ֔נּם ָי ֵ֥רא ִא ֖יּוֹב ֱא􀀉 ִֽהים‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 10‬ה ֽל ֹא־ַ֠אָתּה ַ ֣שְׂכָתּ ַבֲﬠ ֧דוֹ וְּבַﬠד־ֵבּי֛תוֹ וְּב ַ֥ﬠד ָכּל־ֲאֶשׁר־֖לוֹ ִמָסּ ִ֑ביב‬
‫ַמֲﬠ ֵ ֤שׂה ָי ָדי ֨ו ֵבּ ַ֔רְכָתּ וִּמְק ֵ֖נהוּ ָפּ ַ֥רץ ָבּ ָֽא ֶרץ‪ְ 11 :‬ואוָּל֙ם ְֽשׁ ַֽלח־ ָ֣נא ָֽי ְד֔􀀈‬
‫ְו ַ֖גﬠ ְבָּכל־ ֲאֶשׁר־֑לוֹ ִאם־ ֥ל ֹא ַﬠל־ָפּ ֶ֖ני􀀈 ְיָב ֲר ֶֽכָךּ‪ַ 12 :‬ו ֨יּ ֹאֶמר ְיה ָ֜וה ֶאל־ַהָשָּׂ֗טן‬
‫ִה ֵ֤נּה ָכל־ֲאֶשׁר־ל֨וֹ ְבּ ָי ֶ֔ד􀀈 ַ֣רק ֵאָ֔ליו ַאל־ִתְּשׁ ַ֖לח ָי ֶ֑ד􀀈 ַו ֵיֵּצ֙א ַהָשָּׂ֔טן‬
‫אְכִלי֙ם ְושׁ ֹ ִ֣תים‬ ‫ֵמ ִ֖ﬠם ְפּ ֵ֥ני ְיה ָֽוה‪ַ 13 :‬ו ְי ִ֖הי ַה ֑יּוֹם וָּב ָ֨ניו וְּבֹנ ָ֤תיו ֽ ֹ‬
‫ַ֔י ִין ְבּ ֵ֖בית ֲאִחי ֶ֥הם ַהְבּֽכוֹר‪ 14 :‬וַּמְל ָ֛א􀀇 ָ֥בּא ֶאל־ִא ֖יּוֹב ַויּ ֹא ַ ֑מר ַהָבָּק֙ר‬
‫ת ֖נוֹת ר ֹ֥ﬠוֹת ַﬠל־ ְי ֵדי ֶֽהם‪ַ 15 :‬וִתֹּ֤פּל ְשָׁב֙א ַוִתָּקּ ֵ֔חם‬ ‫ח ְר֔שׁוֹת ְוָהֲא ֹ‬ ‫ָה ֣יוּ ֽ ֹ‬
‫ְוֶאת־ַה ְנָּﬠ ִ֖רים ִה֣כּוּ ְלִפי־ ָ֑ח ֶרב ָֽוִאָ֨מְּל ָ֧טה ַרק־ֲא ִ֛ני ְלַב ִ֖דּי ְלַה ִ֥גּיד ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ 16‬ﬠוֹד ׀ ֶז֣ה ְמ ַד ֵ֗בּר ְו ֶז֮ה ָ֣בּא ַויּ ֹאַמר֒‬
‫ֵ֣אשׁ ֱא􀀉ִ֗הים ָֽנְפָל֙ה ִמן־ַהָשַּׁ֔מ ִים ַוִתְּב ַ֥ﬠר ַבּ ֛צּ ֹאן וַּב ְנָּﬠ ִ֖רים ַותּ ֹאְכ ֵ֑לם‬
‫ָוִאָ֨מְּל ָ֧טה ַרק־ֲא ִ֛ני ְלַב ִ֖דּי ְלַה ִ֥גּיד ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
INTRODUCTORY PROSE AND JOB’S PROLOGUE
(CURSES AND COMPLAINT), CHS. 1–3
 1There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was
blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. 2Seven sons
and three daughters were born to him. 3His possessions were seven thou-
sand sheep, three thousand camels, fifve hundred yoke of oxen, fifve hundred
she-asses, and a very large number of servants; that man was greater than
all the people of the East.
4
His sons used to hold feasts, each on his set day in his own home. They
would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5When
a round of feast days was over, Job would send for them and sanctify them.
Rising early in the morning, he would make burnt offerings, according to the
number of them all, for Job said, ‘Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed
God in their hearts.’ This is what Job always used to do.
6
Now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves
before Yahweh, and the Adversary also came among them. 7Yahweh said
to the Prosecutor, ‘Where have you come from?’ The Prosecutor answered
Yahweh and said, ‘From roaming through the earth and going back and forth
upon it.’ 8Yahweh said to the Prosecutor, ‘Have you given thought to my
servant Job? Truly there is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright
man, one who fears God and shuns evil!’ 9 The Prosecutor answered Yahweh
and said, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Are you not the one who put a
fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have
blessed the work of his hands, so that his possessions are spread throughout
the earth! 11But stretch out your hand now and strike all he has, and he will
surely curse you to your face!’ 12Yahweh said to the Prosecutor, ‘Very well,
then, all that he has is in your hand; but against him do not stretch out your
hand!’ Then the Prosecutor went out from Yahweh’s face.
13
And the day came when his sons and daughters were eating and drink-
ing wine in the house of their brother, the fifrstborn, 14and a messenger came
to Job and said, ‘The oxen were ploughing and the asses were grazing nearby,
15
when Sabeans fell on them and carried them off; the boys they killed with
the edge of the sword, but I escaped all alone to tell you.’
16
This one was still speaking when another came and said, ‘God’s fifre fell
from heaven and burned the sheep and the boys, consuming them; but I
escaped all alone to tell you.’
‫‪36‬‬ ‫‪introductory prose and job’s prologue‬‬
‫‪֣ 17‬ﬠוֹד ׀ ֶז֣ה ְמ ַד ֵ֗בּר ְו ֶז֮ה ָ֣בּא ַויּ ֹאַמר֒‬

‫ַכְּשׂ ִ֞דּים ָ ֣שׂמוּ ׀ ְשׁ􀀉 ָ ֣שׁה ָראִ֗שׁים ַֽו ִיְּפְשׁ֤טוּ ַﬠל־ַה ְגַּמִלּי֙ם ַו ִיָּקּ֔חוּם‬
‫ְוֶאת־ַה ְנָּﬠ ִ֖רים ִה֣כּוּ ְלִפי־ ָ֑ח ֶרב‬
‫‪֚ ַ 18‬ﬠד ֶז֣ה ְמ ַד ֵ֔בּר ְו ֶ֖זה ָ֣בּא ַויּ ֹא ַ ֑מר‬
‫אְכִלי֙ם ְושׁ ֹ ִ֣תים ַ֔י ִין ְבּ ֵ֖בית ֲאִחי ֶ֥הם ַהְבּֽכוֹר‪:‬‬ ‫ָבּ ֶ֨ני􀀈 וְּבנוֹ ֶ֤תי􀀈 ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 19‬וִה ֵנּ֩ה ֨רוַּח ְגּדוָֹ֜לה ָ֣בָּאה ׀ ֵמ ֵ֣ﬠֶבר ַהִמּ ְד ָ֗בּר‬
‫ַו ִיּ ַגּ֙ﬠ ְבַּא ְרַבּ֙ﬠ ִפּ ֣נּוֹת ַה ַ֔בּ ִית ַו ִיֹּ֥פּל ַﬠל־ַה ְנָּﬠ ִ֖רים ַו ָיּ֑מוּתוּ‬
‫‪ַ 20‬ו ָיּ֤ ָקם ִאיּוֹ֙ב ַו ִיְּק ַ֣רﬠ ֵאת־ְמִﬠ ֔לוֹ ַו ָ֖יּ ָגז ֶאת־ר ֹא֑שׁוֹ ַו ִיֹּ֥פּל ַ֖א ְרָצה ַו ִיְּשׁ ָֽתּחוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 21‬ויּ ֹאֶמ֩ר‬
‫ָﬠ ֨ר ֹם ָיָ֜צאִתי ִמ ֶ֣בֶּטן ִאִ֗מּי ְוָﬠר ֹ֙ם ָא֣שׁוּב ָ֔שָׁמה‬
‫ְיהָ֣וה ָנַ֔תן ַויה ָ֖וה ָל ָ֑קח ְי ִ֛הי ֵ֥שׁם ְיה ָ֖וה ְמבֹ ָֽר􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 22‬בָּכל־ ֖ז ֹאת ל ֹא־ָח ָ֣טא ִא ֑יּוֹב ְול ֹא־ ָנ ַ֥תן ִתְּפ ָ֖לה ֵלא􀀉 ִֽהים‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ַ 2:1‬ו ְי ִ֣הי ַה ֔יּוֹם ַו ָיּ ֨בֹא ֨וּ ְבּ ֵ֣ני ָֽהֱא􀀉ִ֔הים ְלִהְת ַי ֵ֖צּב ַﬠל־ ְיהָ֑וה ַו ָיּ֤בוֹא ַֽגם־‬
‫תָ֔כם ְלִהְת ַי ֵ֖צּב ַﬠל־ ְיה ָֽוה‪ַ 2 :‬ו ֤יּ ֹאֶמר ְיה ָו֙ה ֶאל־ַהָשָּׂ֔טן ֵ֥אי‬ ‫ַהָשָּׂט ֨ן ְבּ ֹ‬
‫שּׁט ָבָּ֔א ֶרץ וֵּמִהְתַה ֵ֖לּ􀀇 ָֽבּהּ‪:‬‬ ‫ִמ ֶ֖זּה ָתּ ֑ב ֹא ַו ַ֨יַּﬠן ַהָשּׂ ָ֤טן ֶאת־ ְיה ָו֙ה ַויּ ֹאַ֔מר ִמ ֻ ֣‬
‫מהוּ‬ ‫‪ַ 3‬ו ֨יּ ֹאֶמר ְיה ָ֜וה ֶאל־ַהָשָּׂ֗טן ֲה ַ ֣שְׂמָתּ ִלְבּ֮􀀈 ֶאל־ַﬠְב ִ֣דּי ִאיּוֹ֒ב ִכּ ֩י ֵ֨אין ָכּ ֜ ֹ‬
‫ﬠ ֶ֙דנּ ֨וּ ַמֲח ִ֣זיק ְבֻּתָמּ֔תוֹ‬ ‫ָבָּ֗א ֶרץ ִ֣אישׁ ָ֧תּם ְו ָי ָ ֛שׁר ְי ֵ֥רא ֱא􀀉 ִ֖הים ְו ָ֣סר ֵמ ָ֑רﬠ ְו ֹ‬
‫ַוְתִּסי ֵ֥ת ִני ֖בוֹ ְלַבְלּ֥ﬠוֹ ִח ָֽנּם‪ַ 4 :‬ו ַ֧יַּﬠן ַהָשּׂ ָ֛טן ֶאת־ ְיה ָ֖וה ַויּ ֹא ַ ֑מר ֣ﬠוֹר ְבַּﬠד־‬
‫שׁר ָלִ֔אישׁ ִי ֵ֖תּן ְבּ ַ֥ﬠד ַנְפֽשׁוֹ‪ 5 :‬אוָּל֙ם ְֽשׁ ַֽלח־ ָ֣נא ָֽי ְד֔􀀈 ְו ַ֥גﬠ ֶאל־‬ ‫֗ﬠוֹר ְוכֹ֙ל ֲא ֶ ֣‬
‫ַﬠְצ֖מוֹ ְוֶאל־ְבָּשׂ ֑רוֹ ִאם־ ֥ל ֹא ֶאל־ָפּ ֶ֖ני􀀈 ְיָב ֲר ֶֽכָךּ‪ַ 6 :‬ו ֧יּ ֹאֶמר ְיהָ֛וה ֶאל־‬
‫מר‪ַ 7 :‬ו ֵיֵּצ֙א ַהָשָּׂ֔טן ֵמ ֵ֖את ְפּ ֵ֣ני ְיהָ֑וה‬ ‫ַהָשּׂ ָ֖טן ִה ֣נּוֹ ְב ָי ֶ֑ד􀀈 ַ֖א􀀇 ֶאת־ ַנְפ֥שׁוֹ ְשׁ ֽ ֹ‬
‫ַו ַיּ֤ 􀀇 ֶאת־ִאיּוֹ֙ב ִבְּשׁ ִ֣חין ָ֔רﬠ ִמ ַ֥כּף ַר ְג֖לוֹ ְו ַ֥ﬠד ָק ְד ֳק ֽדוֹ‪ַ 8 :‬ו ִֽיּ ַֽקּח־֣לוֹ ֶ֔ח ֶרשׂ‬
‫ﬠ ְד֖􀀈‬‫ְלִהְת ָגּ ֵ֖רד ֑בּוֹ ְו֖הוּא י ֵֹ֥שׁב ְבּתוֹ􀀇־ָה ֵֽאֶפר‪ַ 9 :‬ו ֤תּ ֹאֶמר ל֨וֹ ִאְשׁ֔תּוֹ ֹ‬
‫ַמֲח ִ֣זיק ְבֻּתָמּ ֶ֑ת􀀈 ָבּ ֵ֥ר􀀇 ֱא􀀉 ִ֖הים ָוֻֽמת‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬ו ֣יּ ֹאֶמר ֵאֶ֗ליָה ְכּ ַד ֵ֞בּר ַא ַ֤חת ַה ְנָּבלוֹ֙ת ְתּ ַד ֵ֔בּ ִרי‬
‫ַ֣גּם ֶאת־ַה֗טּוֹב ְנַקֵבּ֙ל ֵמ ֵ֣את ָהֱא􀀉ִ֔הים ְוֶאת־ָה ָ֖רﬠ ֣ל ֹא ְנַק ֵ֑בּל‬
‫ְבָּכל־ ֛ז ֹאת ל ֹא־ָח ָ֥טא ִא ֖יּוֹב ִבְּשָׂפ ָֽתיו‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ַֽ 11‬ו ִיְּשְׁמ֞ﬠוּ ְשׁ֣􀀉ֶשׁת ֵר ֵ֣ﬠי ִא ֗יּוֹב ֵ֣את ָכּל־ָה ָר ָ֣ﬠה ַהזּ ֹא֮ת ַה ָ֣בָּאה ָﬠָלי֒ו‬
introductory prose and job’s prologue 37
This one was still speaking when another came and said, ‘The Chaldeans
17
formed three columns; they made a raid on the camels and carried them off;
the boys they killed with the edge of the sword, but I escaped all alone to tell
you.’
18
This one was still speaking when another came and said, ‘Your sons and
your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother,
the fifrstborn, 19when suddenly a mighty wind came from across the desert
and struck the four corners of the house; it fell on the boys and they died,
but I escaped all alone to tell you.’
20
Then Job arose; he tore his robe and shaved his head; then he fell to the
earth in worship 21and said:
Naked I came out of my mother’s womb

and naked shall I return there.
Yahweh has given and Yahweh has taken,
may Yahweh’s name be blessed.
22
In all this, Job did not sin or cast reproach on God.
 1And the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves
before Yahweh, and the Adversary also came among them to present him-
self before Yahweh. 2Yahweh said to the Prosecutor, ‘Where have you come
from?’ The Prosecutor answered Yahweh and said, ‘From roaming through
the earth and going back and forth upon it.’ 3Yahweh said to the Prosecutor,
‘Have you given thought to my servant Job? Truly there is no one like him on
earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil! He
is still holding fast to his integrity, but you have incited me against him to
destroy him for nothing!’ 4The Prosecutor answered Yahweh and said, ‘Skin
for skin, and all the man has he will give over for his life! 5But stretch out
your hand now and strike his bone and his flfesh; he will surely curse you
to your face!’ 6Yahweh said to the Prosecutor, ‘Very well, then, he is in your
hand; only spare his life!’
7
Then the Prosecutor went out from Yahweh’s face. He struck Job with
foul sores from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. 8He took a potsherd
to scrape himself as he was sitting among the ashes. 9His wife said to him,
‘Are you still holding fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ 10But he said
to her, ‘You speak as any foolish woman would speak! Should we accept only
good from God and not accept evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
11
Three of Job’s friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him
and each one came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the
‫ַו ָיּ ֨בֹא ֨וּ ִ֣אישׁ ִמְמּקֹ֔מוֹ ֱאִלי ַ֥פז ַהֵתּיָמ ִנ ֨י וִּבְל ַ֣דּד ַהשּׁוּ ִ֔חי ְוצוֹ ַ֖פר ַה ַֽנֲּﬠָמ ִ֑תי‬
‫ַו ִיּ ָוֲּﬠ ֣דוּ ַיְח ָ֔דּו ָל֥בוֹא ָל ֽנוּד־֖לוֹ ֽוְּל ַנֲחֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 12‬ו ִיְּשׂ֨אוּ ֶאת־ֵﬠי ֵני ֶ֤הם ֵמ ָרחוֹ֙ק ְו ֣ל ֹא ִהִכּי ֻ֔רהוּ ַו ִיְּשׂ֥אוּ קוֹ ָ֖לם ַו ִיְּב֑כּוּ‬
‫ ַֽו ִיְּק ְרﬠ ֨וּ ִ֣אישׁ ְמִﬠ ֔לוֹ ַו ִיּ ְז ְר֥קוּ ָﬠ ָ֛פר ַﬠל־ ָראֵשׁי ֶ֖הם ַהָשָּֽׁמ ְיָמה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 13‬ו ֵיְּשׁ֤בוּ ִאתּ֨וֹ ָלָ֔א ֶרץ ִשְׁב ַ֥ﬠת ָיִ֖מים ְוִשְׁב ַ֣ﬠת ֵלי֑לוֹת ְוֵאין־דּ ֹ ֵ֤בר ֵאָלי ֨ו‬
‫אד‪:‬‬ ‫ָדּ ָ֔בר ִ֣כּי ָר֔אוּ ִֽכּי־ ָג ַ֥דל ַהְכּ ֵ֖אב ְמ ֽ ֹ‬
‫פ‬ ‫‪ַ 3:1‬אֲח ֵרי־ֵ֗כן ָפּ ַ֤תח ִאיּוֹ֙ב ֶאת־ִ֔פּיהוּ ַו ְיַק ֵ֖לּל ֶאת־יוֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬ו ַ֥יַּﬠן ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ 3‬י ֹאַבד ֖יוֹם ִאָ֣וֶּלד ֑בּוֹ ְוַה ַ֥לּ ְיָלה ָ֝אַ֗מר ֣הֹ ָרה ָֽגֶבר‪:‬‬
‫שׁהוּ ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ִמ ָ ֑מַּﬠל ְוַאל־תּוֹ ַ֖פﬠ ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ְנָה ָֽרה‪:‬‬ ‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ַֽאל־ ִי ְד ְר ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ַ 4‬ה ֥יּוֹם ַה֗הוּא ְֽיִ֫הי ֥ ֹ‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְ֭וַצְלָמ ֶות ִתְּשָׁכּן־ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ֲﬠ ָנ ָ֑נה ְ֝יַבֲﬠֻ֗תהוּ ִֽכְּמ ִ֥רי ֵרי ֽיוֹם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 5‬י ְגָאֻ֡להוּ ֣ ֹ‬
‫ְבִּמְס ַ֥פּר ְ֝י ָר ִ֗חים ַאל־ ָי ֽב ֹא‪:‬‬‫אֶפל ַאל־ ִ֭יַח ְדּ ִבּי ֵ ֣מי ָשׁ ָ֑נה‬ ‫‪ַ 6‬ה ַ֥לּ ְיָלה ַההוּ֮א ִיָקּ ֵ֢ח֫הוּ ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 7‬ה ֵ֤נּה ַה ַ֣לּ ְיָלה ַ ֭ההוּא ְי ִ֣הי ַגְל֑מוּד ַאל־ָתּ ֖ב ֹא ְר ָנ ָ֣נה ֽבוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ֵ֥רר ִל ְו ָי ָֽתן‪:‬‬
‫א ְר ֵרי־ ֑יוֹם ָ֝הֲﬠִתי ִ֗דים ֹ‬‫‪ִ 8‬יְקּ ֻ֥בהוּ ֹ‬
‫‪ֶ 9‬יְחְשׁכ ֮וּ כוְֹכ ֵ֢בי ִ֫נְשׁ֥פּוֹ ְיַקו־ְל֥אוֹר ָו ַ֑א ִין ְוַאל־ ִ֝י ְרֶ֗אה ְבַּﬠְפַﬠֵפּי־ָֽשַׁחר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 10‬כּי ֣ל ֹא ָ ֭ס ַגר ַדְּל ֵ֣תי ִבְט ִ֑ני ַו ַיְּס ֵ֥תּר ָ֝ﬠָ֗מל ֵמֵﬠי ָֽני‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֤ 11‬לָמּה ֣לּ ֹא ֵמ ֶ֣רֶחם ָא֑מוּת ִמ ֶ֖בֶּטן ָי ָ֣צאִתי ְוֶא ְג ָֽוﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 12‬מדּוַּﬠ ִק ְדּ֣מוּ ִני ִב ְר ָ֑כּ ִים וַּמה־ָ֝שּׁ ַ֗ד ִים ִ֣כּי ִאי ָֽנק‪:‬‬
Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They agreed together to come and
console and comfort him. 12 They raised their eyes from a distance, but could
not recognize him. They raised their voices and wept; each one tore his robe
and they sprinkled dust in the air on their heads. 13They sat with him on the
ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for
they saw that the pain was very great.
 1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. 2Job spoke up and said:
3
Perish the day on which I was born (a) I
and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived!’
4
That day—let it be darkness;
may God above not seek it
and may no light shine upon it.
5
Let darkness and thick gloom reclaim it,
clouds settle upon it,
blackness of day terrify it!
6
That night—may deep dark take it; (b)
may it not join in the days of the year,
let it not come into the number of months!
7
No, that night—let it be barren,
may no shout of joy come in it.
8
May those who put spells on the day damn it,
those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
9
May the stars of its dawn become dark,
let it hope for light, but in vain,
and not see the eyelids of the morning!
10
For he did not close the doors of my mother’s womb (c) II
or hide misery from my eyes.
11
Why did I not die at birth,
expire as I came out from the womb?
12
Why were there knees to receive me
and breasts for me to suck?
‫‪ִֽ 13‬כּי־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ָשׁ ַ֣כְבִתּי ְוֶאְשׁ֑קוֹט ָ֝יַ֗שׁ ְנִתּי ָ֤אז ָי ֬נוּ ַֽח ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬ﬠם־ ְ ֭מָלִכים ְו ֣י ֲֹﬠֵצי ָ֑א ֶרץ ַהבֹּ ִ֖נים ֳח ָר֣בוֹת ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ 15‬אוֹ ִﬠם־ ָ ֭שׂ ִרים ָז ָ֣הב ָל ֶ֑הם ַֽהְמַמְל ִ֖אים ָבֵּתּי ֶ֣הם ָֽכֶּסף‪:‬‬
‫‪֚ 16‬אוֹ ְכ ֵ֣נֶפל ָ ֭טמוּן ֣ל ֹא ֶאְה ֶי֑ה ְ֝כּﬠְֹלִ֗לים ל ֹא־ ָ֥ראוּ ֽאוֹר‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ ָ 17‬שׁם ְ֭רָשִׁﬠים ָ֣ח ְדלוּ ֑ר ֹ ֶגז ְוָ֥שׁם ָ֝י ֗נוּחוּ ְי ִ֣גיֵﬠי ֽכַֹח‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֭ 18‬יַחד ֲאִסי ִ֣רים ַשֲׁא ָ֑ננוּ ֥ל ֹא ָ֝שְׁמ֗ﬠוּ ֣קוֹל ֹנ ֵֽגשׂ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 19‬ק ֣טֹן ְ֭ו ָגדוֹל ָ ֣שׁם ֑הוּא ְ֝וֶ֗ﬠֶבד ָחְפִ֥שׁי ֵמֲאד ֹ ָֽניו‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֤ 20‬לָמּה ִי ֵ֣תּן ְלָﬠ ֵ ֣מל ֑אוֹר ְ֝וַח ִ֗יּים ְל ָ ֣מ ֵרי ָֽנֶפשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 21‬הְמַח ִ֣כּים ַל ָ ֣מּ ֶות ְוֵאי ֶ֑ננּוּ ַֽו ַיְּחְפּ ֻ֗רהוּ ִמַמְּטמוֹ ִֽנים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 22‬הְשֵּׂמ ִ֥חים ֱאֵלי־ ִ֑גיל ָ֝יִ֗שׂישׂוּ ִ֣כּי ִיְמְצאוּ־ ָֽקֶבר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 23‬ל ֶגֶבר ֲאֶשׁר־ ַדּ ְר֣כּוֹ ִנְס ָ֑תּ ָרה ַו ָ֖יֶּס􀀇 ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ַבֲּﬠ ֽדוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 24‬כּי־ִלְפ ֵ֣ני ַ ֭לְחִמי ַא ְנָח ִ֣תי ָת ֑ב ֹא ַֽו ִיְּתּ֥כוּ ַ֝כַ֗מּ ִים ַשֲׁאֹג ָֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 25‬כּי ַ֣פַחד ָ ֭פַּח ְדִתּי ַו ֶיֱּאָתֵי֑ ִני ַוֲאֶ֥שׁר ָ֝י ֗ג ֹ ְרִתּי ָי֣ב ֹא ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪֤ 26‬ל ֹא ָשַׁ֨ל ְוִתּי ְו ֖ל ֹא ָשׁ ַ֥קְטִתּי ְֽול ֹא־ ָ֗נְחִתּי ַו ָ֥יּב ֹא ֽר ֹ ֶגז‪ :‬פ‬
13
For now I would be lying down and quiet, (d)
I would sleep and then be at rest,
14
with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,
15
or with princes who have gold,
who fifll their houses with silver.
16
Or would I not be like a stillbirth, buried
like infants who never saw the light?
17
There the wicked stop agonizing (e)
and there those weary in power have rest.
18
Prisoners are at ease together,
they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19
Small and great, they are there,
and the slave is freed from his lord.
20
Why does he give light to the miserable (f) III
and life to the bitter in spirit?
21
—those who wait for death, but in vain
and dig for it more than for treasure;
22
who are rejoicingly glad
and exult when they fifnd the grave—
23
to the man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged around?
24
For my sighing comes before my bread (g)
and my groans pour out like water.
25
For the fear I feared has reached me
and what I dreaded has come upon me.
26
I have no repose, no quiet,
I have no rest and what has come is agony!
‫‪ַ֭ 4:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ֱאִלי ַ֥פז ַֽהֵתּיָמ ִ֗ני ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 2‬ה ִנ ָ֬סּה ָד ָ֣בר ֵא ֶ֣לי􀀈 ִתְּל ֶ֑אה ַוְﬠ ֥צֹר ְ֝בִּמִ֗לּין ִ֣מי יוּ ָֽכל‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 3‬ה ֵנּה ִי ַ֣סּ ְרָתּ ַר ִ֑בּים ְו ָי ַ֖ד ִים ָר֣פוֹת ְתַּח ֵֽזּק‪:‬‬
‫‪֖ 4‬כּוֵֹשׁל ְיִקי֣מוּן ִמ ֶ֑לּי􀀈 וִּב ְר ַ֖כּ ִים כֹּ ְר֣ﬠוֹת ְתַּאֵֽמּץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 5‬כּי ַﬠָ֨תּה ׀ ָתּ֣בוֹא ֵא ֶ֣לי􀀈 ַו ֵ֑תֶּלא ִתּ ַ֥גּﬠ ָ֝ﬠ ֶ֗די􀀈 ַוִתָּבּ ֵֽהל‪:‬‬
‫תם ְדּ ָר ֶֽכי􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 6‬ה ֣ל ֹא ִ֭י ְרָאְת􀀈 ִכְּסָל ֶ֑ת􀀈 ִ֝תְּק ָוְת֗􀀈 ְו ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 7‬זָכר־ ָ֗נא ִ֤מי ֣הוּא ָנ ִ֣קי ָא ָ֑בד ְ֝וֵאיֹ֗פה ְיָשׁ ִ֥רים ִנְכ ָֽחדוּ‪:‬‬
‫ח ְרֵשׁי ָ֑א ֶון ְוזֹ ְר ֵ֖ﬠי ָﬠ ָ ֣מל ִיְקְצ ֻֽרהוּ‪:‬‬
‫שׁר ָ֭רִאיִתי ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 8‬כֲּא ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ִ 9‬מ ִנְּשׁ ַ ֣מת ֱא֣לוַֹה י ֹא ֵ֑בדוּ וֵּמ ֖רוַּח ַא֣פּוֹ ִיְכֽלוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬שֲׁא ַ֣גת ַ ֭א ְר ֵיה ְו֣קוֹל ָ ֑שַׁחל ְוִשׁ ֵ֖נּי ְכִפי ִ֣רים ִנ ָֽתּﬠוּ‪:‬‬
‫א ֵ֣בד ִמְבִּלי־ ָ֑ט ֶרף וְּב ֵ֥ני ָ֝ל ִ֗ביא ִיְתָפּ ָֽרדוּ‪:‬‬‫‪֭ ַ 11‬ל ִישׁ ֹ‬
‫שֶׁמץ ֶֽמ ְנֽהוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ֭ 12‬וֵאַלי ָדּ ָ֣בר ְי ֻג ָ֑נּב ַוִתּ ַ֥קּח ָ֝א ְז ִ֗ני ֵ ֣‬
‫‪֭ ִ 13‬בְּשִׂﬠִפּים ֵמֶח ְזי ֹ ֣נוֹת ָ֑ל ְיָלה ִבּ ְנֹ֥פל ַ֝תּ ְר ֵדָּ֗מה ַﬠל־ֲא ָנִֽשׁים‪:‬‬
THE FIRST ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 4–14
First Speech by Eliphaz, Chs. 4–5
 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke up and said:
2
Daring a word with you, can you bear it? (a) I
But holding back his words, who could?
3
See, you have corrected many
and weak hands you have strenghtened;
4
your words have raised the stumbling
and you have braced up tottering knees.
5
But now it comes to you and you cannot bear it, (b)
it strikes you and you have panicked.
6
Is not your piety your confifdence,
the integrity of your ways your hope?
7
Think, what innocent person ever perished, (c) II
and where have the upright been destroyed?
8
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow misery reap it too.
9
By a breath of God they perish
and by a blast of his nostrils they are fifnished.
10
The lion may roar, the cub may howl, (d)
but the teeth of the young lion are broken.
11
The beast perishes without prey
and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
12
A word came to me in stealth (e) III
and my ear caught a whisper of it,
13
amid thoughts from visions of the night
when deep sleep falls upon men.
‫‪44‬‬ ‫‪the first round of the debate‬‬
‫‪ַ֣ 14‬פַּחד ְ ֭ק ָרַא ִני וּ ְרָﬠ ָ֑דה ְו ֖ר ֹב ַﬠְצמוֹ ַ֣תי ִהְפ ִֽחיד‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 15‬ורוַּח ַﬠל־ָפּ ַ֣ני ַיֲח֑􀀉ף ְ֝תַּסֵ֗מּר ַֽשֲׂﬠ ַ֥רת ְבָּשׂ ִֽרי‪:‬‬
‫ְדָּמָ֖מה ָו֣קוֹל ֶאְשָֽׁמﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫מד ְֽול ֹא־ַאִ֬כּיר ַמ ְרֵ֗אהוּ ְ ֭תּמוּ ָנה ְל ֶ֣נ ֶגד ֵﬠי ָ֑ני‬ ‫‪ַ 16‬יֲﬠ ֤ ֹ‬
‫ﬠֵ֗שׂהוּ ִיְטַהר־ ָֽגֶּבר‪:‬‬ ‫ִֽאם ֵ֝מ ֹ‬ ‫‪ַֽ 17‬הֱאנוֹשׁ ֵמֱא֣לוַֹה ִיְצ ָ֑דּק‬
‫֝וְּבַמְלָאָ֗כיו ָיִ֥שׂים ָתֳּה ָֽלה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ֣ 18‬הן ַ ֭בֲּﬠָב ָדיו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲאִ֑מין‬
‫חֶמר ֲאֶשׁר־ֶבָּﬠ ָ֥פר ְיסוֹ ָ֑דם ְ֝י ַדְכּ֗אוּם ִלְפ ֵני־ ָֽﬠשׁ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ֤ 19‬אף שׁ ְֹכ ֵ֬ני ָֽבֵתּי־ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 20‬מ ֣בֶֹּקר ָל ֶ֣ﬠ ֶרב ֻי ַ֑כּתּוּ ִמְבּ ִ֥לי ֵ֝מִ֗שׂים ָל ֶ֥נַצח י ֹא ֵֽבדוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 21‬הל ֹא־ ִנ ַ֣סּﬠ ִיְת ָ֣רם ָ֑בּם ָ֝י֗מוּתוּ ְו ֣ל ֹא ְבָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 5:1‬ק ָרא־ ָ֭נא ֲהֵי ֣שׁ ﬠוֹ ֶ֑נ ָךּ ְוֶאל־ִ֖מי ִמְקּ ֗ד ִֹ֣שׁים ִתְּפ ֶֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 2‬כּי־ ֶֽלֱא ִויל ַיֲה ָרג־ ָ֑כַּﬠשׂ ֝וֹּפֶ֗תה ָתִּ֥מית ִק ְנ ָֽאה‪:‬‬
‫אם‪:‬‬‫‪ֲֽ 3‬א ִני־ ָ֭רִאיִתי ֱא ִ֣ויל ַמְשׁ ִ֑רישׁ ָוֶא֖קּוֹב ָנֵ֣והוּ ִפְת ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 4‬י ְרֲח֣קוּ ָב ָ֣ניו ִמ ֶיַּ֑שׁﬠ ְו ִֽי ַדְּכּ֥אוּ ַ֝בַ֗שַּׁﬠר ְו ֵ֣אין ַמ ִֽצּיל‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 5‬א ֶ ֤שׁר ְקִצי֨רוֹ ָ֮ר ֵ֤ﬠב י ֹאֵ֗כל ְו ֶֽאל־ִמִצּ ִ֥נּים ִיָקּ ֵ֑חהוּ ְוָשׁ ַ֖אף ַצִ֣מּים ֵחי ָֽלם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 6‬כּי ל ֹא־ ֵי ֵ֣צא ֵמָﬠ ָ֣פר ָ֑א ֶון ֝וֵּמֲא ָדָ֗מה ל ֹא־ ִיְצַ֥מח ָﬠָֽמל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 7‬כּי־ ָ ֭א ָדם ְלָﬠ ָ ֣מל יוּ ָ֑לּד וְּב ֵני־ ֶ֗רֶשׁף ַי ְג ִ֥בּיהוּ ֽﬠוּף‪:‬‬
the first round of the debate 45
14
Dread came upon me, and trembling, (f)
it caused dread in all my bones;
15
A wind glided over my face,
a whirlwind made my flfesh shiver.
16
It halted, I could not recognize its appearance,
an image before my eyes;
a hush, and I heard a voice:
17
‘Is a mortal more righteous than God? (g) IV
Is a man purer than his maker?
18
He does not trust even his own slaves,
and ascribes error to his angels.
19
How much less those who dwell in clay houses, (h)
whose foundations are in dust!
They are crushed like a moth,
20
between dawn and dusk they are shattered,
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21
Is not their tent-cord pulled out?
They die, and not with wisdom.’
 1Call now, but is there anyone to answer you? (a) I

And to whom of the holy ones will you turn?
2
For resentment kills the fool
and passion slays the stupid.
3
I myself have seen a fool taking root (b)
but forthwith I cursed his dwelling.
4
His sons are far from safety,
crushed in the gate without a rescuer.
5
The hungry one eats his harvest,
their substance the starving will seize
and the thirsty one yearns for their wealth.
6
For evil does not spring from dust (c)
and misery does not grow from the ground.
7
For man is born for misery
just as sparks flfy high.
‫‪ 8‬אוָּ֗לם ֲ֭א ִני ֶא ְד ֣ר ֹשׁ ֶאל־ ֵ֑אל ְוֶאל־ֱ֝א􀀉ִ֗הים ָאִ֥שׂים ִדְּב ָר ִֽתי‪:‬‬

‫שׂה ְ֭גד ֹלוֹת ְו ֵ֣אין ֵ֑חֶקר ִ֝נְפָל֗אוֹת ַﬠד־ ֵ֥אין ִמְס ָֽפּר‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶ֣‬
‫‪ֹ 9‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬הֹנּ ֵ֣תן ָ ֭מָטר ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵני־ ָ֑א ֶרץ ְו ֥שׁ ֹ ֵֽלַח ַ֝מ ִים ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵ֥ני חוּֽצוֹת‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 11‬ל֣שׂוּם ְשָׁפ ִ֣לים ְלָמ ֑רוֹם ְ֝וקֹ ְד ִ֗רים ָ ֣שׂ ְגבוּ ֶֽיַשׁﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ֵ 12‬מֵפר ַמְחְשׁ֣בוֹת ֲﬠרוִּ֑מים ְֽול ֹא־ַתֲﬠֶ֥שׂי ָנה ְ֝י ֵדיֶ֗הם תּוִּשׁ ָֽיּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 􀀉 13‬כד ֲחָכִ֣מים ְבָּﬠ ְר ָ ֑מם ַוֲﬠ ַ֖צת ִנְפָתּ ִ֣לים ִנְמ ָֽה ָרה‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְ֝וַכַ֗לּ ְיָלה ְֽיַמְשׁ֥שׁוּ ַֽבָצֳּה ָֽר ִים‪:‬‬‫‪ 14‬יוָֹ֥מם ְיַפ ְגּשׁוּ־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 15‬ו ֣יַֹּשׁﬠ ֵ ֭מֶח ֶרב ִמִפּי ֶ֑הם וִּמ ַ֖יּד ָח ָ֣זק ֶאְב ֽיוֹן‪:‬‬
‫ﬠָ֗לָתה ָ֣קְפָצה ִֽפּיָה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 16‬וְתּ ִ֣הי ַל ַ֣דּל ִתְּק ָ֑וה ְ֝ו ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 17‬ה ֵ֤נּה ַאְשׁ ֵ֣רי ֱ֭אנוֹשׁ יוִֹכ ֶ֣ח ֽנּוּ ֱא֑לוַֹהּ וּמוּ ַ֥סר ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ַאל־ִתְּמ ָֽאס‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 18‬כּי ֣הוּא ַיְכ ִ֣איב ְו ֶיְח ָ֑בּשׁ ִ֝יְמ ַ֗חץ ְו ָי ָ֥דיו ִתּ ְר ֶֽפּי ָנה‪:‬‬
‫שׁשׁ ָ ֭צרוֹת ַיִצּי ֶ֑לָךּ וְּבֶ֓שַׁבﬠ ׀ ל ֹא־ ִי ַ֖גּﬠ ְבּ֣􀀈 ָֽרﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 19‬בּ ֵ ֣‬
‫‪֭ ְ 20‬בּ ָרָﬠב ָֽפּ ְד֣􀀈 ִמ ָ ֑מּ ֶות ֝וְּבִמְלָחָ֗מה ִ֣מי ֵדי ָֽח ֶרב‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 21‬בּ֣שׁוֹט ָ ֭לשׁוֹן ֵתָּח ֵ֑בא ְֽול ֹא־ִתי ָ֥רא ִ֝מ ֗שּׁ ֹד ִ֣כּי ָיֽבוֹא‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 22‬ל ֣שׁ ֹד וְּלָכ ָ֣פן ִתְּשׂ ָ֑חק ֽוֵּמַח ַ֥יּת ָ֝הָ֗א ֶרץ ַאל־ִתּי ָֽרא‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 23‬כּי ִﬠם־ַאְב ֵ֣ני ַהָשּׂ ֶ֣דה ְב ִרי ֶ֑ת􀀈 ְוַח ַ֥יּת ַ֝הָשּׂ ֶ֗דה ָהְשְׁלָמה־ ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
8
However, I would seek El (d) II
and before God I would lay my cause,
9
who does great and inscrutable deeds,
wonders beyond all numbering;
10
who gives rain across the earth (e)
and sends water across the fifelds
11
to set the lowly on high
so that mourners climb to safety;
12
who thwarts the plots of the shrewd, (f)
so that their hands achieve no success,
13
who catches the wise in their shrewdness
while the counsel of the crooked runs to ruin;
14
they encounter darkness by day
and at noon they grope as in the night.
15
He saves from the sword—their mouth— (g)
and rescues the needy from the hand of the strong;
16
so there is hope for the wretched
and injustice shuts its mouth.
17
See how happy is the man whom God reproves; (h) III
do not reject the discipline of Shaddai,
18
for it is he who wounds and binds up,
who injures and heals with his hands.
19
From six calamities he will rescue you (i)
and in seven harm will not touch you.
20
In famine he redeems you from death
and in war from the stroke of the sword.
21
From the lash of the tongue you will be hidden (j)
and you will not fear destruction when it comes.
22
At destruction and hunger you will laugh
and from wild beasts you should fear nothing,
23
for with the stones of the fifeld is your treaty
and the wild animals of the fifeld make peace with you.
‫‪ְֽ 24‬ו ָי ַדְﬠָתּ ִכּי־ָשׁ֣לוֹם ָאֳה ֶ֑ל􀀈 ֽוָּפַק ְד ָ֥תּ ָ֝נ ְו􀀈 ְו ֣ל ֹא ֶתֱח ָֽטא‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 25‬ו ָי ַדְﬠָתּ ִכּי־ ַ֣רב ַז ְר ֶ֑ﬠ􀀈 ְ֝וֶצֱאָצֶ֗אי􀀈 ְכּ ֵ֣ﬠֶשׂב ָה ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 26‬תּ֣בוֹא ְב ֶ֣כַלח ֱאֵלי־ ָ֑קֶבר ַכֲּﬠ֖לוֹת ָגּ ִ֣דישׁ ְבִּﬠֽתּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫פ‬ ‫ְ֝שָׁמֶ֗ﬠ ָנּה ְוַא ָ֥תּה ַֽדﬠ־ ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 27‬ה ֵנּה־ז ֭ ֹאת ֲחַק ְר ֥נוָּה ֶֽכּן־ ִ֑היא‬
‫‪ַ 6:1‬ו ַ֥יַּﬠן ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪֗ 2‬לוּ ָשׁ֣קוֹל ִיָשּׁ ֵ֣קל ַכְּﬠִ֑שׂי ְ֝וַה ָוִּ֗תי ְֽבּמ ֹא ְז ַ֥נ ִים ִיְשׂאוּ־ ָֽיַחד‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 3‬כּי־ַﬠָ֗תּה ֵמ֣חוֹל ַיִ֣מּים ִיְכ ָ֑בּד ַﬠל־ֵ֗כּן ְדָּב ַ֥רי ָֽלﬠוּ‪:‬‬
‫שׁר ֲ֭חָמָתם שׁ ֹ ָ֣תה רוּ ִ֑חי ִבּﬠוּ ֵ֖תי ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ַֽיַﬠ ְרֽכוּ ִני‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֤ 4‬כּי ִח ֵ֢צּי ַשׁ ַ֡דּי ִﬠָמּ ִ֗די ֲא ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ֲ 5‬ה ִֽי ְנַהק־ ֶ֥פּ ֶרא ֲﬠֵלי־ ֶ֑דֶשׁא ִ֥אם ִי ְגֶﬠה־֗שּׁוֹר ַﬠל־ְבִּליֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 6‬ה ֵיָא ֵ֣כל ָ ֭תֵּפל ִמְבִּלי־ ֶ ֑מַלח ִאם־ ֶישׁ־ַ֗טַﬠם ְבּ ִ֣ריר ַחָלּֽמוּת‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 7‬מֲא ָ֣נה ִל ְנ ֣גּוַֹﬠ ַנְפִ֑שׁי ֵ֗הָמּה ִכּ ְד ֵ֥וי ַלְחִֽמי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 8‬מי־ ִ֭יֵתּן ָתּ֣בוֹא ֶֽשֱׁאָל ִ֑תי ְ֝וִתְק ָוִ֗תי ִי ֵ֥תּן ֱאֽלוַֹהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 9‬וי ֹ ֵ֣אל ֱ֭אלוַֹהּ ִֽוי ַדְכּ ֵ֑א ִני ַי ֵ֥תּר ָ֝י֗דוֹ ִֽויַבְצּ ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫ִכּי־ ֥ל ֹא ִ֝כ ַ֗ח ְדִתּי ִאְמ ֵ֥רי ָק ֽדוֹשׁ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֽ 10‬וְּתִהי ֨ﬠוֹד ֮ ֶנ ָ֤חָמִ֗תי ַוֲאַסְלּ ָ֣דה ְ ֭בִחיָלה ֣ל ֹא ַיְח֑מוֹל‬
24
Then you will know that your tent is at peace (k)
and when you visit your fold you miss nothing.
25
Then you will know that your offspring will be many
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
26
You will come to the grave in full vigor,
as a ripe shock comes up in its season.
27
See, we have searched this out, it is true, (l)
hear it and know for yourself.
Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 6–7
 1Job answered and said:
2
If only my anguish could be weighed (a) I
and my calamity laid with it on the scales,
3
then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
therefore my words are crude.
4
For the arrows of Shaddai are in me
whose poison my spirit is drinking;
God’s terrors are arrayed against me.
5
Does the wild ass bray over grass? (b)
Does a bull bellow over his fodder?
6
Can tasteless food be eaten without salt?
Is there flfavor in the juice of mallows?
7
My throat refuses to touch them,
they are like rotten food.
8
Oh, If only that what I ask would come (c)
and God would give me what I hope!
9
If only God would decide to crush me,
to let loose his hand and cut me off!
10
Then this would be my consolation;
and though he does not spare me pain I would revel,
because I did not renounce my words against the Holy One.
‫‪ַ 11‬מה־כֹּ ִ֥חי ִֽכי־ֲא ַי ֵ֑חל וַּמה־ִ֝קִּ֗צּי ִֽכּי־ַאֲא ִ֥רי􀀇 ַנְפִֽשׁי‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 12‬אם־ ֣כַֹּח ֲאָב ִ֣נים כֹּ ִ֑חי ִֽאם־ְבָּשׂ ִ֥רי ָנֽחוּשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 13‬הִ֬אם ֵ֣אין ֶﬠ ְז ָר ִ֣תי ִ֑בי ְ֝וֻתִשׁ ָ֗יּה ִנ ְדּ ָ֥חה ִמֶֽמּ ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 14‬ל ָ ֣מּס ֵמ ֵר ֵ֣ﬠהוּ ָ֑חֶסד ְו ִי ְר ַ֖את ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ַיֲﬠ ֽזוֹב‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ַ 15‬אַחי ָבּ ְג ֣דוּ ְכמוֹ־ ָ֑נַחל ַכֲּא ִ֖פיק ְנָח ִ֣לים ַיֲﬠ ֽבֹרוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 16‬הקֹּ ְד ִ֥רים ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑ק ַרח ָ֝ﬠֵ֗לימוֹ ִיְתַﬠֶלּם־ָֽשֶׁלג‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 17‬בֵּﬠת ְיזֹ ְר֣בוּ ִנְצ ָ ֑מתוּ ְ֝בֻּח֗מּוֹ ִנ ְדֲﬠ֥כוּ ִמְמּקוָֹֽמם‪:‬‬

‫תּהוּ ְוי ֹא ֵֽבדוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֭ 18‬י ָ֣לְּפתוּ ָא ְר֣חוֹת ַדּ ְר ָ֑כּם ַיֲﬠ֖לוּ ַב ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ִ 19‬הִבּיטוּ ָא ְר֣חוֹת ֵתּ ָ ֑מא ֲהִלי ֥כֹת ְ֝שׁ ָ֗בא ִקוּוּ־ ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֥ 20‬בֹּשׁוּ ִֽכּי־ָב ָ֑טח ָ֥בּאוּ ָ֝ﬠ ֶ֗דיָה ַו ֶיְּח ָֽפּרוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 21‬כּי־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ֱה ִ֣ייֶתם ל ֹא ִֽתּ ְר֥אוּ ֲ֝חַ֗תת ַוִתּי ָֽראוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲֽ 22‬הִכי־ ָ ֭אַמ ְרִתּי ָ֣הבוּ ִ֑לי ֝וִּמכֲֹּחֶ֗כם ִשֲׁח ֥דוּ ַבֲﬠ ִֽדי‪:‬‬
‫‪ 23‬וַּמְלּ֥טוּ ִני ִמ ַיּד־ ָ֑צר וִּמ ַ֖יּד ָﬠ ִרי ִ֣צים ִתְּפ ֽדּוּ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ 24‬הוֹרוּ ִני ַוֲא ִ֣ני ַאֲח ִ֑רישׁ וַּמה־ָ֝שּׁ ֗ ִגיִתי ָה ִ֥בינוּ ִֽלי‪:‬‬
11
What strength have I that I should wait, (d)
and how near is my end that I should remain patient?
12
Is my strength the strength of stones,
is my flfesh bronze?
13
No, I cannot help myself,
any success is banished from me.
14
Whoever withholds loyalty from his friend (e) II
forsakes the fear of Shaddai.
15
My brothers are treacherous like a wadi,
like a bed where streams pass
16
that are dark with ice,
obscured by a cover of snow.
17
Once they thaw, they are wiped out, (f)
in the heat they evaporate on the spot.
18
Their course is a twisting path,
but they run into the desert and perish.
19
The caravans from Tema are on the look-out, (g)
the trains of Sheba count on them.
20
They are ashamed in their trust,
when they arrive, they are abashed.
21
Indeed, you are nothing, now;
you see horror and take fright.
22
Did I ever say, ‘Make me a gift, (h) III
and pay a bribe for me out of your wealth!
23
Rescue me from the hand of a foe,
ransom me from the hand of ruthless men!’
24
Teach me and I shall be silent,
and how I was wrong, make me understand!
‫‪ַ 25‬מה־ ִנְּמ ְר֥צוּ ִאְמ ֵרי־ ֑י ֶֹשׁר וַּמה־יּוֹ ִ֖כיַח הוֹ ֵ֣כַח ִמ ֶֽכּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 26‬הְלהוֹ ַ֣כח ִמ ִ֣לּים ַתְּח ֑שׁ ֹבוּ ֝וְּל֗רוַּח ִאְמ ֵ֥רי ֹנ ָֽאשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 27‬אף־ַﬠל־ ָי֥תוֹם ַתּ ִ֑פּילוּ ְ֝וִתְכ֗רוּ ַﬠל־ ֵֽריֲﬠ ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 28‬וַﬠָתּה הוֹ ִ֣אילוּ ְפנוּ־ ִ֑בי ְוַﬠל־ְ֝פּ ֵניֶ֗כם ִאם־ֲאַכ ֵֽזּב‪:‬‬

‫‪ֻֽ 29‬שׁבוּ־ ָ֭נא ַאל־ְתּ ִ֣הי ַﬠ ְו ָ֑לה ְֻוֽשׁוּבוּ ֝ﬠוֹד ִצ ְדִקי־ ָֽבהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 30‬ה ֵישׁ־ִבְּלשׁוֹ ִ֥ני ַﬠ ְו ָ֑לה ִאם־ ִ֝חִ֗כּי ל ֹא־ ָי ִ֥בין ַה ֽוּוֹת‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 7:1‬הל ֹא־ָצ ָ֣בא ֶלֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ֲַﬠֵלי־ ָ֑א ֶרץ ְוִכי ֵ ֖מי ָשׂ ִ֣כיר ָיָֽמיו‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 2‬כּ ֶ֥ﬠֶבד ִיְשַׁאף־ ֵ֑צל ֝וְּכָשִׂ֗כיר ְיַק ֶ֥וּה ָפֳﬠֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 3‬כּן ָה ְנ ַ֣חְלִתּי ִ֖לי ַי ְרֵחי־ ָ ֑שׁ ְוא ְוֵלי֥לוֹת ָ֝ﬠָ֗מל ִמנּוּ־ ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 4‬אם־ָשַׁ֗כְבִתּי ְוָאַ֗מ ְרִתּי ָמ ַ֣תי ָ ֭אקוּם‬
‫וִּמ ַדּד־ ָ֑ﬠ ֶרב ְוָשׂ ַ֖בְﬠִתּי ְנ ֻד ִ֣דים ֲﬠ ֵדי־ ָֽנֶשׁף‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֮ 5‬ל ַ֤בשׁ ְבָּשׂ ִ֣רי ִ֭רָמּה ְו ֣גוּשׁ ָﬠ ָ֑פר ﬠוֹ ִ֥רי ָ֝ר ֗ ַגﬠ ַו ִיָּמּ ֵֽאס‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 6‬י ַ ֣מי ַ ֭קלּוּ ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑א ֶרג ַ֝ו ִיְּכ ֗לוּ ְבּ ֶ֣אֶפס ִתְּק ָֽוה‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 7‬זכֹר ִכּי־ ֣רוַּח ַח ָיּ֑י ל ֹא־ָת֥שׁוּב ֵ֝ﬠי ִ֗ני ִל ְר֥אוֹת ֽטוֹב‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 8‬ל ֹא־ ְ ֭תשׁוּ ֵר ִני ֵ֣ﬠין ֑ר ִֹאי ֵﬠי ֶ֖ני􀀈 ִ֣בּי ְוֵאי ֶֽנ ִנּי‪:‬‬
25
How trenchant are upright words, (i)
but what kind of reproving is your reproof?
26
Is it to reprove me that you devise your words,
and count as wind the speech of a despairing one?
27
You would even cast lots over an orphan
and barter away your friend!
28
But now, please decide to face me: (j)
I would not lie to your face.
29
Turn to me now, let there not be injustice!
Turn to me, I am still in the right!
30
Is there any injustice on my tongue?
Can my palate not discern calamity?
 1Does not man have a hard service on earth? (a) I

Are not his days like those of a hireling?
2
Like a slave he longs for shadow
and like a hireling he hopes for his wages.
3
So have I been allotted months of futility (b)
and they apportion me nights of misery.
4
When I lie down, I say:
‘when can I get up?’
and while the evening drags on
I am sated with tossings till dawn.
5
My flfesh is clad in maggots and dirt, (c)
my skin is throbbing and festering.
6
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
and come to an end without hope.
7
Consider that my life is but wind, (d) II
my eye will never see happiness again.
8
The eye that sees me will not spy me,
your eyes are on me, but I will not be.
‫‪ָ 9‬כּ ָ֣לה ָ ֭ﬠ ָנן ַו ֵיּ ַ֑ל􀀇 ֵ֥כּן יוֹ ֵ֥רד ְ֝שׁ֗אוֹל ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠ ֶֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ 10‬ל ֹא־ ָי֣שׁוּב ֣ﬠוֹד ְלֵבי֑תוֹ ְול ֹא־ ַיִכּי ֶ֖רנּוּ ֣ﬠוֹד ְמקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ָ֝אִ֗שׂיָחה ְבּ ַ ֣מר ַנְפִֽשׁי‪:‬‬ ‫ֲֽא ַדְבּ ָרה ְבּ ַ֣צר רוּ ִ֑חי‬ ‫‪ַ 11‬גּם־ֲא ִנ֮י ֤ל ֹא ֶאֱחָ֫שׂ􀀇 ִ֥פּי‬
‫‪ֲֽ 12‬ה ָים־ ָ ֭א ִני ִאם־ַתּ ִ֑נּין ִֽכּי־ָתִ֖שׂים ָﬠ ַ֣לי ִמְשָֽׁמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 13‬כּי־ ָ ֭אַמ ְרִתּי ְתּ ַנֲח ֵ ֣מ ִני ַﬠ ְרִ֑שׂי ִיָ֥שּׂא ְ֝בִשׂי ִ֗חי ִמְשָׁכּ ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 14‬וִחַתּ ַ֥תּ ִני ַבֲח􀀉֑מוֹת ֽוֵּמֶח ְזי ֹ ֥נוֹת ְתַּבֲﬠ ַֽת ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 15‬וִתְּב ַ֣חר ַמֲח ָ֣נק ַנְפִ֑שׁי ָ֗מ ֶות ֵֽמַﬠְצמוֹ ָֽתי‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ָ֣לם ֶֽאְח ֶי֑ה ֲח ַ֥דל ִ֝מֶ֗מּ ִנּי ִכּי־ ֶ֥הֶבל ָיָֽמי‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 16‬מַאְסִתּי ל ֹא־ְל ֹ‬
‫‪ָֽ 17‬מה־ֱ֭אנוֹשׁ ִ֣כּי ְת ַג ְדּ ֶ֑לנּוּ ְוִכי־ָתִ֖שׁית ֵא ָ֣ליו ִל ֶֽבּ􀀈‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 18‬וִתְּפְק ֶ֥דנּוּ ִלְבָק ִ֑רים ִ֝ל ְר ָגִ֗ﬠים ִתְּבָח ֶֽננּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 19‬כָּמּה ל ֹא־ִתְשׁ ֶ֣ﬠה ִמ ֶ ֑מּ ִנּי ֽל ֹא־ַ֝ת ְרֵ֗פּ ִני ַﬠד־ִבְּל ִ֥ﬠי ֻר ִֽקּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 20‬חָ֡טאִתי ָ ֤מה ֶאְפַ֨ﬠל ָל֮􀀇 ֹנ ֵ֢צר ָהָ֫א ָ֥דם‬
‫ָ֤לָמה ַשְׂמ ַ֣תּ ִני ְלִמְפ ָ֣גּﬠ ָ֑ל􀀇 ָוֶאְהֶי֖ה ָﬠ ַ֣לי ְלַמָֽשּׂא‪:‬‬
‫‪ 21‬וּ ֶ ֤מה ׀ ל ֹא־ִת ָ ֣שּׂא ִפְשִׁﬠ֮י ְוַתֲﬠ ִ֢ביר ֶאת־ֲﬠ֫וֹ ִ֥ני‬

‫ִֽכּי־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ֶלָﬠ ָ֣פר ֶאְשׁ ָ֑כּב ְוִ֖שֲׁח ְר ַ֣תּ ִני ְוֵאי ֶֽנ ִנּי‪ :‬פ‬
9
A cloud fades and is gone: (e)
so who goes down to Sheol does not rise.
10
He returns to his home no more
and his place recognizes him no more.
11
Therefore I cannot restrain my mouth, (f)
I will speak with my spirit in straits,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12
Am I the sea or a dragon
that you set a watch over me?
13
When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, (g)
my couch will carry my complaint’,
14
then you shatter me with dreams
and with visions you terrify me.
15
My throat prefers strangling, (h)
death rather than my bones.
16
I reject! I shall not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a puff.
17
What is man that you make him great (i) III
and that you set your mind on him?
18
You inspect him every morning,
every moment you examine him.
19
Will you never look away from me? (j)
You do not allow me to swallow my spittle!
20
If I sin, what do I do to you,
you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your target,
have I become a burden to you?
And why do you not pardon my crime

21
(k)
and let my guilt pass by?
For now I will lie in the dust
and you will seek me, but I will not be.
‫‪ַ֭ 8:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ִבְּל ַ֥דּד ַהשּׁוּ ִ֗חי ַוי ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬ﬠד־ ָ֥אן ְתַּמֶלּל־ ֵ֑אֶלּה ְו ֥רוַּח ַ֝כִּבּיר ִאְמ ֵרי־ ִֽפי􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 3‬הֵאל ְיַﬠ ֵוּ ֣ת ִמְשׁ ָ֑פּט ְוִאם־ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ְיַﬠ ֵֽוּת־ ֶֽצ ֶדק‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 4‬אם־ָבּ ֶ֥ני􀀈 ָֽחְטאוּ־֑לוֹ ַֽו ְיַשְׁלּ ֵ֗חם ְבּ ַיד־ִפְּשׁ ָֽﬠם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 5‬אם־ ַ ֭אָתּה ְתַּשׁ ֵ֣חר ֶאל־ ֵ֑אל ְוֶאל־ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ִתְּתַח ָֽנּ ן‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬אם־ ַ֥ז 􀀇 ְו ָיָ֗שׁר ָ֥אָתּה ִכּי־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ָי ִ֣ﬠיר ָﬠ ֶ֑לי􀀈 ְ֝וִשַׁ֗לּם ְנַ֣ות ִצ ְד ֶֽק􀀈‪:‬‬
‫אד‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 7‬וָה ָי֣ה ֵראִשׁיְת֣􀀈 ִמְצ ָ֑ﬠר ְ֝וַאֲח ִריְת֗􀀈 ִיְשׂ ֶ֥גּה ְמ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 8‬כּי־ְשַׁאל־ ָ֭נא ְל ֣ד ֹר ִרי֑שׁוֹן ְ֝וכוֹ ֵ֗נן ְל ֵ֣חֶקר ֲאבוֹ ָֽתם‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 9‬כּי־ְת֣מוֹל ֲ֭א ַנְחנוּ ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵנ ָ֑דﬠ ִ֤כּי ֵ֖צל ָי ֵ ֣מינוּ ֲﬠֵלי־ ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 10‬הל ֹא־ ֵ֣הם י ֭וֹרוּ􀀈 ֣י ֹאְמרוּ ָ֑ל􀀇 ֝וִּמִלּ ָ֗בּם יוֹ ִ֥צאוּ ִמ ִֽלּים‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 11‬ה ִֽי ְגֶאה־ֹ֭גֶּמא ְבּ ֣ל ֹא ִב ָ֑צּה ִיְשׂ ֶגּה־ ָ֥אחוּ ְבִלי־ָֽמ ִים‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ֶ֣דנּוּ ְ ֭בִאבּוֹ ֣ל ֹא ִיָקּ ֵ֑טף ְוִלְפ ֵ֖ני ָכל־ָח ִ֣ציר ִיי ָֽבשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֹ 12‬‬
‫‪ֵ֗ 13‬כּן ָ ֭א ְרחוֹת ָכּל־ ֣שׁ ְֹכֵחי ֵ֑אל ְוִתְק ַ֖ות ָח ֵ֣נ ף תּ ֹא ֵֽבד‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 14‬אֶשׁר־ ָי֥קוֹט ִכְּס֑לוֹ וּ ֵ֥בית ַ֝ﬠָכּ ִ֗בישׁ ִמְבַטֽחוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מד ַיֲח ִ֥זיק ֗בּוֹ ְו ֣ל ֹא ָיֽקוּם‪:‬‬‫‪ִ 15‬יָשּׁ ֵ֣ﬠן ַﬠל־ ֵ ֭בּיתוֹ ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠ ֑ ֹ‬
First Speech by Bildad, Ch. 8
 1Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said:
2
How long will you prattle like this? (a) I
The utterances of your mouth are a gusty wind!
3
Will El pervert justice
and will Shaddai pervert what is right?
4
If your sons have sinned against him,
he dispatched them into their crime.
5
But if you personally seek El (b)
and beg for mercy from Shaddai,
6
if you are pure and upright,
he will surely rouse himself for you
and bring peace to your righteous dwelling.
7
Your beginning may seem small,
but your end will be very great.
8
Indeed, ask the former generation (c) II
and aim at the inquiry of your fathers.
9
For we are of yesterday and know not,
for our days on earth are a mere shadow.
10
Will they not teach you, speak with you
and bring forth the words of their hearts?
11
Can papyrus grow tall without marsh, (d)
can reeds flfourish without water?
12
While yet in flfower and not yet plucked,
it will wither more quickly than grass.
13
Such are the paths of all who forget El, (e) III
and the hope of the godless will perish.
14
His confifdence is cut off,
his trust is a spider’s house.
15
He leans on his house, but it will not stand,
he holds fast to it, but it will not endure.
‫ְו ַ֥ﬠל ַ֝גּ ָנּ֗תוֹ י ֹ֭ ַנְק֥תּוֹ ֵת ֵֽצא‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 16‬ר ֣טֹב ֖הוּא ִלְפ ֵני־ ָ ֑שֶׁמשׁ‬
‫ֵ֖בּית ֲאָב ִ֣נים ֶיֱח ֶֽזה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 17‬ﬠל־ ַ֭גּל ָֽשׁ ָר ָ ֣שׁיו ְיֻס ָ֑בּכוּ‬
‫ְו ִ֥כֶחשׁ ֗בּוֹ ֣ל ֹא ְרִאי ִֽתי􀀈‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 18‬אם־ ְיַבְלּ ֶ֥ﬠנּוּ ִמְמּקוֹ֑מוֹ‬
‫֝וֵּמָﬠָ֗פר ַא ֵ֥חר ִיְצָֽמחוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶ 19‬הן־֭הוּא ְמ֣שׂוֹשׂ ַדּ ְר֑כּוֹ‬
‫‪ֶ 20‬הן־ ֵ ֭אל ֣ל ֹא ִיְמַאס־ ָ֑תּם ְו ֽל ֹא־ ַ֝יֲח ִ֗זיק ְבּ ַיד־ְמ ֵר ִֽﬠים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 21‬ﬠד־ ְיַמ ֵ֣לּה ְשׂ֣חוֹק ִ֑פּי􀀈 וְּשָׂפ ֶ֥תי􀀈 ְתרוּ ָֽﬠה‪:‬‬
‫אֶהל ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ֵאי ֶֽננּוּ‪ :‬פ‬ ‫‪ 22‬שׂ ֹ ְנ ֶ֥אי􀀈 ִיְלְבּשׁוּ־ ֑בֶֹשׁת ְו ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 9:1‬ו ַֽיַּﬠן ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 2‬אְמ ָנם ָי ַ֣דְﬠִתּי ִכי־ ֵ֑כן וַּמה־ ִיְּצ ַ֖דּק ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ִﬠם־ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 3‬אם־ ַ֭יְחֹפּץ ָל ִ֣ריב ִﬠ֑מּוֹ ֽל ֹא־ ַ֝יֲﬠ ֶ֗ננּוּ ַא ַ֥חת ִמ ִנּי־ ָֽאֶלף‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 4‬ח ַ֣כם ֵ ֭לָבב ְוַאִ֣מּיץ ֑כַֹּח ִֽמי־ִהְקָ֥שׁה ֵ֝אָ֗ליו ַו ִיְּשׁ ָֽלם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 5‬הַמְּﬠ ִ֣תּיק ָ ֭ה ִרים ְו ֣ל ֹא ָי ָ֑דﬠוּ ֲא ֶ ֖שׁר ֲהָפ ָ֣כם ְבַּאֽפּוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 6‬הַמּ ְר ִ֣גּיז ֶ֭א ֶרץ ִמְמּקוֹ ָ ֑מהּ ְ֝וַﬠמּוּ ֶ֗דיָה ִיְתַפָלּֽצוּן‪:‬‬
‫תּם‪:‬‬‫א ֵ ֣מר ַ ֭לֶח ֶרס ְו ֣ל ֹא ִי ְז ָ֑רח וְּב ַ֖ﬠד כּוָֹכ ִ֣בים ַיְח ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ 7‬ה ֹ‬
16
Juicy he is even in the sun, (f)
his shoots spread out over his garden.
17
His roots are twined around a heap,
he takes fifrm hold among the stones.
18
But when he is torn from his place, (g) IV
it will deny him, ‘I haven’t seen you’.
19
Surely this is the joy of his way
and from the dust others will sprout.
20
Surely El does not reject the blameless (h)
nor does he hold the hands of the evildoers.
21
He will yet again fifll your mouth with laughter
and your lips with jubilation.
22
Those who hate you will be dressed in shame
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Chs. 9–10
 1Job answered and said:
2
Indeed, I know that this is so; (a) I-A
but how can a mortal be righteous before El?
3
If he wished to dispute with him,
He would not answer one charge in a thousand.
4
Wise of heart and mighty in power [is He],
who then can get him into trouble and come out whole?
5
He, who removes mountains and they know not, (b)
he overturns them in his anger;
6
who disturbs the earth from its place
so that its pillars shudder;
7
who says to the sun not to shine
and seals up the stars.
‫‪ֹ 8‬נ ֶ֣טה ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ְלַב ֑דּוֹ ְ֝ודוֹ ֵ֗ר􀀇 ַﬠל־ ָ֥בֳּמֵתי ָֽים‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶשׂה־ ָ ֭ﬠשׁ ְכּ ִ֥סיל ְוִכיָ֗מה ְוַח ְד ֵ֥רי ֵתָֽמן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֹֽ 9‬‬
‫שׂה ְ֭גד ֹלוֹת ַﬠד־ ֵ֣אין ֵ֑חֶקר ְו ִנְפָל֗אוֹת ַﬠד־ ֵ֥אין ִמְס ָֽפּר‪:‬‬ ‫ﬠֶ֣‬
‫‪ֹ 10‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 11‬הן ַיֲﬠ ֣בֹר ָ ֭ﬠַלי ְו ֣ל ֹא ֶא ְר ֶ֑אה ְ֝ו ַיֲח ֗􀀉ף ְֽול ֹא־ָא ִ֥בין ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫תּף ִ֣מי ְיִשׁי ֶ֑בנּוּ ִֽמי־י ֹאַ֥מר ֵ֝אָ֗ליו ַֽמה־ַתֲּﬠֶֽשׂה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ֣ 12‬הן ַ֭יְח ֹ‬
‫ﬠ ְז ֵרי ָֽרַהב‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֱ֭ 13‬אלוַֹהּ ל ֹא־ ָיִ֣שׁיב ַא֑פּוֹ ַתְּח ָ֥תּיו ָ֝שֲׁח֗חוּ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ַ 14‬אף ִֽכּי־ָאֹנ ִ֣כי ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶ֑ננּוּ ֶאְבֲח ָ֖רה ְדָב ַ֣רי ִﬠֽמּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫שׁר ִאם־ ָ ֭צ ַדְקִתּי ֣ל ֹא ֶאֱﬠ ֶ֑נה ִ֝לְמשׁ ְֹפִ֗טי ֶאְתַח ָֽנּ ן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 15‬א ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ִ 16‬אם־ָק ָ֥ראִתי ַֽו ַיֲּﬠ ֵ֑נ ִני ֽל ֹא־ַ֝אֲאִ֗מין ִֽכּי־ ַיֲא ִ֥זין קוֹ ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 17‬אֶשׁר־ִבְּשָׂﬠ ָ֥רה ְישׁוּ ֵ֑פ ִני ְוִה ְר ָ֖בּה ְפָצ ַ֣ﬠי ִח ָֽנּם‪:‬‬
‫שׁב רוּ ִ֑חי ִ֥כּי ַ֝יְשִׂבַּ֗ﬠ ִני ַמְמּר ֹ ִֽרים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֽ 18‬ל ֹא־ ִ֭יְתּ ֵנ ִני ָה ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ִ 19‬אם־ְל ֣כַֹח ַאִ֣מּיץ ִה ֵ֑נּה ְוִאם־ְ֝לִמְשָׁ֗פּט ִ֣מי יוִֹﬠי ֵֽד ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 20‬אם־ ֶ֭אְצ ָדּק ִ֣פּי ַי ְרִשׁי ֵ֑ﬠ ִני ָֽתּם־ָ֗א ִני ַֽו ַיְּﬠְקֵֽשׁ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ָֽ 21‬תּם־ ָ ֭א ִני ֽל ֹא־ֵא ַ֥דﬠ ַנְפִ֗שׁי ֶאְמ ַ֥אס ַח ָֽיּי ַא ַ֗חת ִ֥היא‪:‬‬
8
He alone stretches out the heavens (c) I-B
and treads on the waves of the sea;
9
he is the maker of the Bear and Orion,
of the Pleiades and the chambers of the South.
10
he works great deeds beyond understanding
and wonders beyond all numbering.
11
When he passes by me, I do not see him, (d)
when he goes by, I do not perceive him.
12
When he snatches away, who can turn him back?
Who can say to him, ‘what are you doing?’
13
God does not turn back his anger, (e) II-A
the helpers of Rahab cower beneath him.
14
How much more I myself, when I try to answer him,
when I want to choose my words with him!
15
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him,
I can only beg my judge for mercy.
16
If I summoned him and he answered me, (f)
I do not believe he would listen to my voice;
17
for he would crush me for a triflfe
and multiply my wounds for no reason.
18
He will not let me regain my breath,
he will rather sate me with bitterness.
19
If it is a matter of strength, he is the mighty one, (g) II-B
and if of justice, who can arraign him?
20
Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
I am blameless, but he would pronounce me perverse.
21
I am blameless, but I know not myself;
I reject my life, it is all the same.
‫‪ַ 22‬ﬠל־ ֵ֥כּן ָא ַ ֑מ ְרִתּי ָ֥תּם ְ֝ו ָרָ֗שׁﬠ ֣הוּא ְמַכ ֶֽלּה‪:‬‬
‫אם ְלַמ ַ֖סּת ְנִק ִ֣יּם ִיְל ָֽﬠג‪:‬‬‫‪ִ 23‬אם־֭שׁוֹט ָיִ֣מית ִפְּת ֑ ֹ‬
‫ִאם־ ֖ל ֹא ֵא֣פוֹא ִמי־ֽהוּא‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶ֤ 24‬א ֶרץ ׀ ִנְתּ ָ֬נה ְֽב ַיד־ ָרָ֗שׁﬠ ְפּ ֵֽני־שׁ ְֹפ ֶ֥טיָה ְיַכ ֶ֑סּה‬
‫‪ְ 25‬ו ָי ַ ֣מי ַ ֭קלּוּ ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑רץ ָֽבּ ְר֗חוּ ל ֹא־ ָר֥אוּ טוֹ ָֽבה‪:‬‬
‫אֶכל‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 26‬חְלפוּ ִﬠם־ֳא ִנ ֣יּוֹת ֵא ֶ֑בה ְ֝כּ ֶ֗נֶשׁר ָי֥טוּשׂ ֲﬠֵלי־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 27‬אם־ ָ ֭אְמ ִרי ֶאְשְׁכּ ָ֣חה ִשׂי ִ֑חי ֶאֶﬠ ְז ָ֖בה ָפ ַ֣ני ְוַאְב ִֽלי ָגה‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 28‬יֹ֥ג ְרִתּי ָכל־ַﬠְצּבֹ ָ֑תי ָ֝י ַ֗דְﬠִתּי ִכּי־ ֥ל ֹא ְת ַנ ֵֽקּ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 29‬אֹנ ִ֥כי ֶא ְר ָ ֑שׁﬠ ָלָמּה־ ֶ֗זּה ֶ֣הֶבל ִאי ָֽגﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 30‬אם־ִהְת ָר ַ֥חְצִתּי ְבמוֹ־ ָ ֑שֶׁלג ַ֝וֲה ִז֗כּוִֹתי ְבּ ֣בֹר ַכּ ָֽפּי‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ָ 31‬אז ַבּ ַ ֣שַּׁחת ִתְּטְבּ ֵ֑ל ִני ְ֝ו ִֽתֲﬠ֗בוּ ִני ַשְׂלמוֹ ָֽתי‪:‬‬
‫מ ִני ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶ֑ננּוּ ָנ֥בוֹא ַ֝יְח ָ֗דּו ַבִּמְּשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 32‬כּי־ל ֹא־ ִ֣אישׁ ָכּ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֣ 33‬ל ֹא ֵישׁ־ֵבּי ֵ֣נינוּ מוֹ ִ֑כיַח ָי ֵ ֖שׁת ָי ֣דוֹ ַﬠל־ְשׁ ֵֽנינוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 34‬י ֵ֣סר ֵמָﬠ ַ֣לי ִשְׁב֑טוֹ ְ֝וֵאָמ֗תוֹ ַֽאל־ְתַּבֲﬠ ַֽת ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 35‬א ַדְבּ ָרה ְו ֣ל ֹא ִאי ָר ֶ֑אנּוּ ִ֥כּי ל ֹא־ ֵ֥כן ָ֝אֹנִ֗כי ִﬠָמּ ִֽדי‪:‬‬
22
Therefore I say: (h)
blameless and wicked alike—he fifnishes them.
23
When suddenly a scourge brings death,
he mocks the ordeal of the innocent.
24
The earth is handed over to the wicked one,
he covers the faces of its judges,
if it is not he, then who is it?
25
My days are swifter than a runner, (i) III-A
they flfee away without seeing happiness.
26
They have passed like boats of reed,
like an eagle swooping on prey.
27
When I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, (j)
let me stop looking sad and be cheerful,’
28
I dread all my pains;
I know you do not hold me innocent:
29
I am the one who is in the wrong,
why then should I toil in vain?
30
If I washed myself with snow (k) III-B
and cleansed my hands with lye,
31
even then you would plunge me in a pit,
so that my clothes would abhor me.
32
No, he is not a man like me whom I can answer:
‘let us come to trial together.’
33
If only there were some arbiter between us! (l)
He should lay his hand on us both,
34
He should remove His rod from me,
His terror would not frighten me.
35
Then I would speak out without fearing Him,
for that is not the way I am in myself.
‫‪ָֽ 10:1‬נ ְק ָ֥טה ַנְפִ֗שׁי ְבּ ַ֫ח ָ֥יּי ֶֽאֶﬠ ְז ָ֣בה ָﬠ ַ֣לי ִשׂי ִ֑חי ֲ֝א ַדְבּ ָר֗ה ְבּ ַ ֣מר ַנְפִֽשׁי‪:‬‬
‫א ַ ֣מר ֶאל־ֱ֭אלוַֹהּ ַאל־ַתּ ְרִשׁי ֵ֑ﬠ ִני ֽהוֹ ִדיֵ֗ﬠ ִני ַ֣ﬠל ַמה־ְתּ ִרי ֵֽב ִני‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֹ 2‬‬
‫‪ֲ 3‬ה֤טוֹב ְל֙􀀈 ׀ ִֽכּי־ַתֲﬠ ֗שׁ ֹק ִֽכּי־ ִ ֭תְמַאס ְי ִ֣גיַﬠ ַכּ ֶ֑פּי􀀈 ְוַﬠל־ֲﬠ ַ֖צת ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים הוֹ ָֽפְﬠָתּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 4‬הֵﬠי ֵ֣ני ָב ָ ֣שׂר ָ֑ל􀀇 ִאם־ִכּ ְר֖אוֹת ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ִתּ ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬

‫‪ֲ 5‬הִכי ֵ ֣מי ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ָי ֶ ֑מי􀀈 ִאם־ְ֝שׁנוֶֹ֗תי􀀈 ִ֣כּיֵמי ָֽגֶבר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 6‬כּי־ְתַב ֵ֥קּשׁ ַלֲﬠוֹ ִ֑ני ֭וְּלַחָטּא ִ֥תי ִת ְד ֽרוֹשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 7‬ﬠל־ ַ ֭דְּﬠְתּ􀀈 ִכּי־ ֣ל ֹא ֶא ְר ָ ֑שׁﬠ ְו ֵ֖אין ִמ ָיּ ְד֣􀀈 ַמ ִֽצּיל‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 8‬י ֶ֣די􀀈 ִ ֭ﬠְצּבוּ ִני ַֽו ַיֲּﬠ֑שׂוּ ִני ַ֥יַחד ָ֝ס ִ֗ביב ַֽוְתַּבְלּ ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 9‬זָכר־ ָ֭נא ִכּי־ַכ ֣חֶֹמר ֲﬠִשׂי ָ֑ת ִני ְֽוֶאל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ְתִּשׁי ֵֽב ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 10‬ה ֣ל ֹא ֶ֭כָחָלב ַתִּתּי ֵ֑כ ִני ְ֝וַכ ְגִּב ָ֗נּה ַתְּקִפּי ֵֽא ִני‪:‬‬
‫סְכ ֵֽכ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ 11‬ﬠוֹר ֭וָּבָשׂר ַתְּלִבּי ֵ ֑שׁ ִני ֽוַּבֲﬠָצ֥מוֹת ְ֝ו ִגי ִ֗דים ְתּ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 12‬ח ִ֣יּים ָ֭וֶחֶסד ָﬠִ֣שׂיָת ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ֝וְּפֻק ָדְּת֗􀀈 ָֽשְׁמ ָ֥רה רוּ ִֽחי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 13‬וֵאֶלּה ָצ ַ֣פ ְנָתּ ִבְלָב ֶ֑ב􀀈 ָ֝י ַ֗דְﬠִתּי ִכּי־ ֥ז ֹאת ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬אם־ָח ָ֥טאִתי וְּשַׁמ ְר ָ֑תּ ִני ֝וֵּמֲﬠוֹ ִ֗ני ֣ל ֹא ְת ַנ ֵֽקּ ִני‪:‬‬
‫ְשׂ ַ֥בﬠ ָ ֝ק ֗לוֹן וּ ְר ֵ֥אה ָﬠ ְנ ִֽיי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 15‬אם־ ָרַ֡שְׁﬠִתּי ַאְלַ֬לי ִ֗לי ְ֭וָצ ַדְקִתּי ל ֹא־ֶא ָ ֣שּׂא ר ֹאִ֑שׁי‬
 1Deeply inside I loathe my life; (a) I

let me give free rein to my complaint,
let me speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2
I will say to God: ‘do not hold me guilty,
let me know what it is you dispute with me.
3
Is it fifne with you that you oppress,
that you reject the work of our hands
and are radiant on the counsel of the wicked?
4
Do you have eyes of flfesh? (b)
Do you see as a mortal sees?
5
Are your days like the days of a mortal,
or your years like those of a human,
6
that you seek my crime
and search out my sin?
7
You should know that I am not guilty, (c) II
but there is no one who saves from your hand.
8
Your hands have shaped me and have made me
from all sides, but you have destroyed me.
9
Remember how you made me as clay (d)
and will return me to the dust.
10
Did you not pour me out like milk
and then curdle me like cheese?
11
With skin and flfesh you clothed me
and with bones and sinews you wove me.
12
Life and loyalty you have done to me (e)
and your inspection watched my spirit,
13
but you have hidden these things in your heart;
I know this was your purpose.
14
If I sin, you watch me (f) III
and you do not clear me from guilt.
15
If I am in the wrong—woe to me!
But if I am in the right, I cannot lift my head,
sated with shame, drenched in my afflfiction.
‫‪ְ֭ 16‬ו ִי ְגֶאה ַכּ ַ ֣שַּׁחל ְתּצוּ ֵ֑ד ִני ְ֝וָת ֗שׁ ֹב ִתְּתַפָּלּא־ ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 17‬תַּח ֵ֬דּשׁ ֵﬠ ֶ֨די􀀈 ֶנ ְג ִ֗דּי ְו ֶ֣ת ֶרב ַֽכַּﬠְשׂ􀀈 ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ֲחִלי֖פוֹת ְוָצ ָ֣בא ִﬠִֽמּי‪:‬‬
‫הֵצא ָ֑ת ִני ֶ֝א ְג ַ֗וﬠ ְו ַ֣ﬠ ִין ל ֹא־ִת ְר ֵֽא ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 18‬ו ָ֣לָמּה ֵ ֭מ ֶרֶחם ֹ‬
‫שׁר ל ֹא־ָה ִ֣ייִתי ֶאְהֶי֑ה ִ֝מ ֶ֗בֶּטן ַל ֶ֥קֶּבר אוּ ָֽבל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 19‬כֲּא ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ֲ 20‬הל ֹא־ְמ ַ֣ﬠט ָי ַ ֣מי ַוֲח ָ֑דל ְוִ֥שׁית ִ֝מֶ֗מּ ִנּי ְוַאְב ִ֥לי ָגה ְמּ ָֽﬠט‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְוַצְלָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬‫‪ְ 21‬בּ ֶ֣ט ֶרם ֵ ֭אֵל􀀇 ְו ֣ל ֹא ָא֑שׁוּב ֶאל־ ֶ֖א ֶרץ ֣ ֹ‬
‫פ‬ ‫אֶפל‪:‬‬
‫תַּפﬠ ְכּמוֹ־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫אֶפל ַ ֭צְלָמ ֶות ְו ֥ל ֹא ְס ָד ִ֗רים ַו ֥ ֹ‬ ‫‪ֶ֤ 22‬א ֶרץ ֵﬠיָ֨פָתה ְכּ֥מוֹ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ֭ 11:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן צֹ ַ֥פר ַֽה ַנֲּﬠָמִ֗תי ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 2‬ה ֣ר ֹב ְ ֭דָּב ִרים ֣ל ֹא ֵיָﬠ ֶ֑נה ְוִאם־ ִ֖אישׁ ְשָׂפ ַ֣ת ִים ִיְצ ָֽדּק‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 3‬בּ ֶדּי􀀈 ְמ ִ֣תים ַיֲח ִ֑רישׁוּ ַ֝וִתְּלַ֗ﬠג ְו ֵ֣אין ַמְכ ִֽלם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֭ 4‬ותּ ֹאֶמר ַ֣ז 􀀇 ִלְק ִ֑חי ֝וּ ַ֗בר ָה ִ֥ייִתי ְבֵﬠי ֶֽני􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 5‬ואוָּ֗לם ִֽמי־ ִי ֵ֣תּן ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ַדּ ֵ֑בּר ְו ִיְפ ַ֖תּח ְשָׂפ ָ֣תיו ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 6‬ו ַי ֶגּד־ְל֙􀀈 ַֽתֲּﬠֻל֣מוֹת ָחְכָמ֮ה ִֽכּי־ִכְפ ַ֢ל ִים ְֽל֫תוִּשׁ ָ֥יּה‬
‫ְו ַ֡דﬠ ִֽכּי־ ַיֶ֥שּׁה ְל֥􀀈 ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹה ֵמֲﬠוֹ ֶֽנ 􀀈‪:‬‬
16
Rising up like a lion—you hunt me (g)
and time and again you are uncanny-wondrous with me.
17
You renew your witnesses against me
and you increase your resentment at me,
changing the guards who serve against me.
18
So why did you have me come out of the womb? (h) IV
Better I had expired before any eye saw me.
19
Then I would have been as though I never was,
being carried from the belly to the grave.
20
Are not my days few enough? Stop (i)
and leave me alone, let me cheer up a bit,
21
before I go and do not return,
to the land of deepest dark,
22
a land of gloom like blackness,
of pitch dark and disarray,
and radiant like blackness.’
The First Speech of Zophar, Ch. 11
 1Then Zophar the Naamathite spoke up and said:
2
Should a mass of words not get a retort, (a) I
and must a loquacious man be right?
3
Your prattle may silence people,
you may mock without anyone to shame you.
4
You have said, ‘My doctrine is pure
and I am clean in your eyes.’
5
But oh, if only God would speak (b)
and open his lips to you.
6
Then he would tell you the secrets of wisdom,
how they have two sides for success.
Know that God is ready for you
to forgive part of your guilt.
‫‪ַ 7‬ה ֵ֣חֶקר ֱא֣לוַֹה ִתְּמ ָ֑צא ִ֤אם ַﬠד־ַתְּכ ִ֖לית ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ִתְּמ ָֽצא‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 8‬גְּב ֵ֣הי ָ ֭שַׁמ ִים ַמה־ִתְּפ ָ֑ﬠל ֲﬠֻמ ָ֥קּה ִ֝מְשּׁ֗אוֹל ַמה־ֵתּ ָֽדﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 9‬א ֻר ָ֣כּה ֵמ ֶ֣א ֶרץ ִמ ָ֑דּהּ ֝וּ ְרָח ָ֗בה ִמ ִנּי־ ָֽים‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 10‬אם־ ַיֲח֥􀀉ף ְו ַיְס ִ֑גּיר ְ֝ו ַיְקִ֗היל וִּ֣מי ְיִשׁי ֶֽבנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 11‬כּי־֭הוּא ָי ַ֣דﬠ ְמֵתי־ ָ ֑שׁ ְוא ַו ַיּ ְרא־ָ֗א ֶון ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְתבּוֹ ָֽנ ן‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬ו ִ֣אישׁ ָ֭נבוּב ִיָלּ ֵ֑בב ְו ַ֥ﬠ ִיר ֶ֗פּ ֶרא ָא ָ֥דם ִי ָוּ ֵֽלד‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 13‬אם־ ַ ֭אָ֗תּה ֲהִכי ֣נוָֹת ִל ֶ֑בּ􀀈 וָּפ ַרְשׂ ָ֖תּ ֵא ָ֣ליו ַכּ ֶֽפּ􀀈‪:‬‬
‫אָה ֶ֣לי􀀈 ַﬠ ְו ָֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬אם־ ָ֣א ֶון ְ ֭בּ ָי ְד􀀈 ַה ְרִחי ֵ֑קהוּ ְוַאל־ַתְּשׁ ֵ֖כּן ְבּ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 15‬כּי־ ָ֤אז ׀ ִתּ ָ ֣שּׂא ָפ ֶ֣ני􀀈 ִמ֑מּוּם ְוָה ִ֥ייָת ֻ֝מָ֗צק ְו ֣ל ֹא ִתי ָֽרא‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 16‬כּי־ ַ ֭אָתּה ָﬠ ָ ֣מל ִתְּשׁ ָ֑כּח ְכַּ֖מ ִים ָﬠְב ֣רוּ ִת ְז ֽכֹּר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 17‬וִּמָצֳּה ַר ִים ָי֣קוּם ָ֑חֶלד ָ֝תֻּ֗ﬠָפה ַכּ ֥בֶֹּקר ִתְּה ֶֽיה‪:‬‬

‫‪ֽ 18‬וָּבַטְחָתּ ִכּי־ ֵי ֣שׁ ִתְּק ָו֑ה ְ֝וָחַפ ְרָ֗תּ ָל ֶ֥בַטח ִתְּשׁ ָֽכּב‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 19‬ו ָרַבְצָתּ ְו ֵ֣אין ַמֲח ִ֑ריד ְוִח֖לּוּ ָפ ֶ֣ני􀀈 ַר ִֽבּים‪:‬‬

‫פ‬ ‫ְ֝וִתְק ָוָ֗תם ַֽמַפּח־ ָֽנֶפשׁ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 20‬וֵﬠי ֵ֥ני ְרָשִׁ֗ﬠים ִ֫תְּכ ֶ֥לי ָנה וָּמנוֹס ָא ַ֣בד ִמ ְנ ֶ֑הם‬
7
Do you want to fifnd the mystery of God? (c) II
Can you fifnd the limit of Shaddai?
8
Higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9
Longer than the earth is its measure
and broader than the sea.
10
If he passes by and shuts up (d)
or calls an assembly: who can turn him back?
11
For he is the one who knows the deceitful,
when he sees evil, should he not discern it?
12
‘A hollow man will get an understanding heart
when a wild ass can be born a man.’
13
Yet if you, you direct your heart (e) III
and spread out your palms to him,
14
if evil is in your hand, remove it
and let no injustice dwell in your tents.
15
Then surely you will lift up your face, free of blemish, (f)
you will stand fifrm and fear not.
16
Surely you will forget misery,
as water passing away you will remember it.
17
Life will rise up brighter than noonday (g)
darkness will become like the morning.
18
You will be secure, for there is hope,
protected, you will rest secure.
19
You will recline without anyone disturbing you (h)
and many will court your favor,
20
but the eyes of the wicked will fail,
any escape will be lost to them
and their hope be a dying gasp.
‫‪֭ ָ 2‬אְמ ָנם ִ֣כּי ַאֶתּם־ ָ֑ﬠם ְ֝וִﬠָמֶּ֗כם ָתּ֥מוּת ָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 3‬גּם־ ִ֤לי ֵל ָ֨בב ׀ ְֽכּמוֶֹ֨כם ל ֹא־ֹנ ֵ֣פל ָאֹנ ִ֣כי ִמ ֶ֑כּם ְוֶאת־ִמי־ ֵ֥אין ְכּמוֹ־ ֵֽאֶלּה‪:‬‬
‫חק ְל ֵרֵ֨ﬠהוּ ֶֽאְה ֶ֗יה קֹ ֵ֣רא ֶ֭לֱאלוַֹהּ ַֽו ַיֲּﬠ ֵ֑נהוּ ְ֝שׂ֗חוֹק ַצ ִ֥דּיק ָתִּֽמים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 4‬שׂ ֤ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 5‬ל ִ֣פּיד ֭בּוּז ְלַﬠְשׁ֣תּוּת ַשֲׁא ָ֑נ ן ָ֝נ֗כוֹן ְל֣מוֲֹﬠ ֵדי ָֽר ֶגל‪:‬‬
‫אָהִ֨לים ְל ֽשׁ ֹ ְד ִ֗דים ֽוַּבֻטּחוֹת ְלַמ ְר ִ֣גּי ֵזי ֵ֑אל ַלֲא ֶ ֤שׁר ֵה ִ֖ביא ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ְבּ ָי ֽדוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬יְשׁ ָ֤ליוּ ֽ ֹ‬
‫ת ֶ֑רָךּ ְו֥ﬠוֹף ַ֝הָשַּׁ֗מ ִים ְו ַי ֶגּד־ ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְֽ 7‬ואוָּ֗לם ְשַׁאל־ ָ֣נא ְבֵה֣מוֹת ְו ֹ‬
‫ת ֶ֑רָךּ ִֽויַסְפּ ֥רוּ ְ֝ל֗􀀈 ְדּ ֵ֣גי ַה ָֽיּם‪:‬‬
‫‪֤ 8‬אוֹ ִ֣שׂיַח ָל ָ֣א ֶרץ ְו ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ִ 9‬מי ל ֹא־ ָי ַ֣דﬠ ְבָּכל־ ֵ֑אֶלּה ִ֥כּי ַיד־ ְ֝יה ָוה ָ֣ﬠְשָׂתה ֽזּ ֹאת‪:‬‬
‫שׁר ְ ֭בּ ָידוֹ ֶ֣נֶפשׁ ָכּל־ ָ֑חי ְ֝ו֗רוַּח ָכּל־ְבַּשׂר־ ִֽאישׁ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 10‬א ֶ ֣‬
‫אֶכל ִיְטַﬠם־ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬‫א ֶזן ִמ ִ֣לּין ִתְּב ָ֑חן ְ֝ו ֵ֗ח􀀇 ֣ ֹ‬

‫‪ֲ 11‬הל ֹא־ ֭ ֹ‬
‫א ֶר􀀇 ָיִ֣מים ְתּבוּ ָֽנה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 12‬בּיִשׁיִ֥שׁים ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ְו ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ִ 13‬ﬠמּוֹ ָחְכ ָ ֣מה וּ ְגבוּ ָ֑רה ֗לוֹ ֵﬠ ָ֥צה וְּתבוּ ָֽנה‪:‬‬
Job’s Answer to Zophar, Chs. 12–14
 1Job answered and said:
2
Truly, you are the people (a) I
and with you wisdom will die!
3
But I, too, have a heart like you,
I am not inferior to you
and who does not know such things?
4
I am a laughingstock to my fellow man, (b)
‘one who calls God and is answered,
righteous and blameless’, a laughingstock!
5
The complacent hold disaster in contempt,
thinking it is ready for those whose foot slips.
6
The tents of robbers prosper
and those who agonize God are secure,
the sort that has God in hand.
7
But ask the cattle, and they will teach you, (c) II
or the birds in the sky, and they will inform you;
8
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
and the fifsh of the sea, they will tell you.
9
Who does not know all these things, (d)
that the hand of Yahweh has done this?
10
In his hand is the life of all the living
and the breath of all mankind.
11
Does not the ear test words, (e)
as the palate tastes food?
12
‘Wisdom is with the aged
and understanding in length of days.
13
With Him are wisdom and might,
His are counsel and understanding.’
‫‪ֵ֣ 14‬הן ַ֭יֲהרוֹס ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיָבּ ֶ֑נה ִיְסֹ֥גּר ַﬠל־ִ֗אישׁ ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיָפּ ֵֽתַח‪:‬‬

‫‪ֵ֤ 15‬הן ַיְﬠ ֣צֹר ַבּ ַ ֣מּ ִים ְו ִי ָ֑בשׁוּ ִֽויַשְׁלּ ֵ֗חם ְו ַ֖יַהְפכוּ ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫ﬠז ְוֽתוִּשׁ ָיּ֑ה ֗לוֹ שׁ ֹ ֵ֥גג וַּמְשׁ ֶֽגּה‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ִ 16‬ﬠמּוֹ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ 17‬מוֹ ִ֣לי􀀇 יוֲֹﬠ ִ֣צים שׁוֹ ָ֑לל ְֽושׁ ְֹפ ִ֥טים ְיהוֹ ֵֽלל‪:‬‬
‫סר ֵ֝א ֗זוֹר ְבָּמְת ֵני ֶֽהם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ 18‬מוּ ַ֣סר ְמָל ִ֣כים ִפּ ֵ֑תַּח ַו ֶיְּא ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ 19‬מוֹ ִ֣לי􀀇 כֲֹּה ִ֣נים שׁוֹ ָ֑לל ְו ֵֽאָת ִ֣נים ְיַס ֵֽלּף‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 20‬מ ִ֣סיר ָ ֭שָׂפה ְל ֶנֱאָמ ִ֑נים ְו ַ֖טַﬠם ְזֵק ִ֣נים ִי ָֽקּח‪:‬‬
‫‪ 21‬שׁוֹ ֵ֣פ􀀇 ֭בּוּז ַﬠל־ ְנ ִדי ִ֑בים וְּמ ִ֖זיַח ֲאִפי ִ֣קים ִר ָֽפּה‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ַויּ ֹ ֵ֖צא ָל֣אוֹר ַצְלָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 22‬מ ַג ֶ֣לּה ֲ֭ﬠֻמקוֹת ִמ ִנּי־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 23‬מְשׂ ִ֣גּיא ַ ֭לגּוֹ ִים ַֽו ְיַאְבּ ֵ֑דם שׁ ֹ ֵ֥טַח ַ֝לגּוֹ ִ֗ים ַו ַיּ ְנ ֵֽחם‪:‬‬
‫תהוּ ל ֹא־ ָֽד ֶר􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫שׁי ַﬠם־ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ַ֝ו ַיְּתֵ֗ﬠם ְבּ ֣ ֹ‬ ‫‪ֵ 24‬מ ִ֗סיר ֵ ֭לב ָרא ֵ ֣‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְול ֹא־֑אוֹר ַ֝ו ַיְּתֵ֗ﬠם ַכִּשּֽׁכּוֹר‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 25‬יַֽמְשׁשׁוּ־ ֥ ֹ‬
‫ָֽשְׁמ ָ֥ﬠה ָ֝א ְז ִ֗ני ַו ָ֥תֶּבן ָֽלהּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶ 13:1‬הן־ ֖כֹּל ָרֲא ָ֣תה ֵﬠי ִ֑ני‬
‫‪ְֽ 2‬כּ ַדְﬠְתֶּכם ָי ַ֣דְﬠִתּי ַגם־ ָ֑א ִני ל ֹא־ֹנ ֵ֖פל ָאֹנ ִ֣כי ִמ ֶֽכּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ 3‬אוָּ֗לם ֲ֭א ִני ֶאל־ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ֲא ַד ֵ֑בּר ְוהוֹ ֵ֖כַח ֶאל־ ֵ֣אל ֶאְח ָֽפּץ‪:‬‬
14
Look, he destroys and it cannot be rebuilt, (f) III
he shuts someone in and there is no opening up.
15
Look, he holds back the waters and they dry up;
he lets them loose and they overthrow the earth.
16
With Him are strength and success,
His is the deceived as well as the deceiver.
17
He it is who makes counselors go away barefoot (g)
and makes fools of judges;
18
who unties the belt of kings
and binds a waistcloth round their loins;
19
who makes priests go away barefoot
and brings dignitaries to ruin.
20
He it is who deprives the trustworthy of speech (h)
and takes away the discernment of elders;
21
who pours contempt upon nobles
and loosens the girdle of the valiant;
22
who uncovers deeps out of darkness
and brings dark shadows into the light.
23
He it is who exalts nations and destroys them, (i)
who scatters nations and leads them away;
24
who deprives the people’s leaders of their mind
and leaves them to wander in chaos with no way out;
25
they grope in the dark with no light
and he leaves them to stagger like a drunkard.
 1Look, my eye has seen all this, (a) I

my ear has heard and understood it.
2
What you know I also know,
I am not inferior to you.
3
Now however I wish to speak to Shaddai,
and I insist on arguing with God.
‫‪ְֽ 4‬ואוָּ֗לם ַא ֶ֥תּם ֽטְֹפֵלי־ ָ ֑שֶׁקר ר ְֹפ ֵ֖אי ֱא ִ֣לל ֻכְּלּ ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 5‬מי־ ִ֭יֵתּן ַהֲח ֵ֣רשׁ ַתֲּח ִרי֑שׁוּן וְּת ִ֖הי ָל ֶ֣כם ְלָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬שְׁמﬠוּ־ ָ֥נא תוַֹכְח ִ֑תּי ְו ִר֖בוֹת ְשָׂפ ַ֣תי ַהְקִֽשׁיבוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 7‬הְלֵאל ְתּ ַדְבּ ֣רוּ ַﬠ ְו ָ֑לה ְ֝ו ֗לוֹ ְֽתּ ַדְבּ ֥רוּ ְרִמ ָֽיּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 8‬הָפ ָ֥ניו ִתָּשּׂ֑אוּן ִאם־ָל ֵ֥אל ְתּ ִריֽבוּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 9‬הטוֹב ִֽכּי־ ַיְח ֣קֹר ֶאְת ֶ֑כם ִאם־ְכָּה ֵ֥תל ֶ֝בֱּא ֗נוֹשׁ ְתָּה ֵ֥תלּוּ ֽבוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ 10‬הוֹ ֵ֣כַח יוֹ ִ֣כיַח ֶאְת ֶ֑כם ִאם־ ַ֝בּ ֵ֗סֶּתר ָפּ ִ֥נים ִתָּשּֽׂאוּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 11‬ה ֣ל ֹא ְ ֭שֵׂאתוֹ ְתַּב ֵ֣ﬠת ֶאְת ֶ֑כם ֝וַּפְח֗דּוֹ ִיֹ֥פּל ֲﬠֵלי ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫חֶמר ַגֵּבּי ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 12‬זְכר ֹ ֵניֶכם ִמְשֵׁלי־ ֵ֑אֶפר ְל ַגֵבּי־ ֗ ֹ‬
‫ְו ַיֲﬠ ֖בֹר ָﬠ ַ֣לי ָֽמה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 13‬הֲח ִ֣רישׁוּ ִ ֭מֶמּ ִנּי ַוֲא ַדְבּ ָרה־ ָ֑א ִני‬
‫ְ֝ו ַנְפִ֗שׁי ָאִ֥שׂים ְבַּכ ִֽפּי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 14‬ﬠל־ ָ ֤מה ׀ ֶא ָ ֣שּׂא ְבָשׂ ִ֣רי ְבִשׁ ָ֑נּי‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 15‬הן ִ֭יְקְטֵל ִני ל ֹא ֲא ַי ֵ֑חל ַא􀀇־ ְ֝דּ ָרַ֗כי ֶאל־ָפּ ָ֥ניו אוֹ ִֽכיַח‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 16‬גּם־הוּא־ ִ֥לי ִֽלישׁוּ ָ֑ﬠה ִכּי־ ֥ל ֹא ְ֝לָפ ָ֗ניו ָח ֵ֥נ ף ָיֽבוֹא‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 17‬שְׁמ֣ﬠוּ ָ ֭שׁמוַֹﬠ ִמָלּ ִ֑תי ְ֝ו ַֽאֲח ָוִ֗תי ְבָּא ְז ֵני ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 18‬ה ֵנּה־ ָ֭נא ָﬠ ַ֣רְכִתּי ִמְשׁ ָ֑פּט ָ֝י ַ֗דְﬠִתּי ִֽכּי־ֲא ִ֥ני ֶאְצ ָֽדּק‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 19‬מי־֭הוּא ָי ִ֣ריב ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ִֽכּי־ַﬠ ָ֖תּה ַאֲח ִ֣רישׁ ְוֶא ְג ָֽוﬠ‪:‬‬
4
However, you are whitewashing deceit, (b)
all of you are worthless physicians.
5
If only you would keep silent,
for you, that would be wisdom!
6
Hear now my argument
and listen to the pleadings of my lips!
7
Will you speak falsehood about God (c) II
and speak deceit about him?
8
Will you be partial toward him,
will you plead for El?
9
Will it be well when he examines you?
Will you fool him as one fools a man?
10
He would surely rebuke you (d)
if in secret you showed partiality.
11
Will not his rising in anger terrify you
and the dread of him fall upon you?
12
Your reminders are dusty proverbs,
your responses are only clay.
13
Keep silent, let me alone! Now let me speak, (e)
whatever may come upon me:
14
why I have to hold my flfesh in my teeth
and to take my life in my hands!
15
Look, he is about to kill me! I cannot wait, (f) III
but I will argue my behavior to his face.
16
This will rather be my salvation,
for no godless man would dare come before his face.
17
Listen closely to my words (g)
and give ear to my declaration.
18
See now, I have prepared a lawsuit,
I know that I am in the right!
19
Who is it that will plead against me?
For then I will be silent and die.
‫‪ַ 20‬א􀀇־ ְ ֭שַׁתּ ִים ַאל־ ַ֣תַּﬠשׂ ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ָ֥אז ִ֝מָפּ ֶ֗ני􀀈 ֣ל ֹא ֶאָסּ ֵֽתר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 21‬כְּפּ􀀈 ֵמָﬠ ַ֣לי ַה ְר ַ֑חק ְ֝ו ֵֽאָמְת֗􀀈 ַֽאל־ְתַּבֲﬠ ַֽת ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ 22‬וְּק ָרא ְוָאֹנ ִ֣כי ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶ֑נה ֽאוֹ־ֲ֝א ַד ֵ֗בּר ַוֲהִשׁי ֵֽב ִני‪:‬‬
‫ה ִד ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 23‬כּ ָ ֣מּה ִ֖לי ֲﬠוֹ ֣נוֹת ְוַחָטּ֑אוֹת ִֽפְּשׁ ִ֥ﬠי ְ֝וַחָטּאִ֗תי ֹ‬
‫‪ָֽ 24‬לָמּה־ָפ ֶ֥ני􀀈 ַתְס ִ֑תּיר ְוַתְחְשׁ ֵ֖ב ִני ְלאוֹ ֵי ֣ב ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 25‬הָﬠ ֶ֣לה ִנ ָ֣דּף ַתֲּﬠ ֑רוֹץ ְוֶאת־ ַ֖קשׁ ָי ֵ֣בשׁ ִתּ ְר ֽדּ ֹף‪:‬‬
‫תּב ָﬠ ַ֣לי ְמר ֹ ֑רוֹת ְ֝ותוֹ ִריֵ֗שׁ ִני ֲﬠוֹ ֥נוֹת ְנﬠוּ ָֽרי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 26‬כּי־ִתְכ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 27‬ו ָ ֮ת ֵ ֤שׂם ַבּ ַ֨סּד ַר ְגַ֗לי ְוִתְשׁ֥מוֹר ָכּל־ָא ְרחוֹ ָ֑תי ַﬠל־ָשׁ ְרֵ֥שׁי ַ֝ר ְגַ֗לי ִתְּתַח ֶֽקּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 28‬והוּא ְכּ ָר ָ֣קב ִיְב ֶ֑לה ְ֝כּ ֶ֗ב ֶגד ֲא ָ֣כלוֹ ָֽﬠשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 14:1‬א ָדם ְי֣לוּד ִא ָ ֑שּׁה ְק ַ֥צר ָ֝יִ֗מים ֽוְּשׂ ַֽבﬠ־ ֽר ֹ ֶגז‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 2‬כּ ִ֣ציץ ָ֭יָצא ַו ִיּ ָ ֑מּל ַו ִיְּב ַ֥רח ַ֝כֵּ֗צּל ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠֽמוֹד‪:‬‬
‫א ִ֤תי ָת ִ֖ביא ְבִמְשׁ ָ֣פּט ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 3‬אף־ַﬠל־ ֶ֭זה ָפּ ַ֣קְחָתּ ֵﬠי ֶ֑נ 􀀈 ְו ֮ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 4‬מי־ ִי ֵ֣תּן ָ ֭טהוֹר ִמָטֵּ֗מא ֣ל ֹא ֶא ָֽחד‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ֥ 5‬אם ֲחרוִּ֨צים ָיָ֗מיו ִֽמְסַפּר־ֳח ָדָ֥שׁיו ִא ָ֑תּ􀀇 ֻח ָ֥קּיו ָ֝ﬠִ֗שׂיָת ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠֽבוֹר‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 6‬שׁ ֵ֣ﬠה ֵמָﬠ ָ֣ליו ְו ֶיְח ָ֑דּל ַﬠד־ ִ֝י ְרֶ֗צה ְכָּשׂ ִ֥כיר יוֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
20
Only do not do two things to me, (h)
then I need not hide from your face.
21
Remove your hand from me
and let not dread of you terrify me;
22
but summon me and I will answer;
or I will speak and you reply to me.
23
How many are my iniquities and sins? (i) IV
Let me know my transgression and my sin!
24
Why do you hide your face
and consider me your enemy?
25
Will you harass a driven leaf
and pursue dried straw?
26
For you write bitter things against me (j)
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27
You put my feet in the stocks
and watch all my paths;
you grave your mark on the soles of my feet;
28
and this to one worn out like something rotten,
like a garment eaten by the moth.
 1Man, born of woman, (a) I

has a short life, sated with agony.
2
He blossoms like a flfower and withers,
he flfees like a shadow and does not stay.
3
Yet upon such a one you fifx your eyes,
and you bring me into judgment with you!
4
Who can bring clean out of the unclean? (b)
No one can!
5
If his days are determined,
the number of his months is known to you
and you have set limits he cannot pass,
6
then look away from him, let him be,
until, as a hireling, he can enjoy his day.
‫ְ֝ו ֽי ֹ ַנְק֗תּוֹ ֣ל ֹא ֶתְח ָֽדּל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֤ 7‬כּי ֵ֥ישׁ ָלֵ֗ﬠץ ִ֫תְּק ָ֥וה ִֽאם־ ִ֭יָכּ ֵרת ְו֣ﬠוֹד ַיֲח ִ֑ליף‬
‫‪ִ 8‬אם־ ַי ְז ִ֣קין ָבּ ָ֣א ֶרץ ָשׁ ְר֑שׁוֹ ֝וֶּבָﬠָ֗פר ָי֥מוּת ִגּ ְזֽﬠוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 9‬מ ֵ֣ריַח ַ ֣מ ִים ַיְפ ִ֑רַח ְוָﬠָ֖שׂה ָק ִ֣ציר ְכּמוֹ־ ָֽנַטﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 10‬ו ֶ֣גֶבר ָ֭ימוּת ַֽו ֶיֱּח ָ֑לשׁ ַו ִיּ ְג ַ֖וﬠ ָא ָ֣דם ְוַא ֽיּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָֽ 11‬א ְזלוּ־ ַ ֭מ ִים ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑ים ְ֝ו ָנָ֗הר ֶיֱח ַ֥רב ְו ָי ֵֽבשׁ‪:‬‬
‫ﬠרוּ ִמְשּׁ ָנ ָֽתם‪:‬‬
‫ְו ֽל ֹא־ ֵ֝י ֗ ֹ‬ ‫‪ְ 12‬ו ִ֥אישׁ ָשַׁ֗כב ְֽול ֹא־ ָ֫י֥קוּם ַﬠד־ִבְּל ִ֣תּי ָ ֭שַׁמ ִים ֣ל ֹא ָי ִ֑קיצוּ‬
‫חק ְוִת ְזְכּ ֵֽר ִני‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ֤ 13‬מי ִיֵ֨תּן ׀ ִבְּשׁ֬אוֹל ַתְּצִפּ ֵ֗נ ִני ַ ֭תְּסִתּי ֵר ִני ַﬠד־֣שׁוּב ַא ֶ֑פּ􀀈 ָ֤תִּֽשׁית ִ֖לי ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 14‬אם־ ָי֥מוּת ֗ ֶגֶּבר ֲה ִ֫יְח ֶ֥יה ָכּל־ ְי ֵ ֣מי ְצָב ִ֣אי ֲא ַי ֵ֑חל ַﬠד־֗בּוֹא ֲחִליָפ ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫סף‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 15‬תְּק ָרא ְוָאֹנ ִ֣כי ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶ֑נ ָךּ ְֽלַמֲﬠ ֵ ֖שׂה ָי ֶ֣די􀀈 ִתְכ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 16‬כּי־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ְצָﬠ ַ֣די ִתְּס֑פּוֹר ֽל ֹא־ִ֝תְשׁ֗מוֹר ַﬠל־ַחָטּא ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 17‬ח ֻ֣תם ִבְּצ ֣רוֹר ִפְּשׁ ִ֑ﬠי ַ֝וִתְּטֹ֗פּל ַﬠל־ֲﬠוֹ ִֽני‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 18‬ואוָּלם ַהר־נוֹ ֵ֣פל ִי֑בּוֹל ְ֝ו֗צוּר ֶיְﬠ ַ֥תּק ִמְמּקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬

‫ְוִתְק ַ֖ות ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ֶהֱא ַֽב ְדָתּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 19‬אָב ִ֤נים ׀ ָ֥שֲׁחקוּ ַ֗מ ִים ִתְּשׁ ֽטֹף־ְסִפי ֶ֥חיָה ֲﬠַפר־ ָ֑א ֶרץ‬
‫‪ִ 20‬תְּתְק ֵ֣פהוּ ָ ֭ל ֶנַצח ַֽו ַיֲּה֑􀀉􀀇 ְמַשׁ ֶ֥נּה ָ֝פ ָ֗ניו ַֽוְתַּשְׁלּ ֵֽחהוּ‪:‬‬
7
There is hope for a tree; (c) II
if it is cut down it will renew itself
and its shoots will not cease.
8
If its roots grow old in the ground
and its stump dies in the soil,
9
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and make branches like a sapling.
10
But a man, when he dies, is weakened, (d)
humans expire; where are they?
11
Waters disappear from the sea,
a river dries up and is parched;
12
so man lies down and does not rise again;
till the heavens are no more they will not wake up
and they will not be roused from their sleep.
13
Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, (e) III
conceal me until your anger is passed,
set me a limit and then remember me!
14
If a man dies, can he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait
until my replacement comes.
15
You would call and I, I would answer you; (f)
you would yearn for the work of your hands.
16
For then you would count my steps,
but not keep watch over my sin.
17
My crime would be sealed in a bundle
and you would cover over my guilt.
18
Yet as a mountain erodes and crumbles, (g) IV
and as a rock is moved from its place,
19
as the waters wear away the stones
and torrents wash away the soil of the earth,
so you let perish man’s hope.
20
You attack him once for all and he is gone;
you distort his face and dispatch him.
‫‪ִ 21‬יְכְבּ ֣דוּ ָ ֭ב ָניו ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵי ָ֑דﬠ ְ֝ו ִיְצֲﬠ֗רוּ ְֽול ֹא־ ָי ִ֥בין ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 22‬א􀀇־ ְ ֭בָּשׂרוֹ ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ִיְכ ָ֑אב ְ֝ו ַנְפ֗שׁוֹ ָﬠ ָ֥ליו ֶתֱּא ָֽבל‪ :‬פ‬
21
His sons may attain honor, but he does not know it; (h)
they are brought low, but he does not notice.
22
He feels only the pain of his flfesh
and his soul mourns for him.
:‫ֵ֣הן ִ֭יְקְטֵל ִני ל ֹא ֲא ַי ֵ֑חל ַא􀀇־ ְ֝דּ ָרַ֗כי ֶאל־ָפּ ָ֥ניו אוֹ ִֽכיַח‬
13:15
Look, he is about to kill me! I cannot wait,

but I will argue my behavior to his face.
‫‪ַ֭ 15:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ֱאִלי ַ֥פז ַֽהֵתּיָמ ִ֗ני ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫ִֽויַמ ֵ֖לּא ָק ִ֣דים ִבְּט ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶֽ 2‬הָחָ֗כם ַיֲﬠ ֶ֥נה ַֽדַﬠת־ ֑רוַּח‬
‫֝וִּמִ֗לּים ל ֹא־יוֹ ִ֥ﬠיל ָֽבּם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ 3‬הוֹ ֵ֣כַח ְ ֭בּ ָדָבר ֣ל ֹא ִיְס֑כּוֹן‬
‫‪ַ 4‬אף־ ַ ֭אָתּה ָתּ ֵ֣פר ִי ְר ָ֑אה ְוִת ְג ַ֥רﬠ ִ֝שׂי ָ֗חה ִלְפ ֵני־ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 5‬כּי ְיַא ֵ֣לּף ֲﬠוֹ ְנ֣􀀈 ִ֑פי􀀈 ְ֝וִתְב ַ֗חר ְל֣שׁוֹן ֲﬠרוִּֽמים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 6‬י ְרִֽשׁיֲﬠ֣􀀈 ִ֣פי􀀈 ְול ֹא־ ָ֑א ִני ֝וְּשָׂפֶ֗תי􀀈 ַיֲﬠנוּ־ ָֽב􀀇‪:‬‬
‫ְוִלְפ ֵ֖ני ְגָב֣ﬠוֹת חוֹ ָֽלְלָתּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 7‬ה ִראי֣שׁוֹן ָ ֭א ָדם ִתּ ָוּ ֵ֑לד‬

‫ְוִת ְג ַ֖רﬠ ֵא ֶ֣לי􀀈 ָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 8‬הְב֣סוֹד ֱא֣לוַֹה ִתְּשׁ ָ ֑מﬠ‬
‫‪ַ 9‬מה־ ָ֭יּ ַדְﬠָתּ ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵנ ָ֑דﬠ ָ֝תּ ִ֗בין ְֽול ֹא־ִﬠָ֥מּנוּ ֽהוּא‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬גּם־ ָ ֣שׂב ַגּם־ ָיִ֣שׁישׁ ָ֑בּנוּ ַכּ ִ֖בּיר ֵמָא ִ֣בי􀀈 ָיִֽמים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 11‬הְמ ַ֣ﬠט ִ ֭מְמּ􀀈 ַתּ ְנֻח֣מוֹת ֵ֑אל ְ֝ו ָד ָ֗בר ָל ַ֥אט ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 12‬מה־ ִיָּקֲּח֥􀀈 ִל ֶ֑בּ􀀈 ֽוַּמה־ ִיּ ְר ְז֥מוּן ֵﬠי ֶֽני􀀈‪:‬‬
‫ה ֵ֖צאָת ִמ ִ֣פּי􀀈 ִמ ִֽלּין‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 13‬כּי־ָתִ֣שׁיב ֶאל־ ֵ֣אל רוּ ֶ֑ח􀀈 ְו ֹ‬
THE SECOND ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 15–21
Second Speech by Eliphaz, Ch. 15
 1Eliphaz the Temanite spoke up and said:
2
Would a wise man answer with windy knowledge (a) I
and fifll his belly with the east wind?
3
Pleading with useless arguments
and words that bring no profift?
4
Rather, you break up reverence (b)
and restrict meditation before God,
5
for your guilt dictates your mouth
and you choose the tongue of the wily.
6
Your own mouth condemns you, not I,
and your own lips testify against you.
7
Were you the fifrst human ever born (c) II
and were you brought forth before the hills?
8
Do you listen in on the council of God
and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?
9
What do you know that we do not know? (d)
What do you understand that is not ours?
10
The gray-haired, the old man is among us,
he who has more years than your father.
11
Are the consolations of El too small for you, (e) III
his gentle word with you?
12
Why does your heart carry you away
and why do your eyes flfash,
13
that you turn your spirit against El
and pour out such words from your mouth?
‫‪86‬‬ ‫‪the second round of the debate‬‬
‫‪ָֽ 14‬מה־ֱא ֥נוֹשׁ ִֽכּי־ ִי ְז ֶ֑כּה ְו ִֽכי־ ִ֝יְצ ַ֗דּק ְי֣לוּד ִאָֽשּׁה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 15‬הן ִ ֭בְּקד ָֹשׁיו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲאִ֑מין ְ֝וָשַׁ֗מ ִים ל ֹא־ ַז֥כּוּ ְבֵﬠי ָֽניו‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 16‬אף ִֽכּי־ ִנְת ָ֥ﬠב ְֽו ֶנֱא ָ֑לח ִאישׁ־שׁ ֹ ֶ֖תה ַכ ַ ֣מּ ִים ַﬠ ְו ָֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 17‬אַח ְוּ֥􀀈 ְֽשַֽׁמﬠ־ ִ֑לי ְו ֶֽזה־ ָ֝ח ִ֗זיִתי ַוֲאַס ֵֽפּ ָרה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 18‬אֶשׁר־ֲחָכִ֥מים ַי ִ֑גּידוּ ְו ֥ל ֹא ִֽכֲח֗דוּ ֵמֲאבוֹ ָֽתם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 19‬ל ֶ֣הם ְ ֭לַב ָדּם ִנְתּ ָ֣נה ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ְול ֹא־ ָ֖ﬠַבר ָ֣זר ְבּתוֹ ָֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 20‬כּל־ ְי ֵ ֣מי ָ֭רָשׁﬠ ֣הוּא ִמְתחוֹ ֵ֑לל וִּמְס ַ֥פּר ָ֝שׁ ִ֗נים ִנְצְפּ ֥נוּ ֶלָﬠ ִֽריץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ 21‬קוֹל־ְפָּח ִ֥דים ְבָּא ְז ָ֑ניו ַ֝בָּשּׁ ֗לוֹם שׁוֹ ֵ֥דד ְיבוֹ ֶֽאנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְוָצפוּ ֣הוּא ֱאֵלי־ ָֽח ֶרב‪:‬‬ ‫‪ 22‬ל ֹא־ ַיֲאִ֣מין ֭שׁוּב ִמ ִנּי־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֹ֮ 23‬נ ֵ֤דד ֣הוּא ַל ֶ֣לֶּחם ַא ֵיּ֑ה ָי ַ֓דﬠ ִֽכּי־ ָנ֖כוֹן ְבּ ָי ֣דוֹ ֽיוֹם־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ְֽ 24‬יַבֲﬠֻתהוּ ַ֣צר וְּמצוּ ָ֑קה ִ֝תְּתְקֵ֗פהוּ ְכּ ֶ ֤מֶל􀀇 ׀ ָﬠִ֬תיד ַלִכּי ֽדוֹר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 25‬כּי־ ָנ ָ֣טה ֶאל־ ֵ֣אל ָי ֑דוֹ ְוֶאל־ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ִיְת ַגּ ָֽבּר‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 26‬י ֣רוּץ ֵא ָ֣ליו ְבַּצָ֑וּאר ַ֝בֲּﬠ ִ֗בי ַגּ ֵ֥בּי ָֽמ ִג ָֽנּיו‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 27‬כּי־ִכ ָ֣סּה ָפ ָ֣ניו ְבֶּחְל֑בּוֹ ַו ַ֖יַּﬠשׂ ִפּי ָ ֣מה ֲﬠֵלי־ ָֽכֶסל‪:‬‬
the second round of the debate 87
14
What is man that he could be clean (f)
and that one born of woman be in the right?
15
Look, even in His holy ones he puts no trust
and the heavens are not clean in His eyes;
16
how much less one loathsome and foul,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17
I will inform you, listen to me (g) IV
and let me tell you what I have seen,
18
what wise men have announced
and their fathers have not concealed;
19
to them alone the land was given,
and no stranger has passed among them.
20
All his days the wicked writhes in pain (h)
and the number of his years is hidden to the ruthless.
21
Terrifying sounds fifll his ears,
while at peace, the destroyer comes upon him.
22
He cannot trust to return from darkness, (i) V
he is marked for the sword.
23
He is roaming about for bread—where is it?
He knows the day of darkness is at hand.
24
Distress and anguish terrify him,
it attacks him like a king ready for the fifght.
25
Sure, he has stretched out his hand against El (j)
and with Shaddai he has played the hero.
26
Defifantly he runs toward him,
with the thick bosses of his shield.
27
Sure, he has covered his face with fat
and has put blubber on his loins.
‫‪ַ 28‬ו ִיְּשׁ֤כּוֹן ָ֮ﬠ ִ֤רים ִנְכָח֗דוֹת ָ ֭בִּתּים ל ֹא־ ֵי ְ֣שׁבוּ ָ֑למוֹ ֲא ֶ ֖שׁר ִהְתַﬠְתּ ֣דוּ ְל ַג ִֽלּים‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 29‬ל ֹא־ ֶיְ֖ﬠַשׁר ְול ֹא־ ָי֣קוּם ֵחי֑לוֹ ְו ֽל ֹא־ ִי ֶ֖טּה ָל ָ֣א ֶרץ ִמ ְנ ָֽלם‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ֽי ֹ ַנְקתּוֹ ְתּ ַי ֵ֣בּשׁ ַשְׁל ָ֑הֶבת ְ֝ו ָי֗סוּר ְבּ ֣רוַּח ִֽפּיו‪:‬‬

‫‪ֽ 30‬ל ֹא־ ָי֨סוּר ִמ ִנּי־ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 31‬אל־ ַיֲא ֵ ֣מן ַבָּשּׁו ִנְת ָ֑ﬠה ִכּי־ָ֗שׁ ְוא ִתְּה ֶ֥יה ְתמוּ ָרֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ְ֝וִכָפּ֗תוֹ ֣ל ֹא ַרֲﬠ ָֽנ ָנה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְֽ 32‬בּל ֹא־י ֭וֹמוֹ ִתָּמּ ֵ֑לא‬
‫ְו ַיְשׁ ֵ֥ל􀀇 ַ֝כּ ַ֗זּ ִית ִנָצּֽתוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫מס ַכּ ֶ֣גֶּפן ִבְּס ֑רוֹ‬
‫‪ַ 33‬יְח ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 34‬כּי־ֲﬠ ַ֣דת ָח ֵ֣נ ף ַגְּל֑מוּד ְ֝וֵ֗אשׁ ָאְכ ָ֥לה ָֽאֳהֵלי־ ֽשׁ ַֹחד‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 35‬ה ֣ר ֹה ָ ֭ﬠָמל ְו ָי֣􀀉ד ָ֑א ֶון ֝וִּבְט ָ֗נם ָתּ ִ֥כין ִמ ְרָֽמה‪ :‬ס‬
‫‪ָ 2‬שׁ ַ ֣מְﬠִתּי ְכ ֵ֣אֶלּה ַר֑בּוֹת ְמ ַנֲח ֵ ֖מי ָﬠ ָ ֣מל ֻכְּלּ ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 3‬ה ֵ֥קץ ְל ִדְב ֵרי־ ֑רוַּח ֥אוֹ ַמה־ ַ֝יְּמ ִֽריְצ֗􀀈 ִ֣כּי ַתֲﬠ ֶֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֤ 4‬גּם ָאֹנִכ֮י ָכּ ֶ֢כם ֲא ַ֫ד ֵ֥בּ ָרה ֤לוּ־ ֵישׁ ַנְפְשֶׁ֡כם ַ֤תַּחת ַנְפִ֗שׁי‬
‫ַאְח ִ֣בּי ָרה ֲﬠֵלי ֶ֣כם ְבִּמ ִ֑לּים ְוָא ִ֥ניָﬠה ֲ֝ﬠֵליֶ֗כם ְבּ֣מוֹ ר ֹאִֽשׁי‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 5‬אַאִמְּצ ֶ֥כם ְבּמוֹ־ ִ֑פי ְו ִ֖ניד ְשָׂפ ַ֣תי ַיְח ֽשׂ ֹ􀀇‪:‬‬
28
He will dwell in ruined cities, (k) VI
in houses where no one lives
that are destined to be heaps of rubble.
29
He will not be rich nor his wealth endure,
and his produce will not touch the land.
30
He will not escape from darkness, (l)
a flfame will dry up his shoots
and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.
31
Deceiving himself, he should not trust in vanity,
for vanity will his recompense be.
32
Before his time it will be paid in full: (m) VII
his branches will not flfourish;
33
he will drop his unripe grapes like a vine
and shed his blossom like the olive tree.
34
Sure, the company of the godless is barren (n)
and fifre consumes the tents of bribery.
35
Conceiving misery and begetting evil—
their belly prepares deceit.
 1Job answered and said:
2
I have heard many things like these, (a) I
miserable comforters are you all.
3
Is there an end to windy words?
Or what vexes you that you react so?
4
I too, I could speak like you (b)
if your life were at stake instead of mine.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head over you.
5
But I would strengthen you with my mouth
and the moving of my lips would bring relief.
‫שׂ􀀇 ְכֵּא ִ֑בי ְ֝וַאְח ְדָּ֗לה ַמה־ִמ ִ֥נּי ַיֲהֽ􀀉􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 6‬אם־ֲ֭א ַדְבּ ָרה ל ֹא־ ֵיָח ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ַ 7‬א􀀇־ַﬠ ָ֥תּה ֶהְל ָ֑א ִני ֲ֝הִשׁ֗מּוָֹת ָכּל־ֲﬠ ָד ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 8‬וִתְּקְמֵט ִני ְל ֵ֣ﬠד ָהָ֑יה ַו ָ֥יּ ָקם ִ֥בּי ַ֝כֲחִ֗שׁי ְבָּפ ַ֥ני ַיֲﬠ ֶֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 9‬א֤פּוֹ ָט ַ֨רף ַֽו ִיְּשְׂטֵ֗מ ִני ָח ַ֣רק ָﬠ ַ֣לי ְבִּשׁ ָ֑נּיו ָצ ִ֓רי ִיְל֖טוֹשׁ ֵﬠי ָ֣ניו ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 10‬פֲּﬠ֬רוּ ָﬠַ֨לי ְבִּפיֶ֗הם ְ ֭בֶּח ְרָפּה ִה֣כּוּ ְלָח ָ֑יי ַ֗יַחד ָﬠ ַ֥לי ִיְתַמָלּֽאוּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 11‬יְס ִגּי ֵ֣ר ִני ֵ ֭אל ֶ֣אל ֲﬠ ִ֑ויל ְוַﬠל־ ְי ֵ֖די ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ִי ְר ֵֽט ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪֮ ָ 12‬שׁ ֵ֤לו ָה ִ֨ייִתי ַֽו ְיַפ ְרְפּ ֵ֗ר ִני ְוָא ַ֣חז ְ ֭בָּﬠ ְרִפּי ַֽו ְיַפְצְפּ ֵ֑צ ִני ַו ְיִקיֵ֥מ ִני ֗לוֹ ְלַמָטּ ָֽרה‪:‬‬
‫סבּוּ ָﬠַ֨לי ַר ָ֗בּיו ְיַפ ַ֣לּח ִ ֭כְּליוַֹתי ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיְח֑מוֹל ִיְשֹׁ֥פּ􀀇 ָ֝לָ֗א ֶרץ ְמ ֵר ָֽרִתי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ ֮ 13‬י ֤ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 14‬יְפ ְר ֵ֣צ ִני ֶ֭פ ֶרץ ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵני־ ָ֑פ ֶרץ ָי ֻ֖רץ ָﬠ ַ֣לי ְכּ ִגֽבּוֹר‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ַ֖לְלִתּי ֶבָﬠ ָ֣פר ַק ְר ִֽני‪:‬‬ ‫‪֣ ַ 15‬שׂק ָ ֭תַּפ ְרִתּי ֲﬠ ֵ֣לי ִגְל ִ֑דּי ְו ֹ‬
‫‪ָ 16‬פּ ַ֣ני ֳחַמ ְרְמ ָרה ִמ ִנּי־ ֶ֑בִכי ְו ַ֖ﬠל ַﬠְפַﬠ ַ֣פּי ַצְלָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 17‬ﬠל ל ֹא־ָח ָ ֣מס ְבַּכ ָ֑פּי ֽוְּתִפָלּ ִ֥תי ַז ָֽכּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֭ 18‬א ֶרץ ַאל־ְתַּכ ִ֣סּי ָדִ֑מי ְֽוַאל־ ְי ִ֥הי ָ֝מ֗קוֹם ְל ַזֲﬠָק ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 19‬גּם־ ַ ֭ﬠָתּה ִה ֵנּה־ַבָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ֵﬠ ִ֑די ְ֝וָשֲׂה ִ֗די ַבְּמּרוִֹֽמים‪:‬‬
6
If I speak, my pain is not relieved, (c) II
and if I refrain, how much of it leaves me?
7
Rather He has now worn me out:
You have devastated all my company!
8
You have shriveled me up, which is a witness;
rising up against me, my gauntness testififes to my face.
9
His anger has torn me, he bears a grudge against me, (d)
he gnashes his teeth at me,
my foe whets his eyes against me.
10
They open their mouths to jeer at me,
scornfully they strike my cheeks,
they unite together against me.
11
El delivers me over to the evil,
he hurls me into the hands of the wicked.
12
I was at ease, but he shattered me; (e) III
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target.
13
His archers surround me,
he pierces my kidneys and shows no mercy;
he spills my gall onto the ground.
14
He breaches me, breach upon breach,
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin (f)
and thrust my horn in the dust.
16
My face is red with weeping
and darkness is on my eyelids,
17
though there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.
18
O earth, do not cover my blood! (g) IV
Let there be no resting place for my outcry!
19
Yet even now is my witness in heaven
and one who testififes is on high.
‫‪ְ 20‬מִלי ַ֥צי ֵר ָ֑ﬠי ֶאל־ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹה ָדְּל ָ֥פה ֵﬠי ִֽני‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 21‬ויוֹ ַ֣כח ְל ֶ֣גֶבר ִﬠם־ֱא֑לוַֹהּ ֽוֶּבן־ָא ָ֥דם ְל ֵר ֵֽﬠהוּ‪:‬‬
‫א ַרח ל ֹא־ָא֣שׁוּב ֶאֱהֽ􀀉􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 22‬כּי־ְשׁ ֣נוֹת ִמְס ָ֣פּר ֶיֱא ָ֑תיוּ ְו ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ 17:1‬רוּ ִ֣חי ֻ֭חָבָּלה ָיַ֥מי ִנ ְזָ֗ﬠכוּ ְקָב ִ֥רים ִֽלי‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 2‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ֲ֭הֻתִלים ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ֝וְּבַהְמּרוָֹתם ָתּ ַ֥לן ֵﬠי ִֽני‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 3‬שׂיָמה־ ָ֭נּא ָﬠ ְר ֵ֣ב ִני ִﬠ ָ ֑מּ􀀇 ִֽמי ֗הוּא ְל ָי ִ֥די ִיָתּ ֵֽקַﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 4‬כּי־ ִ֖לָבּם ָצ ַ֣פ ְנָתּ ִמ ָ ֑שֶּׂכל ַﬠל־ֵ֗כּן ֣ל ֹא ְתר ֵֹֽמם‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 5‬לֵחֶלק ַי ִ֣גּיד ֵר ִ֑ﬠים ְוֵﬠי ֵ֖ני ָב ָ֣ניו ִתְּכ ֶֽל ָנה‪:‬‬
‫תֶפת ְלָפ ִ֣נים ֶֽאְה ֶֽיה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְֽ 6‬וִהִצּ ַג ִני ִלְמ ֣שׁ ֹל ַﬠִ֑מּים ְו ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 7‬ו ֵ֣תַּכהּ ִמ ַ֣כַּﬠשׂ ֵﬠי ִ֑ני ִֽויֻצ ַ֖רי ַכּ ֵ֣צּל ֻכּ ָֽלּם‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ָֽרר‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 8‬י ֣שׁ ֹמּוּ ְיָשׁ ִ֣רים ַﬠל־ ֑ז ֹאת ְ֝ו ָנִ֗קי ַﬠל־ָח ֵ֥נ ף ִיְת ֹ‬
‫אֶמץ‪:‬‬‫‪ְ 9‬וי ֹא ֵ֣חז ַצ ִ֣דּיק ַדּ ְר֑כּוֹ ֽוֳּטָהר־ ָ֝י ַ֗ד ִים י ֹ ִ֥סיף ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ְֽ 10‬ואוָּ֗לם ֻכּ ָ֣לּם ָ ֭תֻּשׁבוּ וּ ֣בֹאוּ ָ֑נא ְו ֽל ֹא־ֶאְמ ָ֖צא ָב ֶ֣כם ָח ָֽכם‪:‬‬
‫שׁי ְלָב ִֽבי‪:‬‬

‫מּ ַ֣תי ִנְתּ֑קוּ ֖מוֹ ָר ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ָ 11‬י ַ ֣מי ָ ֭ﬠְברוּ ִז ֹ‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 12‬ל ְיָלה ְל ֣יוֹם ָיִ֑שׂימוּ ֗אוֹר ָק ֥רוֹב ִמְפּ ֵני־ ֽ ֹ‬
20
My fellows—are they my advocates? (h)
To God my eye pours out tears:
21
Let him arbitrate between a man and God
as between a man and his fellow.
22
For the years that come are few
and I shall go a path of no return.
 1My spirit is crushed, (a) I

my days are quenched: they are graves to me.
2
Surely there are mockeries around me,
could I close my eyes to their provocations?
3
Lay down a pledge for me with yourself! (b)
Who else will put up security for me?
4
For you have concealed reason from their hearts,
therefore you must not exalt them!
5
‘If someone informs on his friends for a share, (c) II
the eyes of his children will pine away.’
6
So he has made me a byword among people
and I become a man in whose face one spits.
7
My eye has grown dim from grief
and my limbs are all like shadow.
8
The upright are appalled at this (d)
and the innocent is roused against the godless.
9
‘The righteous one holds to his way
and the clean of hands grows stronger.’
10
But all of you, try again and come back,
though I cannot fifnd a wise man among you.
11
My days have passed, (e) III
my plans are severed, the desires of my heart,
12
that make the night into day,
so that light is nearer than darkness.
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ִר ַ֥פּ ְדִתּי ְיצוּ ָֽﬠי‪:‬‬‫‪ִ 13‬אם־ֲ֭אַק ֶוּה ְשׁ֣אוֹל ֵבּי ִ֑תי ַ֝בּ ֗ ֹ‬
‫חִ֗תי ָֽל ִרָֽמּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 14‬ל ַ ֣שַּׁחת ָ ֭ק ָראִתי ָ֣אִבי ָ֑אָתּה ִאִ֥מּי ַ֝וֲא ֹ‬
‫ְ֝וִתְק ָוִ֗תי ִ֣מי ְישׁוּ ֶֽר ָנּה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ֭ 15‬וַא ֵיּה ֵא֣פוֹ ִתְק ָו ִ֑תי‬
‫ס‬ ‫ִאם־ ַ֖יַחד ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֣פר ָֽנַחת‪:‬‬ ‫אל ֵתּ ַ֑ר ְד ָנה‬
‫‪ַ 16‬בּ ֵ֣דּי ְשׁ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ֭ 18:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ִבְּל ַ֥דּד ַהֻשּׁ ִ֗חי ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬ﬠד־ ָ֤א ָנה ׀ ְתִּשׂי֣מוּן ִק ְנ ֵ֣צי ְלִמ ִ֑לּין ָ֝תּ ִ֗בינוּ ְוַא ַ֥חר ְנ ַד ֵֽבּר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 3‬מדּוַּﬠ ֶנְח ַ ֣שְׁבנוּ ַכְבֵּה ָ ֑מה ִ֝נְטִ֗מינוּ ְבֵּﬠי ֵני ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 4‬טֹ ֵ֥רף ַנְפ֗שׁוֹ ְבַּ֫א֥פּוֹ ַ ֭הְלַמַﬠ ְנ􀀈 ֵתּ ָ֣ﬠ ַזב ָ֑א ֶרץ ְו ֶיְﬠַתּק־֗צוּר ִמְמּקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֤ 5‬גּם ֣אוֹר ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ִי ְד ָ֑ﬠ􀀇 ְו ֽל ֹא־ ִ֝י ֗ ַגּהּ ְשׁ ִ֣ביב ִאֽשּׁוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֖ 6‬אוֹר ָח ַ ֣שׁ􀀇 ְבָּאֳה֑לוֹ ְ֝ו ֵנ֗רוֹ ָﬠ ָ֥ליו ִי ְד ָֽﬠ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵֽ 7‬יְצרוּ ַצֲﬠ ֵ֣די אוֹ ֑נוֹ ְֽוַתְשִׁלי ֵ֥כהוּ ֲﬠָצֽתוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 8‬כּי־ֻשׁ ַ֣לּח ְבּ ֶ֣רֶשׁת ְבּ ַר ְג ָ֑ליו ְוַﬠל־ְ֝שָׂבָ֗כה ִיְתַה ָֽלּ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ 9‬י ֹא ֵ֣חז ְבָּﬠ ֵ֣קב ָ֑פּח ַיֲח ֵ֖זק ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ַצִֽמּים‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 10‬ט֣מוּן ָבּ ָ֣א ֶרץ ַחְב֑לוֹ ֝וַּמְלֻכּ ְד֗תּוֹ ֲﬠ ֵ֣לי ָנ ִֽתיב‪:‬‬
13
If I must hope for Sheol as my home (f)
and spread my couch in darkness,
14
if I call to the pit ‘you are my father’,
naming the worm ‘my mother, my sister’,
15
where, then, is my hope? (g)
And my fortune—who can perceive it?
16
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend to the dust together?
Second Speech by Bildad, Ch. 18
 1Bildad the Shuhite took the flfoor and said:
2
How long before you end these speeches? (a) I
Understand fifrst and then we can speak!
3
Why are we counted as cattle
and do we seem stupid in your eyes?
4
You who tear yourself in your rage,
is the earth to be abandoned for your sake
and a rock to be moved from its place?
5
Yet the light of the wicked is snuffed out (b) II
and the flfame of his fifre does not shine.
6
The light darkens in his tent
and his lamp above him is snuffed out.
7
His mighty strides are hobbled (c)
and his own scheme overthrows him,
8
for he is cast into a net by his own feet
and he has to walk over a lattice.
9
A snare seizes his heel, (d)
a noose holds him fast.
10
A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him on the path.
‫‪֭ ָ 11‬סִביב ִֽבֲּﬠ ֻ֣תהוּ ַבָלּ֑הוֹת ֶוֱהִפי ֻ֥צהוּ ְל ַר ְג ָֽליו‪:‬‬

‫א ֑נוֹ ְ֝וֵ֗איד ָנ֥כוֹן ְלַצְלֽﬠוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬יִהי־ ָר ֵ֥ﬠב ֹ‬
‫‪ 13‬י ֭ ֹאַכל ַבּ ֵ֣דּי ﬠוֹ ֑רוֹ י ֹא ַ֥כל ַ֝בּ ָ֗דּיו ְבּ֣כוֹר ָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬י ָנּ ֵ֣תק ֵ ֭מָאֳהלוֹ ִמְבַט֑חוֹ ְ֝וַתְצִﬠ ֵ֗דהוּ ְל ֶ ֣מֶל􀀇 ַבָּלּֽהוֹת‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 15‬תְּשׁ֣כּוֹן ְ ֭בָּאֳהלוֹ ִמְבִּלי־֑לוֹ ְיזֹ ֶ֖רה ַﬠל־ ָנֵ֣והוּ ָגְפ ִֽרית‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 16‬מַתַּחת ָֽשׁ ָר ָ ֣שׁיו ִי ָ֑בשׁוּ ֝וִּמַ֗מַּﬠל ִיַ֥מּל ְקִצי ֽרוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 17‬זְכרוֹ־ ָ ֭אַבד ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑א ֶרץ ְול ֹא־ֵ֥שׁם ֗לוֹ ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵני־ֽחוּץ‪:‬‬
‫ֽוִּמֵתּ ֵ֥בל ְי ִנ ֻֽדּהוּ‪:‬‬ ‫חֶשׁ􀀇‬‫‪ֶ֭ 18‬יְה ְדֻּפהוּ ֵמ֣אוֹר ֶאל־ ֑ ֹ‬

‫ְו ֵ֥אין ָ֝שׂ ִ֗ריד ִבְּמגוּ ָֽריו‪:‬‬ ‫‪֮ 19‬ל ֹא ִ֤נין ֣לוֹ ְול ֹא־ ֶ֣נֶכד ְבַּﬠ֑מּוֹ‬
‫מ ִ֗נים ָ֣אֲחזוּ ָֽשַׂﬠר‪:‬‬‫ְ֝וַק ְד ֹ‬ ‫‪ַ 20‬ﬠל־ ֖יוֹמוֹ ָנ ַ ֣שׁמּוּ ַאֲחר ֹ ִ֑נים‬

‫ס‬ ‫ְ֝ו ֶ֗זה ְמ֣קוֹם ל ֹא־ ָי ַֽדﬠ־ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 21‬א􀀇־ ֵ ֭אֶלּה ִמְשְׁכּ ֣נוֹת ַﬠָ֑וּל‬
‫‪ַ 2‬ﬠד־ ָ ֭א ָנה תּוֹ ְג ֣יוּן ַנְפִ֑שׁי ֽוְּת ַדְכּאוּ ַ֥נ ִני ְבִמ ִֽלּים‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֤ 3‬זה ֶ֣ﬠֶשׂר ְ ֭פָּﬠִמים ַתְּכִלי֑מוּ ִני ֽל ֹא־ֵ֝ת ֗בֹשׁוּ ַתְּהְכּרוּ־ ִֽלי‪:‬‬
11
On every side terrors frighten him (e) III
and drive him astray with his feet.
12
His strength will hunger,
disaster is ready for his stumbling.
13
It will consume his skin,
death’s fifrstborn will consume him.
14
He is torn from his tent, his safety (f)
and is marched off to the King of Terrors.
15
It will dwell in his desolate tent;
sulfur will be strewn upon his abode.
16
Under him his roots dry up (g) IV
and above, his branches wither.
17
His memory perishes from the land
and he has no name in the street.
18
They thrust him from light into darkness (h)
and chase him out of the world.
19
He has neither kith nor kin among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.
20
Westerners are appalled at his day (i)
and easterners are seized with horror.
21
Such are the dwellings of the wrongdoer
and this is the place of the one who knows not God!
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Ch. 19
 1Job answered and said:
2
How long will you torment my soul (a) I
and crush me with words?
3
Ten times now you have insulted me;
you are not ashamed to wrong me.
‫‪ְ 4‬וַאף־ָאְמ ָ֥נם ָשׁ ִ֑גיִתי ִ֝אִ֗תּי ָתּ ִ֥לין ְמשׁוּ ָג ִֽתי‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 5‬אם־ ָ ֭אְמ ָנם ָﬠ ַ֣לי ַתּ ְג ִ֑דּילוּ ְותוֹ ִ֥כיחוּ ָ֝ﬠַ֗לי ֶח ְרָפּ ִֽתּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 6‬דּﬠוּ־ ֵ ֭אפוֹ ִכּי־ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ִﬠ ְוּ ָ֑ת ִני ֝וְּמצוּ֗דוֹ ָﬠ ַ֥לי ִה ִֽקּיף‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 7‬הן ֶאְצ ַ֣ﬠק ָ ֭חָמס ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵאָﬠ ֶ֑נה ֲ֝אַשׁ ַ֗וּﬠ ְו ֵ֣אין ִמְשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ָיִֽשׂים‪:‬‬‫‪ָ 8‬א ְר ִ֣חי ָ֭ג ַדר ְו ֣ל ֹא ֶאֱﬠ֑בוֹר ְו ַ֥ﬠל ְ֝נִתיבוַֹ֗תי ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ְ 9‬כּבוֹ ִדי ֵמָﬠ ַ֣לי ִהְפִ֑שׁיט ַ֝ו ָ֗יַּסר ֲﬠ ֶ֣ט ֶרת ר ֹאִֽשׁי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 10‬יְתּ ֵ֣צ ִני ָ ֭סִביב ָוֵא ַ֑ל􀀇 ַו ַיּ ַ֥סּﬠ ָ֝כֵּ֗ﬠץ ִתְּק ָו ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 11‬ו ַיַּ֣חר ָﬠ ַ֣לי ַא֑פּוֹ ַו ַיְּחְשׁ ֵ֖ב ִני ֣לוֹ ְכָצ ָֽריו‪:‬‬
‫ַו ַיֲּח ֖נוּ ָס ִ֣ביב ְלָאֳה ִֽלי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 12‬יַ֤חד ׀ ֮ ָי ֤בֹאוּ ְגדוּ ָ֗דיו ַו ָיּ ֣סֹלּוּ ָﬠ ַ֣לי ַדּ ְר ָ֑כּם‬
‫‪֭ ַ 13‬אַחי ֵמָﬠ ַ֣לי ִה ְר ִ֑חיק ְ֝וי ֹ ְדַ֗ﬠי ַא􀀇־ ָ֥זרוּ ִמֶֽמּ ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 14‬ח ְד֥לוּ ְקרוֹ ָ֑בי ֽוְּמ ֻי ָדּ ַ֖ﬠי ְשֵׁכֽחוּ ִני ‪ָ ֮ 15‬גּ ֵ֤רי ֵבי ִ֣תי‬
‫הַתי ְל ָ֣זר ַתְּחְשׁ ֻ֑ב ִני ָ֝נְכ ִ֗רי ָה ִ֥ייִתי ְבֵﬠי ֵני ֶֽהם‪:‬‬ ‫ְ֭וַאְמ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 16‬לַﬠְב ִ֣דּי ָ ֭ק ָראִתי ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠ ֶ֑נה ְבּמוֹ־ִ֗פי ֶאְתַח ֶנּן־ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ 17‬רוּ ִֽחי ָ֣ז ָרה ְלִאְשׁ ִ֑תּי ְ֝וַחֹנִּ֗תי ִלְב ֵ֥ני ִבְט ִֽני‪:‬‬
4
And yet, if I truly have erred, (b)
the error still remains with me.
5
If you truly magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6
know then that it is God who subverted me
and that his siege works surround me.
7
If I cry out ‘violence!’, I am not answered; (c) II
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8
He has barred my path so that I cannot pass,
and he sets darkness upon my roads.
9
He has stripped my honor from me (d)
and removed the crown from my head.
10
He tears me down on every side and I am gone
and he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11
He has kindled his anger against me, (e)
he considers me among his foes.
12
His bands advance together,
they have built a rampart against me
and encamp around my tent.
13
He has alienated my brothers from me (f) III
and my acquaintances are estranged from me.
14
My relatives and friends have failed me,
guests in my house have forgotten me.
15
My maidservants consider me a stranger, (g)
I am an alien in their eyes.
16
I summon my servant but he does not answer,
with my mouth I must implore him.
17
My breath is repulsive to my wife
and I am loathsome to my kinsmen.
‫‪ַ 18‬גּם־ֲ֭ﬠ ִויִלים ָ ֣מֲאסוּ ִ֑בי ָ֝א֗קוָּמה ַו ְי ַדְבּרוּ־ ִֽבי‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 19‬תֲּﬠבוּ ִני ָכּל־ְמ ֵ֣תי סוֹ ִ֑די ְו ֶֽזה־ָ֝אַ֗הְבִתּי ֶנְהְפּכוּ־ ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 20‬בּﬠוֹ ִ֣רי ֭וִּבְבָשׂ ִרי ָדְּב ָ֣קה ַﬠְצִ֑מי ָ֝וֶאְתַמְלָּ֗טה ְבּ֣ﬠוֹר ִשׁ ָֽנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 21‬ח ֻ֬נּ ִני ָח ֻנּ֣ ִני ַא ֶ֣תּם ֵר ָ֑ﬠי ִ֥כּי ַיד־ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹהּ ָ֣נ ְגָﬠה ִֽבּי‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 22‬לָמּה ִתּ ְר ְדּ ֻ֣פ ִני ְכמוֹ־ ֵ֑אל ֝וִּמְבָּשׂ ִ֗רי ֣ל ֹא ִתְשׂ ָֽבּﬠוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 23‬מי־ ִי ֵ֣תּן ֵ ֭אפוֹ ְו ִיָכְּת֣בוּן ִמ ָ֑לּי ִֽמי־ ִי ֵ֖תּן ַבּ ֵ֣סֶּפר ְו ֻי ָֽחקוּ‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ָ֑פ ֶרת ָ֝לַ֗ﬠד ַבּ֥צּוּר ֵיָחְצֽבוּן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 24‬בֵּﬠט־ַבּ ְר ֶ֥זל ְו ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 25‬וֲא ִ֣ני ָ֭י ַדְﬠִתּי ֹ֣גֲּאִלי ָ֑חי ְ֝וַאֲח֗רוֹן ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ָיֽקוּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 26‬וַא ַ֣חר ֖ﬠוֹ ִֽרי ִנְקּפוּ־ ֑ז ֹאת ֝וִּמְבָּשׂ ִ֗רי ֶֽאֱח ֶ֥זה ֱאֽלוַֹהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 27‬א ֶ ֤שׁר ֲא ִ֨ני ׀ ֶֽאֱח ֶזה־ִ֗לּי ְוֵﬠי ַ֣ני ָר֣אוּ ְול ֹא־ ָ֑זר ָכּ֖לוּ ִכְלי ֹ ַ֣תי ְבֵּח ִֽקי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֣ 28‬כּי ֖ת ֹאְמרוּ ַמה־ ִנּ ְר ָדּף־֑לוֹ ְו ֥שׁ ֹ ֶרשׁ ָ֝דּ ָ֗בר ִנְמָצא־ ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫ס‬ ‫‪֤ 29‬גּוּרוּ ָלֶ֨כם ׀ ִמְפּ ֵני־ ֶ֗ח ֶרב ִֽכּי־ ֵ ֭חָמה ֲﬠוֹ ֣נוֹת ָ֑ח ֶרב ְלַ֖מַﬠן ֵתּ ְד֣ﬠוּן ַשׁ ִדּין‪:‬‬
18
Even the young have rejected me; (h)
I want to rise but they talk against me.
19
All my bosom friends detest me
and those I love have turned against me.
20
My bones stick to my skin and flfesh
and I escape by the skin of my teeth.
21
Pity me! Pity me, you are my friends! (i) IV
For it is the hand of God that has struck me.
22
Why do you pursue me, like El,
and are you not satisfifed with my flfesh?
23
Oh, if only my words were written down! (j)
Oh, if only they were engraved in a record!
24
Would that with an iron stylus and lead
they were incised on a rock forever!
25
But I know that my redeemer lives (k) V
and afterward will rise against the dust,
26
and this after my skin has been thus destroyed.
Yet in my flfesh I will behold God;
27
I myself will behold him,
and it will be my eyes that see, not another;
my kidneys pine within me.
28
Now that you say, ‘How do we pursue him? (l)
The root of the matter is found in him’—
29
well, fear the sword for yourselves,
for wrath brings punishment by the sword;
so that you may know there is judgment!
‫‪ַ֭ 20:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן צֹ ַ֥פר ַה ַֽנֲּﬠָמִ֗תי ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 2‬לֵכן ְשִׂﬠ ַ֣פּי ְיִשׁי֑בוּ ִני ֝וַּבֲﬠ֗בוּר ֣חוִּשׁי ִֽבי‪:‬‬

‫‪ 3‬מוּ ַ֣סר ְכִּלָמּ ִ֣תי ֶאְשׁ ָ ֑מﬠ ְ֝ו֗רוַּח ִֽמִבּי ָנ ִ֥תי ַיֲﬠ ֵֽנ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 4‬ה ֣ז ֹאת ָ֭י ַדְﬠָתּ ִמ ִנּי־ ַ֑ﬠד ִמ ִ֤נּי ִ֖שׂים ָא ָ֣דם ֲﬠֵלי־ ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 5‬כּי ִר ְנ ַ֣נת ְ֭רָשִׁﬠים ִמָקּ ֑רוֹב ְוִשְׂמ ַ֖חת ָח ֵ֣נ ף ֲﬠ ֵדי־ ָֽר ַגﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬אם־ ַיֲﬠ ֶ֣לה ַלָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ִשׂי֑אוֹ ְ֝ור ֹא֗שׁוֹ ָל ָ֥ﬠב ַי ִֽגּיַﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 7‬כּ ֶגֲללוֹ ָל ֶ֣נַצח י ֹא ֵ֑בד ֝ר ָֹ֗איו י ֹאְמ ֥רוּ ַא ֽיּוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 8‬כֲּח֣לוֹם ָ֭יﬠוּף ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְמָצ֑אוּהוּ ְ֝ו ֻי ַ֗דּד ְכֶּח ְז ֥יוֹן ָֽל ְיָלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֣ 9‬ﬠ ִין ְ ֭שׁ ָזַפתּוּ ְו ֣ל ֹא תוֹ ִ֑סיף ְול ֹא־֗ﬠוֹד ְתּשׁוּ ֶ֥רנּוּ ְמקוֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 10‬בּ ָניו ְי ַר֣צּוּ ַד ִ֑לּים ְ֝ו ָי ָ֗דיו ָתֵּ֥שְׁב ָנה אוֹ ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 11‬ﬠְצמוָֹתיו ָמְל֣אוּ ֲﬠלוּ ָ ֑מו ְ֝וִﬠ֗מּוֹ ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ִתְּשׁ ָֽכּב‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 12‬אם־ַתְּמ ִ֣תּיק ְבּ ִ֣פיו ָר ָ֑ﬠה ַ֝יְכִחי ֶ֗ד ָנּה ַ֣תַּחת ְלשׁוֹ ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מל ָ ֭ﬠֶליָה ְו ֣ל ֹא ַֽיַﬠ ְז ֶ֑ב ָנּה ְ֝ו ִיְמ ָנֶ֗ﬠ ָנּה ְבּ֣תוֹ􀀇 ִחֽכּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 13‬יְח ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ַ 14‬לְחמוֹ ְבֵּמ ָ֣ﬠיו ֶנְה ָ֑פּ􀀇 ְמרוֹ ַ֖רת ְפָּת ִ֣נים ְבִּק ְרֽבּוֹ‪:‬‬
Second Speech by Zophar, Ch. 20
 1Zophar the Naamathite spoke up and said:
2
On this my thoughts urge me to reply, (a) I
and that is because of my feelings within.
3
I hear a rebuke that insults me
and my understanding inspires my answer.
4
Do you not know this, that from of old, (b)
since man was placed on earth,
5
the mirth of the wicked has been brief
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment,
6
even though his peak rises to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds?
7
He perishes forever like his dung, (c) II
those who saw him say, ‘Where is he?’
8
He flfies away like a dream, no more to be found
and he is banished like a vision of the night.
9
The eye that glimpsed him does so no more
and it perceives him in his place no longer.
10
His sons seek the favour of the poor, (d)
but his own hands must return his wealth.
11
His bones were still full of vigor,
but they will lie down in the dust with him.
12
Though evil is sweet in his mouth (e) III
and he hides it under his tongue,
13
though he saves it and does not want to leave it,
though he keeps it under his palate,
14
his bread in his bowels shall turn
into the venom of asps within him.
‫‪ַ֣ 15‬ח ִיל ָ ֭בַּלﬠ ַו ְיִק ֶ֑אנּוּ ִ֝מִבְּט ֗נוֹ יוֹ ִרֶ֥שׁנּוּ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫‪ 16‬ר ֹאשׁ־ְפָּת ִ֥נים ִיי ָ֑נק ַֽתַּה ְר ֗ ֵגהוּ ְל֣שׁוֹן ֶאְפ ֶֽﬠה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 17‬אל־ ֵ֥י ֶרא ִבְפַל ֑גּוֹת ַנֲה ֵ֥רי ַ֝נֲחֵ֗לי ְדּ ַ֣בשׁ ְוֶחְמ ָֽאה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 18‬מִ֣שׁיב ָ֭י ָגﬠ ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְב ָ֑לﬠ ְכּ ֵ֥חיל ְ֝תּמוּ ָר֗תוֹ ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠֽ􀀉ס‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 19‬כּי־ ִ֭רַצּץ ָﬠ ַ֣זב ַדּ ִ֑לּים ַ֥בּ ִית ָ֝גּ ַ֗זל ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְב ֵֽנהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 20‬כּי ׀ ל ֹא־ ָי ַ֣דﬠ ָשׁ ֵ֣לו ְבִּבְט ֑נוֹ ַ֝בֲּחמוּ֗דוֹ ֣ל ֹא ְיַמ ֵֽלּט‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 21‬אין־ָשׂ ִ֥ריד ְלָאְכ֑לוֹ ַﬠל־ֵ֗כּן ל ֹא־ ָי ִ֥חיל טוּֽבוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 22‬בְּמ ֣ל ֹאות ִ ֭שְׂפקוֹ ֵי ֶ֣צר ֑לוֹ ָכּל־ ַ֖יד ָﬠ ֵ ֣מל ְתּבוֹ ֶֽאנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 23‬י ִ֤הי ׀ ְלַמֵ֬לּא ִבְט ֗נוֹ ְֽיַשַׁלּח־֖בּוֹ ֲח ֣רוֹן ַא֑פּוֹ ְו ַיְמ ֵ֥טר ָ֝ﬠֵ֗לימוֹ ִבְּלחוּֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֭ 24‬יְב ַרח ִמ ֵ֣נֶּשׁק ַבּ ְר ֶ֑זל ַ֝תְּחְלֵ֗פהוּ ֶ֣קֶשׁת ְנחוָּֽשׁה‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 25‬שַׁל֮ף ַו ֵיּ ֵ֢צא ִמ ֫ ֵגּ ָ֥וה ֭וָּב ָרק ִֽמְמּר ֹ ָר֥תוֹ ַיֲה ֗􀀉􀀇 ָﬠ ָ֥ליו ֵאִֽמים‪:‬‬
‫ֵי֖ ַרﬠ ָשׂ ִ֣ריד ְבָּאֳהֽלוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫חֶשׁ֮􀀇 ָטמוּן ִלְצ֫פוּ ָ֥ניו ְ ֭תָּאְכֵלהוּ ֵ֣אשׁ ֽל ֹא־ ֻנ ָ֑פּח‬ ‫‪ָ 26‬כּל־ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 27‬י ַג֣לּוּ ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ֲﬠוֹ ֑נוֹ ְ֝וֶ֗א ֶרץ ִמְתקוֹ ָ ֮מָ֥מה ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
15
The riches he swallowed he vomits, (f)
El forces it back from his belly.
16
It is the poison of asps he sucks,
the tongue of the viper will kill him.
17
He will never enjoy the rivers, (g) IV
the streams, the torrents of honey and butter.
18
He gives his gain back, being unable to swallow it,
the fruit of his trading, without enjoying it.
19
Sure, he has oppressed and abandoned the poor, (h)
robbed their house but cannot rebuild it.
20
Sure, he does not know quiet in his belly,
he will not escape with his treasure.
21
There is no survivor to eat it,
therefore his fortune cannot prosper.
22
Despite his full suffifciency he will be in distress; (i) V
misery will come upon him in full force.
23
Let that fifll his belly!
May He send his burning wrath against him
And rain down his blows upon him!
24
Should he flfee from weapons of iron, (j)
a bow of bronze will overtake him.
25
He pulls the arrow out of his back,
the steel leaves his gall
and pangs of death overwhelm him.
26
Total darkness lies in wait for his treasures, (k) VI
a fifre that needs no fanning consumed him;
who survives in his tent is smashed.
27
Heaven exposes his guilt
and earth rises up against him.
‫‪ִ֭ 28‬י ֶגל ְי֣בוּל ֵבּי֑תוֹ ִ֝נ ָגּ֗רוֹת ְבּ ֣יוֹם ַאֽפּוֹ‪:‬‬

‫פ‬ ‫‪ֶ֤ 29‬זה ׀ ֵֽחֶלק־ָא ָ֣דם ָ֭רָשׁﬠ ֵמֱא􀀉 ִ֑הים ְו ַנֲח ַ֖לת ִאְמ ֣רוֹ ֵמ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫מֵתי ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 2‬שְׁמ֣ﬠוּ ָ ֭שׁמוַֹﬠ ִמָלּ ִ֑תי וְּתִהי־ ֗ז ֹאת ַתּ ְנ֥חוּ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ָ 3‬שׂאוּ ִני ְוָאֹנ ִ֣כי ֲא ַד ֵ֑בּר ְוַא ַ֖חר ַדְּבּ ִ֣רי ַתְל ִֽﬠיג‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֭ 4‬הָאֹנִכי ְלָא ָ֣דם ִשׂי ִ֑חי ְוִאם־ַ֝מ֗דּוַּﬠ ל ֹא־ִתְק ַ֥צר רוּ ִֽחי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 5‬פּנוּ־ֵא ַ֥לי ְוָה ַ ֑שׁמּוּ ְוִ֖שׂימוּ ָי֣ד ַﬠל־ ֶֽפּה‪:‬‬

‫‪ְ 6‬וִאם־ ָז ַ֥כ ְרִתּי ְו ִנְב ָ֑הְלִתּי ְוָא ַ֥חז ְ֝בָּשׂ ִ֗רי ַפָּלּֽצוּת‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 7‬מ ֣דּוַּﬠ ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ִיְח ֑יוּ ָ֝ﬠְת֗קוּ ַגּם־ ָ֥גְּברוּ ָֽח ִיל‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 8‬ז ְר ָ֤ﬠם ָנ֣כוֹן ִלְפ ֵני ֶ֣הם ִﬠ ָ ֑מּם ְ֝וֶצֱאָצֵאיֶ֗הם ְלֵﬠי ֵני ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 9‬בֵּתּי ֶ֣הם ָשׁ֣לוֹם ִמ ָ֑פַּחד ְו ֤ל ֹא ֵ ֖שֶׁבט ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ֲﬠֵלי ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
‫‪ 10‬שׁוֹ ֣רוֹ ִ ֭ﬠַבּר ְו ֣ל ֹא ַי ְג ִ֑ﬠל ְתַּפ ֵ֥לּט ָ֝פּ ָר֗תוֹ ְו ֣ל ֹא ְתַשׁ ֵֽכּל‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 11‬יַשְׁלּ֣חוּ ַ ֭כצּ ֹאן ֲﬠ ִויֵלי ֶ֑הם ְ֝ו ַיְל ֵדיֶ֗הם ְי ַרֵקּ ֽדוּן‪:‬‬
‫ְ֝ו ִיְשְׂמ֗חוּ ְל֣קוֹל ﬠוּ ָֽגב‪:‬‬ ‫תף ְוִכ ֑נּוֹר‬‫‪ִ֭ 12‬יְשׂאוּ ְכּ ֣ ֹ‬

‫֝וְּב ֶ֗ר ַגﬠ ְשׁ֣אוֹל ֵי ָֽחתּוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 13‬יַבלּוּ ַב֣טּוֹב ְיֵמי ֶ֑הם‬
28
A flfood sweeps away his house, (l)
torrents on the day of His wrath.
29
This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage announced to him by El.
Job’s Answer to Zophar, Ch. 21
 1
Job answered and said:
2
Listen well to my word (a) I
and let this be the consolation you offer.
3
Bear with me for now it is my turn to speak
and after I have spoken you may mock.
4
As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if so, why should I not be impatient?
5
Face me and be appalled, (b)
clap your hand over your mouth.
6
When I remember, I am terrififed
and shuddering seizes my flfesh.
7
Why do the wicked live on, (c) II
growing old, even increasing in strength?
8
Their progeny is established, in their presence,
their offspring before their very eyes.
9
Their homes are at peace, without fear
and God’s rod is not upon them.
10
Their bull breeds without fail, (d)
their cow calves and never miscarries.
11
They send their infants out like sheep
and their children skip around.
12
They sing to the timbrel and lyre (e)
and make merry to the sound of the flfute.
13
They spend their days in happiness
and descend to Sheol without ado.
‫‪ַ 14‬ויּ ֹאְמ ֣רוּ ָ ֭לֵאל ֣סוּר ִמ ֶ ֑מּנּוּ ְו ַ֥דַﬠת ְ֝דּ ָרֶ֗כי􀀈 ֣ל ֹא ָח ָֽפְצנוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 15‬מה־ַשׁ ַ֥דּי ִֽכּי־ ַֽנַﬠְב ֶ֑דנּוּ וַּמה־֝נּוִֹ֗ﬠיל ִ֣כּי ִנְפ ַגּﬠ־ֽבּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 16‬הן ֣ל ֹא ְב ָי ָ֣דם טוּ ָ֑בם ֲﬠ ַ֥צת ְ֝רָשִׁ֗ﬠים ָ֣רֲחָקה ֶֽמ ִנּי‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 17‬כּ ָ ֤מּה ֵנר־ ְר ָ ֮שׁ ִ֤ﬠים ִי ְדָ֗ﬠ􀀇 ְו ָי ֣ב ֹא ָﬠ ֵ֣לימוֹ ֵאי ָ֑דם ֲ֝חָבִ֗לים ְיַח ֵ֥לּק ְבַּאֽפּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מץ ְגּ ָנ ַ֥בתּוּ סוּ ָֽפה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 18‬יְה ֗יוּ ְכּ ֶ֥תֶבן ִלְפ ֵני־ ֑רוַּח ֝וְּכ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ֱ 19‬א ֗לוַֹהּ ִיְצֹפּן־ְלָב ָ֥ניו אוֹ ֑נוֹ ְיַשׁ ֵ֖לּם ֵא ָ֣ליו ְו ֵי ָֽדﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 20‬י ְר֣אוּ ֵﬠי ָ֣ניו ִכּי ֑דוֹ וֵּמֲחַ֖מת ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ִיְשׁ ֶֽתּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 21‬כּי ַמה־ֶחְפ֣צוֹ ְבֵּבי֣תוֹ ַאֲח ָ֑ריו וִּמְס ַ֖פּר ֳח ָד ָ ֣שׁיו ֻח ָֽצּצוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 22‬הְל ֵ֥אל ְיַלֶמּד־ ָ֑דַּﬠת ְ֝ו֗הוּא ָרִ֥מים ִיְשֽׁפּוֹט‪:‬‬

‫‪ֶ֗ 23‬זה ָ֭ימוּת ְבּ ֶ֣ﬠֶצם ֻתּ֑מּוֹ ֻ֝כּ ֗לּוֹ ַשְׁלֲא ַ֥נ ן ְוָשׁ ֵֽליו‪:‬‬
‫מַח ַﬠְצמוֹ ָ֣תיו ְיֻשׁ ֶֽקּה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ֭ 24‬ﬠִטי ָניו ָמְל֣אוּ ָח ָ֑לב וּ ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 25‬ו ֶ֗זה ָ֭ימוּת ְבּ ֶ֣נֶפשׁ ָמ ָ֑רה ְו ֽל ֹא־ָ֝אַ֗כל ַבּטּוֹ ָֽבה‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ֭ 26‬יַחד ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֣פר ִיְשׁ ָ֑כּבוּ ְ֝ו ִרָ֗מּה ְתַּכ ֶ֥סּה ֲﬠֵלי ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
14
They say to El, ‘Get away from us! (f)
Knowing your ways does not please us.
15
What is Shaddai that we should serve him?
And what will we gain by praying to him?’
16
‘Look, their happiness is not in their own hands, (g) III
the counsel of the wicked is beyond me.
17
How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out,
does the calamity they deserve come upon them
and does He apportion them pains in his anger!
18
They will be like straw before the wind
and like chaff carried off by a storm.’
19
‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his sons. (h)
He will repay the man so that he will know it!
20
His eyes will see his own downfall
and he will drink of the wrath of Shaddai!
21
For what delight will he have in his family, later,
when the number of his months is cut off?’
22
Can one teach knowledge to God? (i) IV
He is the one who judges the high and mighty.
23
One man dies in perfect health,
completely at ease and prosperous.
24
His pails are full of milk
and the marrow of his bones is juicy.
25
Another dies with a bitter soul (j)
and never has tasted happiness.
26
Both of them lie in the dust
and the worms cover them.
‫מ ס וּ‪:‬‬‫‪ֵ֣ 27‬הן ָ֭י ַדְﬠִתּי ַמְחְשֽׁבוֵֹתי ֶ֑כם ֝וְּמ ִז֗מּוֹת ָﬠ ַ֥לי ַתְּח ֽ ֹ‬
‫אֶהל ׀ ִמְשְׁכּ ֬נוֹת ְרָשׁ ִֽﬠים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֤ 28‬כּי ֽת ֹאְמ֗רוּ ַא ֵ֥יּה ֵבית־ ָנ ִ֑דיב ְ֝וַא ֵ֗יּה ֤ ֹ‬
‫תָ֗תם ֣ל ֹא ְת ַנ ֵֽכּרוּ‪:‬‬ ‫א ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 29‬ה ֣ל ֹא ְ ֭שֶׁאְלֶתּם ֣ﬠוְֹב ֵרי ָ֑ד ֶר􀀇 ְ֝ו ֹ‬
‫‪ִ֤ 30‬כּי ְל ֣יוֹם ֵ ֭איד ֵי ָ֣חֶשׂ􀀇 ָ֑רﬠ ְל ֖יוֹם ֲﬠָב ֣רוֹת יוּ ָֽבלוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 31‬מי־ ַי ִ֣גּיד ַﬠל־ָפּ ָ֣ניו ַדּ ְר֑כּוֹ ְוֽהוּא־ָ֝ﬠָ֗שׂה ִ֣מי ְיַשֶׁלּם־ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ְֽוַﬠל־ ָגּ ִ֥דישׁ ִיְשֽׁקוֹד‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ֭ 32‬והוּא ִלְקָב ֣רוֹת יוּ ָ֑בל‬

‫֝וְּלָפ ָ֗ניו ֵ֣אין ִמְס ָֽפּר‪:‬‬ ‫ְ֭וַאֲח ָריו ָכּל־ָא ָ֣דם ִיְמ֑שׁוֹ􀀇‬ ‫‪ָֽ 33‬מְתקוּ־ ֗לוֹ ִר ְג ֵ֫בי ָ֥נַחל‬
‫ס‬ ‫֝וְּתֽשׁוּבֵֹתיֶ֗כם ִנְשַׁאר־ָֽמַﬠל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ֭ 34‬וֵאי􀀇 ְתּ ַנֲח֣מוּ ִני ָ֑הֶבל‬

27
Look, I know your thoughts (k) V
and the devices with which you would wrong me,
28
how you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince
and the tent where the wicked used to dwell?’
29
Have you not asked the wayfarers?
You cannot deny their signals.
30
For the evil man is spared on the day of calamity, (l)
on the day when furies are carried through.
31
Who will denounce his conduct to his face?
All he has done—who can requite him for it?
32
He is rather carried to the grave (m)
and a watch is kept over his tomb.
33
The clods of the wadi are sweet to him,
everyone follows behind him
and countless ones precede him.
34
How you offer me comfort then is vanity (n)
and what remains of your answers is perfifdy.
‫‪ַ֭ 22:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ֱאִלי ַ֥פז ַֽהֵתָּמ ִ֗ני ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬הְל ֵ֥אל ִיְסָכּן־ ָ֑גֶּבר ִֽכּי־ ִיְס ֖כֹּן ָﬠ ֵ֣לימוֹ ַמְשׂ ִֽכּיל‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 3‬ה ֵ֣חֶפץ ְ ֭לַשׁ ַדּי ִ֣כּי ִתְצ ָ֑דּק ְוִאם־ ֶ֗בַּצﬠ ִֽכּי־ַת ֵ֥תּם ְדּ ָר ֶֽכי􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 4‬הִמ ִיּ ְר ָ֣אְת􀀈 י ִֹכי ֶ֑ח􀀈 ָי֥בוֹא ִ֝ﬠְמּ֗􀀈 ַבִּמְּשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 5‬ה ֣ל ֹא ָר ָֽﬠְת֣􀀈 ַר ָ֑בּה ְו ֵֽאין־ ֵ ֗קץ ַלֲﬠוֹֹנ ֶֽתי􀀈‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 6‬כּי־ַתְח ֣בֹּל ַא ֶ֣חי􀀈 ִח ָ֑נּם וִּב ְג ֵ֖די ֲﬠרוִּ֣מּים ַתְּפִֽשׁיט‪:‬‬
‫‪ 7‬ל ֹא־ ַ ֭מ ִים ָﬠ ֵי ֣ ף ַתְּשׁ ֶ֑קה ֝וֵּמ ָרֵ֗ﬠב ִֽתְּמ ַֽנﬠ־ ָֽלֶחם‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 8‬ו ִ֣אישׁ ְ֭זרוַֹﬠ ֣לוֹ ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ וּ ְנ֥שׂוּא ָ֝פ ִ֗נים ֵי ֶ֣שׁב ָֽבּהּ‪:‬‬
‫תִ֣מים ְי ֻד ָֽכּא‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 9‬אְלָמנוֹת ִשׁ ַ֣לְּחָתּ ֵרי ָ֑קם וּ ְזר ֹ֖ﬠוֹת ְי ֹ‬
‫אם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬ﬠל־ ֵ ֭כּן ְסִביבוֹ ֶ֣תי􀀈 ַפ ִ֑חים ִֽויַבֶהְל􀀈 ַ֣פַּחד ִפְּת ֽ ֹ‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ֽל ֹא־ִת ְר ֶ֑אה ְֽוִשְׁפַﬠת־ַ֥מ ִים ְתַּכ ֶֽסָּךּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ 11‬אוֹ־ ֥ ֹ‬
THE THIRD ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 22–28
Third Speech by Eliphaz, Ch. 22
 1Eliphaz the Temanite spoke up and said:
2
Can a man be of use to God? (a) I
Can even a sage be of use to him?
3
Does it please Shaddai that you are in the right
and is it a gain that you make your ways blameless?
4
Is it for your piety that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?
5
Is not your evil great, (b)
and there is no end to your wrongdoings!
6
For you take your brothers’ guaranty for no reason
and you strip them naked of their clothes.
7
You give no water to the weary (c) II
and you deny bread to the hungry.
8
The land belongs to the strong-armed one
and the privileged inhabit it.
9
Widows you have sent away empty-handed
and the arms of the orphans are crushed.
10
Therefore snares are all around you (d)
and sudden terror makes you panic;
11
or there is darkness so that you cannot see
and a flfood of water that covers you.
‫‪114‬‬ ‫‪the third round of the debate‬‬
‫אשׁ כּוָֹכ ִ֣בים ִכּי־ ָֽרמּוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲֽ 12‬הל ֹא־ֱ֭אלוַֹהּ ֹ֣גַּבהּ ָשׁ ָ ֑מ ִים וּ ְר ֵ֤אה ֭ר ֹ‬
‫‪ְֽ 13‬וָאַמ ְרָתּ ַמה־ ָיּ֣ ַֽדﬠ ֵ֑אל ַהְב ַ֖ﬠד ֲﬠ ָר ֶ֣פל ִיְשֽׁפּוֹט‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 14‬ﬠ ִ֣בים ֵֽסֶתר־֖לוֹ ְו ֣ל ֹא ִי ְר ֶ֑אה ְו֥חוּג ָ֝שַׁ֗מ ִים ִיְתַה ָֽלּ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫מר ֲא ֶ ֖שׁר ָדּ ְר֣כוּ ְמֵתי־ ָֽא ֶון‪:‬‬‫א ַרח ﬠוֹ ָ֣לם ִתְּשׁ ֑ ֹ‬

‫‪ַ 15‬ה ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 16‬אֶֽשׁר־ֻקְמּ֥טוּ ְול ֹא־ ֵ֑ﬠת ָ֝נָ֗הר יוּ ַ֥צק ְיסוֹ ָֽדם‪:‬‬
‫אְמ ִ֣רים ָ ֭לֵאל ֣סוּר ִמ ֶ ֑מּנּוּ וַּמה־ ִיְּפ ַ֖ﬠל ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 17‬ה ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 18‬ו֤הוּא ִמ ֵ֣לּא ָבֵתּי ֶ֣הם ֑טוֹב ַוֲﬠ ַ֥צת ְ֝רָשִׁ֗ﬠים ָ֣רֲחָקה ֶֽמ ִנּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 19‬י ְר֣אוּ ַצ ִדּי ִ֣קים ְו ִיְשׂ ָ ֑מחוּ ְ֝ו ָנִ֗קי ִיְלַﬠג־ ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 20‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ִנְכ ַ֣חד ִקי ָ ֑מנוּ ְ֝ו ִיְת ָ֗רם ָ֣אְכָלה ֵֽאשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 21‬הְסֶכּן־ ָ֣נא ִﬠ֑מּוֹ וְּשָׁלם ָ֝בֶּ֗הם ְֽתּבוָֹאְת֥􀀈 טוֹ ָֽבה‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 22‬קח־ ָ֣נא ִמ ִ֣פּיו תּוֹ ָ֑רה ְוִ֥שׂים ֲ֝אָמ ָ֗ריו ִבְּלָב ֶֽב􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 23‬אם־ָתּ֣שׁוּב ַﬠד־ ַ ֭שׁ ַדּי ִתָּבּ ֶ֑נה ַתּ ְר ִ֥חיק ַ֝ﬠ ְוָ֗לה ֵמָאֳה ֶֽל􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 24‬וִשׁית־ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ָ֑בֶּצר וְּב֖צוּר ְנָח ִ֣לים אוֹ ִֽפיר‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 25‬וָה ָי֣ה ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ְבָּצ ֶ֑רי􀀈 ְו ֶ֖כֶסף תּוָֹﬠ֣פוֹת ָֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
the third round of the debate 115
12
Is not God in the heights of heaven? (e) III
And see the topmost stars, how lofty they are!
13
But you have said, ‘What does El know?
Can he judge through thick cloud?
14
Clouds hide him so that he cannot see
as he walks around on heaven’s circle.’
15
Will you keep to the ancient path (f)
which evil men have trodden,
16
who were shriveled up before their time,
whose foundation was swept away like a river;
17
men who said to El, ‘Get away from us!’
and, ‘what can El do to us?’
18
Yet it was He who fiflled their houses with good things! (g)
The counsel of the wicked is beyond me.
19
The righteous see it and are glad,
and the innocent one mocks them:
20
‘Surely their wealth is destroyed
and fifre has consumed their surplus.’
21
Come to terms with Him and be at peace, (h) IV
your proceeds will be good thereby.
22
Receive instruction from his mouth
and lay up his words in your heart.
23
If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored; (i)
remove injustice far from your tent.
24
Regard ore of gold as dust
and gold of Ophir as rocks from the wadi,
25
then Shaddai will be your gold ore
and the choicest silver for you.
‫‪ִ 26‬כּי־ ָ ֭אז ַﬠל־ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ִתְּתַﬠ ָ֑נּג ְוִתָ֖שּׂא ֶאל־ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ָפּ ֶֽני􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 27‬תְּﬠ ִ֣תּיר ֵ ֭אָליו ְו ִיְשָׁמ ֶ֑ﬠָךּ וּ ְנ ָד ֶ֥רי􀀈 ְתַשׁ ֵֽלּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 28‬וִת ְג ַזר־֖אוֶֹמר ְו ָי֣ ָקם ָ֑ל􀀇 ְוַﬠל־ ְ֝דּ ָרֶ֗כי􀀈 ָ֣נ ַֽגהּ ֽאוֹר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 29‬כּי־ ִ ֭הְשִׁפּילוּ ַו ֣תּ ֹאֶמר ֵגָּ֑וה ְוַ֖שׁח ֵﬠי ַ֣נ ִים יוִֹֽשַׁﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 30‬יַמ ֵ֥לּט ִֽאי־ ָנ ִ֑קי ְ֝ו ִנְמַ֗לט ְבּ ֣בֹר ַכּ ֶֽפּי􀀈‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ַ 2‬גּם־ ַ ֭היּוֹם ְמ ִ֣רי ִשׂ ִ֑חי ָ֝י ִ֗די ָכְּב ָ֥דה ַﬠל־ַא ְנָח ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 3‬מי־ ִי ֵ֣תּן ָ֭י ַדְﬠִתּי ְוֶאְמָצ ֵ֑אהוּ ָ֝א֗בוֹא ַﬠד־ְתּכוּ ָנֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 4‬אֶﬠ ְר ָ֣כה ְלָפ ָ֣ניו ִמְשׁ ָ֑פּט ֝וִּ֗פי ֲאַמ ֵ֥לּא תוָֹכֽחוֹת‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ֵ 5‬א ְדָﬠה ִמ ִ֣לּים ַיֲﬠ ֵ֑נ ִני ְ֝וָא ִ֗בי ָנה ַמה־ ֥יּ ֹאַמר ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 6‬הְבּ ָרב־ ֖כַֹּח ָי ִ֣ריב ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ֥ל ֹא ַא􀀇־֗הוּא ָיִ֥שׂם ִֽבּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֗ 7‬שׁם ָ֭יָשׁר נוֹ ָ֣כח ִﬠ֑מּוֹ ַוֲאַפְלּ ָ֥טה ָ֝ל ֶ֗נַצח ִמשּׁ ְֹפ ִֽטי‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 8‬הן ֶ֣ק ֶדם ֶאֱה֣􀀉􀀇 ְוֵאי ֶ֑ננּוּ ְ֝וָא֗חוֹר ְֽול ֹא־ָא ִ֥בין ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 9‬שׂ ֣מ ֹאול ַבֲּﬠשׂ ֹ֣תוֹ ְול ֹא־ ָ֑אַחז ַיְﬠ ֥טֹף ָ֝יִ֗מין ְו ֣ל ֹא ֶא ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬
26
Then you will take delight in Shaddai (j) V
and lift up your face to God.
27
You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
28
When you decide on a matter, it will stand
and light will shine on your ways.
29
For He humbles boastful speaking, (k)
but he delivers the one with downcast eyes.
30
He lets the innocent man escape
and he will escape by the purity of your hands.
 1Job answered and said:
2
Nonetheless my complaint is bitter today, (a) I
my hand lies heavy upon my groaning.
3
If only I knew where to fifnd him,
how I could come to his dwelling.
4
Let me arrange my lawsuit to his face (b)
and fifll my mouth with arguments.
5
I want to know the words he will answer me with
and to understand what he will say to me.
6
Would he use great force to contend with me? (c)
Surely he is not the one who can accuse me!
7
There the upright is arguing with him
and I want to escape forever from my judge.
8
If I go forward, he is not there, (d) II
and backward—I do not notice him.
9
If he works to the left—I do not behold him;
when he turns to the right, I do not see him.
‫‪ִֽ 10‬כּי־ ָ֭י ַדﬠ ֶ֣דּ ֶר􀀇 ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ְ֝בָּח ַ֗נ ִני ַכּ ָזּ ָ֥הב ֵא ֵֽצא‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 11‬בֲּאֻשׁרוֹ ָאֲח ָ֣זה ַר ְג ִ֑לי ַדּ ְר֖כּוֹ ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ְרִתּי ְול ֹא־ ָֽאט‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 12‬מְצַ֣ות ְ ֭שָׂפָתיו ְו ֣ל ֹא ָאִ֑מישׁ ֵ֝מֻחִ֗קּי ָצ ַ֥פ ְנִתּי ִאְמ ֵרי־ ִֽפיו‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 13‬ו֣הוּא ְ ֭בֶאָחד וִּ֣מי ְיִשׁי ֶ֑בנּוּ ְו ַנְפ֖שׁוֹ ִא ְוּ ָ֣תה ַו ָֽיַּﬠשׂ‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ִ 14‬כּי ַיְשׁ ִ֣לים ֻח ִ֑קּי ְוָכ ֵ֖ה ָנּה ַר֣בּוֹת ִﬠֽמּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 15‬ﬠל־ ֵ ֭כּן ִמָפּ ָ֣ניו ֶאָבּ ֵ֑הל ֶ֝אְתבּוֹ ֵ֗נן ְוֶאְפ ַ֥חד ִמֶֽמּנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 16‬וֵאל ֵה ַ֣ר􀀇 ִל ִ֑בּי ְ֝וַשׁ ַ֗דּי ִהְבִהי ָֽל ִני‪:‬‬
‫אֶפל‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ֝וִּמָפּ ַ֗ני ִכָּסּה־ ֽ ֹ‬ ‫‪ִֽ 17‬כּי־ ֣ל ֹא ִ֭נְצַמִתּי ִמְפּ ֵני־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫ְ֝וי ֹ ְדָ֗ﬠיו ל ֹא־ ָ֥חזוּ ָיָֽמיו‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 24:1‬מ֗דּוַּﬠ ִ ֭מַשּׁ ַדּי ל ֹא־ ִנְצְפּ ֣נוּ ִﬠ ִ֑תּים‬
‫‪ְ 2‬גֻּב֥לוֹת ַיִ֑שּׂיגוּ ֵ֥ﬠ ֶדר ָ֝גּ ְז ֗לוּ ַו ִיּ ְרֽﬠוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ֲ 3‬ח֣מוֹר ְיתוִֹ֣מים ִי ְנ ָ֑הגוּ ַ֝יְחְבּ ֗לוּ ֣שׁוֹר ַאְלָמ ָֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 9‬י ְג ְזלוּ ִמ ֣שּׁ ֹד ָי֑תוֹם ְֽוַﬠל־ָﬠ ִ֥ני ַיְח ֽבֹּלוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 4‬י֣טּוּ ֶאְביוֹ ִ֣נים ִמ ָ֑דּ ֶר􀀇 ַ֥יַחד ֻ֝חְבּ֗אוּ ֲﬠ ִנ ֵיּי־ ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
10
Yet he knows what is my way; (e)
should he assay me, I would emerge pure as gold.
11
My foot held fast to his track,
I have kept his way without swerving.
12
The commands of his lips—I do not depart,
I treasure the words of his mouth more than my term.
13
But He, he is unique, and who can make him turn? (f) III
Whatever his soul desires, he does.
14
For he will bring my term to an end,
and has many such plans in store.
15
Therefore I am terrififed at his face; (g)
when I consider, I dread him.
16
El has made my heart faint,
Shaddai has terrififed me,
17
for I am indeed cut off by darkness
and my face is covered by thick gloom.
 1Why are times of action not reserved by Shaddai, (a) I

and why can those who know him not see his days?
2
People remove boundary stones, (b)
they carry off flfocks and pasture them;
3
they lead away the donkey of the orphans,
they seize the widow’s ox as a pledge.
9
They snatch the orphan from the breast (c)
and take [the child of] the poor as a pledge.
4
They push the needy off the road,
together the poor of the land go into hiding.
‫‪ֵ֤ 5‬הן ְפּ ָרִ֨אים ׀ ַֽבִּמּ ְד ָ֗בּר ָיְצ֣אוּ ְ ֭בָּפֳﬠָלם‬

‫ְמַשֲׁח ֵ֣רי ַל ָ֑טּ ֶרף ֲﬠ ָר ָ֥בה ֥לוֹ ֶ֗לֶחם ַל ְנָּﬠ ִֽרים‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 6‬בָּשּׂ ֶדה ְבִּלי֣לוֹ ַיְק ִ֑צירוּ ְו ֶ֖כ ֶרם ָר ָ ֣שׁﬠ ְיַל ֵֽקּשׁוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 7‬ﬠ ֣רוֹם ָ֭יִלינוּ ִמְבּ ִ֣לי ְל֑בוּשׁ ְו ֵ֥אין ְ֝כּ֗סוּת ַבָּקּ ָֽרה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 8‬מ ֶ֣זּ ֶרם ָה ִ֣רים ִי ְר ָ֑טבוּ ֽוִּמְבּ ִ֥לי ַ֝מְח ֶ֗סה ִחְבּקוּ־ֽצוּר‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 10‬ﬠ ֣רוֹם ִ ֭הְלּכוּ ְבּ ִ֣לי ְל֑בוּשׁ ֝וּ ְרֵﬠ ִ֗בים ָ֣נְשׂאוּ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ֵ 11‬בּין־שׁוּר ֹ ָ֥תם ַיְצ ִ֑הירוּ ְיָק ִ֥בים ָ֝דּ ְר֗כוּ ַו ִיְּצָֽמאוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪֮ ֵ 12‬מ ִ֤ﬠיר ְמִ֨תים ׀ ִי ְנָ֗אקוּ ְו ֶֽנֶפשׁ־ֲחָל ִ֥לים ְתַּשֵׁ֑וַּﬠ ֶ֝וֱא ֗לוַֹהּ ל ֹא־ ָיִ֥שׂים ִתְּפ ָֽלה‪:‬‬
‫מ ְר ֵ֫די־֥אוֹר ֽל ֹא־ִה ִ֥כּירוּ ְד ָר ָ֑כיו ְו ֥ל ֹא ָ֝יְשׁ֗בוּ ִבּ ְנִתיבֹ ָֽתיו‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ֤ 13‬הָמּה ָהי ֮וּ ְֽבּ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ 14‬ל֡אוֹר ֮ ָי֤קוּם רוֵֹ֗צַח ִֽי ְקָטל־ָﬠ ִ֥ני ְוֶאְב ֑יוֹן וַּבַ֗לּ ְיָלה ְי ִ֣הי ַכ ַגּ ָֽנּב‪:‬‬
‫מר ל ֹא־ְתשׁוּ ֵ֣ר ִני ָ֑ﬠ ִין‬ ‫‪ְ 15‬ו ֵ֤ﬠין ֹנֵ֨אף ׀ ָ ֤שְׁמ ָֽרה ֶ֣נֶשׁף ֵ ֭לא ֹ‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ָ֫בּ ִ֥תּים‬
‫ְו ֵ֖סֶתר ָפּ ִ֣נים ָיִֽשׂים ‪ָ 16‬ח ַ֥תר ַבּ ֗ ֹ‬
‫יוָֹ֥מם ִחְתּמוּ־ָ֗למוֹ ל ֹא־ ָ֥י ְדﬠוּ ֽאוֹר‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ֤ 17‬כּי ַיְח ָ֨דּו ֣בֶֹּקר ָ֣למוֹ ַצְל ָ ֑מ ֶות ִֽכּי־ ַ֝יִ֗כּיר ַבְּל֥הוֹת ַצְלָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬
5
Look, like wild asses in the desert (d) II
they go out to their work,
searching in the wilderness for prey
that is bread for their children.
6
In the fifeld they harvest fodder
and in the vineyard of the wicked they glean.
7
Naked they pass the night, without clothing, (e)
there is no cover against the cold.
8
They are drenched by the rain of the mountains
and without shelter they huddle against the rock.
10
Naked they go about, without clothing, (f)
and hungry they carry sheaves.
11
Between the rows of trees they press oil,
they tread the winepresses but suffer thirst.
12
From the city the men are groaning,
the throat of the wounded cries out,
and God charges no one with wrong.
13
They [the wicked], they are rebels against the light; (g) III
they do not acknowledge its ways
and do not stay along its paths.
14
With the light the murderer arises,
he kills the poor and needy,
and at night he acts the thief.
15
The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, (h)
thinking, ‘No eye will perceive me then’;
he disguises his face,
16a
and in the dark he digs into houses.
16b
By day they shut themselves in, (i)
they do not know the light.
17
For darkness is to all of them morning,
as they recognize the terrors of darkness.
‫ֽל ֹא־ ִ֝יְפ ֶנה ֶ֣דּ ֶר􀀇 ְכּ ָרִֽמים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַֽ 18‬קל־֤הוּא ׀ ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵני־ַ֗מ ִים ְתֻּק ַ֣לּל ֶחְלָק ָ֣תם ָבּ ָ֑א ֶרץ‬
‫חם ִי ְג ְז֥לוּ ֵֽמיֵמי־ֶ֗שֶׁלג ְשׁ֣אוֹל ָח ָֽטאוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 19‬צ ָיּ֤ה ַגם־ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 20‬יְשָׁ֮כּ ֵ֤חהוּ ֶ֨רֶחם ְמ ָ ֮ת֤קוֹ ִרָ֗מּה‬

‫ﬠוֹד ֽל ֹא־ ִי ָזּ ֵ֑כר ַוִתָּשּׁ ֵ֖בר ָכּ ֵ֣ﬠץ ַﬠ ְו ָֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ 21‬ר ֹ ֶ֣ﬠה ֲ֭ﬠָק ָרה ֣ל ֹא ֵת ֵ֑לד ְ֝וַאְלָמ ָ֗נה ֣ל ֹא ְי ֵי ִֽטיב‪:‬‬
‫‪ 22‬וָּמ ַ ֣שׁ􀀇 ַאִבּי ִ֣רים ְבּכֹ֑חוֹ ָ֝י֗קוּם ְֽול ֹא־ ַיֲאִ֥מין ַֽבַּח ִֽיּין‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 23‬יֶתּן־֣לוֹ ָ ֭לֶבַטח ְו ִיָשּׁ ֵ֑ﬠן ְ֝וֵﬠי ֵ֗ניהוּ ַﬠל־ ַדּ ְרֵכי ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
‫‪֤ 24‬רוֹמּוּ ְמַ֨ﬠט ְֽוֵאי ֶ֗ננּוּ ְֽוֻהְמּ֗כוּ ַכּ ֥כֹּל ִיָקְּפ֑צוּן וְּכ ֖ר ֹאשׁ ִשׁ ֣בֶֹּלת ִיָֽמּלוּ‪:‬‬
‫ס‬ ‫ְו ָיֵ֥שׂם ְ֝לַ֗אל ִמָלּ ִֽתי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 25‬וִאם־ ֣ל ֹא ֵ ֭אפוֹ ִ֣מי ַיְכ ִזי ֵ֑ב ִני‬
‫‪ַ֭ 25:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ִבְּל ַ֥דּד ַהֻשּׁ ִ֗חי ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶ֥שׂה ָ֝שׁ ֗לוֹם ִבְּמרוָֹֽמיו‪:‬‬

‫ֹ‬ ‫שׁל ָו ַ֣פַחד ִﬠ֑מּוֹ‬ ‫‪ַ 2‬הְמ ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ֲ 3‬הֵי ֣שׁ ִ ֭מְסָפּר ִל ְגדוּ ָ֑דיו ְוַﬠל־ִ֗מי ל ֹא־ ָי֥קוּם אוֹ ֵֽרהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ 4‬וַּמה־ ִיְּצ ַ֣דּק ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ִﬠם־ ֵ֑אל וַּמה־ ִ֝יּ ְזֶ֗כּה ְי֣לוּד ִאָֽשּׁה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 5‬הן ַﬠד־ ָ֭י ֵרַח ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲא ִ֑היל ְ֝וכוָֹכ ִ֗בים ל ֹא־ ַז֥כּוּ ְבֵﬠי ָֽניו‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 6‬אף ִֽכּי־ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ִר ָ ֑מּה וֶּבן־ָ֝א ָ֗דם תּוֵֹל ָֽﬠה‪ :‬פ‬
18
Swift are they on the face of the waters, (k) IV
their portion is cursed in the land,
and no one turns to the vineyards.
19
As drought and heat carry off the snow waters,
so Sheol those who have sinned.
20
The womb forgets him, (l)
the worm fifnds him sweet.
He will not be remembered
And injustice is broken like a tree.
21
He wrongs the woman who bears no child
and deprives the widow of the good.
22
He may pull the mighty down by his power, (m)
he may rise, but can have no assurance of life.
23
God gives him the security on which he relies,
but His eyes are on their ways.
24
They are exalted for a while and then are gone,
they are brought low, they shrivel like mallow
and wither like the heads of grain.
25
If this is not so, who can prove me a liar (n)
and reduce my argument to nothing?
Third Speech by Bildad, Ch. 25
 1Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said:
2
Dominion and dread are His (a) I
who imposes peace in his heights.
3
Is there any number to his cohorts?
And upon whom does his light not rise?
4
How then can man be in the right before El, (b)
and how can one born of woman be clean?
5
Look, even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not clean in his eyes;
6
how much less man, a worm,
a son-of-man, a maggot!
‫ﬠז‪:‬‬‫‪ֶ 2‬מה־ָﬠ ַ֥ז ְרָתּ ְלל ֹא־ ֑כַֹח ֝הוַֹ֗שְׁﬠָתּ ְז ֣רוַֹﬠ ל ֹא־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 3‬מה־ ָ֭יַּﬠְצָתּ ְל ֣ל ֹא ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ְ֝ותוִּשׁ ָ֗יּה ָל ֥ר ֹב הוֹ ָֽדְﬠָתּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 4‬את־ ִ ֭מי ִה ַ֣גּ ְדָתּ ִמ ִ֑לּין ְו ִנְשַׁמת־ִ֝מי ָיְצ ָ֥אה ִמֶֽמָּךּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 5‬ה ְרָפ ִ֥אים ְיחוֹ ָ֑ללוּ ִמ ַ֥תַּחת ַ֗מ ִים ְושׁ ְֹכ ֵני ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 6‬ﬠ ֣רוֹם ְשׁ֣אוֹל ֶנ ְג ֑דּוֹ ְו ֵ֥אין ְ֝כּ֗סוּת ָֽלֲאַב ֽדּוֹן‪:‬‬
‫תֶּלה ֶ֗א ֶרץ ַﬠל־ְבִּלי־ָֽמה‪:‬‬ ‫תּהוּ ֥ ֹ‬‫‪ֹ 7‬נ ֶ֣טה ָצ֣פוֹן ַﬠל־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ 8‬צֹ ֵֽרר־ַ֥מ ִים ְבָּﬠ ָ֑ביו ְול ֹא־ ִנְב ַ֖קﬠ ָﬠ ָ֣נ ן ַתְּח ָֽתּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 9‬מַא ֵ֥חז ְפּ ֵני־ִכ ֵ֑סּה ַפּ ְר ֵ ֖שׁז ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ֲﬠ ָנ ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬

‫חֶשׁ􀀇‪:‬‬
‫חק־ ָ ֭חג ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵני־ ָ ֑מ ִים ַﬠד־ַתְּכ ִ֖לית ֣אוֹר ִﬠם־ ֽ ֹ‬ ‫‪ֹ ֽ 10‬‬
‫‪ַ 11‬ﬠמּוּ ֵ֣די ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ְירוֹ ָ֑פפוּ ְ֝ו ִיְתְמ֗הוּ ִמ ַגֲּﬠ ָרֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 12‬בּכֹחוֹ ָר ַ֣גﬠ ַה ָיּ֑ם ֝וִּבְתבוּ ָנ֗תוֹ ָ ֣מַחץ ָֽרַהב‪:‬‬
‫חֲלָלה ָ֝י֗דוֹ ָנ ָ֥חשׁ ָבּ ִֽריַח‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 13‬בּרוּחוֹ ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ִשְׁפ ָ֑רה ֽ ֹ‬
‫ו ַ֥רַﬠם ְגּבוּ ָרתוֹ ִ֣מי ִיְתבּוֹ ָֽנ ן‪ :‬ס‬ ‫שֶּׁמץ ָ ֭דָּבר ִנְשַׁמﬠ־֑בּוֹ‬
‫וַּמה־ ֵ ֣‬ ‫‪ֶ 14‬הן־ ֵ֤אֶלּה ְק֬צוֹת ַדּ ְרכּוֹ‬
Job’s Answer to Bildad, Chs. 26–27
 1Job answered and said:
2
How you have helped one who has no power, (a) I-A
how you saved the arm that has no strength!
3
How you have counseled one who has no wisdom
and offered your advice so freely!
4
Whom have you informed with words,
and whose inspiration issued from you?
5
The shades writhe (b) II
beneath the waters and their inhabitants.
6
Naked is Sheol before Him
and Abaddon has no cover.
7
He it is who stretches out the North over chaos, (c)
who suspends the earth over the void,
8
who wraps the waters in his clouds,
but no cloud bursts under them;
9
who covers the face of his throne (d)
by spreading his cloud over it;
10
he drew a circle on the face of the waters,
at the limit where light and darkness meet.
11
The pillars of heaven shuddered (e) I-B
and were astounded at his rebuke.
12
By his power he stilled the sea
and by his skill he smashed Rahab.
13
By his wind the heavens became fair,
his hand pierced the flfeeing Serpent.
14
Look, these are but glimpses of his ways, (f)
how small a whisper we hear of him!
And the thunder of his might—who can comprehend?
‫‪ַ 27:1‬ו ֣יֶֹּסף ִ ֭איּוֹב ְשׂ ֵ֥את ְמָשׁ ֗לוֹ ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬חי־ ֵ ֭אל ֵה ִ֣סיר ִמְשָׁפּ ִ֑טי ְ֝וַשׁ ַ֗דּי ֵהַ֥מר ַנְפִֽשׁי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 3‬כּי־ָכל־֣ﬠוֹד ִנְשָׁמ ִ֣תי ִ֑בי ְו ֖רוַּח ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ְבַּא ִֽפּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 4‬אם־ְתּ ַד ֵ֣בּ ְר ָנה ְשָׂפ ַ֣תי ַﬠ ְו ָ֑לה ֝וְּלשׁוֹ ִ֗ני ִאם־ ֶיְה ֶ֥גּה ְרִמ ָֽיּה‪:‬‬
‫ַﬠד־ֶא ְגָ֑וﬠ ל ֹא־ָא ִ֖סיר ֻתָּמּ ִ֣תי ִמֶֽמּ ִנּי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 5‬ח ִ֣ליָלה ִלּ֮י ִאם־ַאְצ ִדּיק ֶ֫אְת ֶ֥כם‬
‫ֽל ֹא־ ֶיֱח ַ֥רף ְ֝לָב ִ֗בי ִמ ָיָּֽמי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 6‬בִּצ ְדָק ִ֣תי ֶ֭הֱח ַזְקִתּי ְו ֣ל ֹא ַא ְר ֶ֑פָּה‬
‫א ְי ִ֑בי וִּמְתקוְֹמִ֥מי ְכַﬠ ָֽוּל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 7‬י ִ֣הי ְ ֭כ ָרָשׁﬠ ֣ ֹ‬

‫‪ִ֤ 8‬כּי ַמה־ִתְּק ַ֖ות ָ ֭ח ֵנף ִ֣כּי ִיְב ָ֑צﬠ ִ֤כּי ֵיֶ֖שׁל ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ַנְפֽשׁוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 9‬הַצֲﬠָקתוֹ ִיְשַׁ֥מﬠ ֵ֑אל ִֽכּי־ָת֖בוֹא ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ָצ ָֽרה‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 10‬אם־ַﬠל־ַשׁ ַ֥דּי ִיְתַﬠ ָ֑נּג ִיְק ָ֖רא ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ְבָּכל־ ֵֽﬠת‪:‬‬
‫‪ 11‬אוֹ ֶ֣רה ֶאְת ֶ֣כם ְבּ ַיד־ ֵ֑אל ֲאֶ֥שׁר ִﬠם־ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ֣ל ֹא ֲאַכ ֵֽחד‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 12‬הן־ַא ֶ֣תּם ֻכְּלּ ֶ֣כם ֲח ִזי ֶ֑תם ְוָלָמּה־ ֶ֗זּה ֶ֣הֶבל ֶתְּה ָֽבּלוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֤ 13‬זה ׀ ֵֽחֶלק־ָא ָ֖דם ָרָ֥שׁﬠ ִﬠם־ ֵ֑אל ְֽו ַנֲח ַ֥לת ָ֝ﬠ ִריִ֗צים ִמַשּׁ ַ֥דּי ִי ָֽקּחוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬אם־ ִי ְר֣בּוּ ָב ָ֣ניו ְלמוֹ־ ָ֑ח ֶרב ְ֝וֶצֱאָצָ֗איו ֣ל ֹא ִיְשְׂבּﬠוּ־ ָֽלֶחם‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 15‬שׂ ִרי ָדיו ַבּ ָ ֣מּ ֶות ִיָקּ ֵ֑ברוּ ְ֝וַאְלְמֹנָ֗תיו ֣ל ֹא ִתְב ֶֽכּי ָנה‪:‬‬
 1Job continued his theme and said:
2
As El lives, who has put aside my justice (a) I
and Shaddai who has made my soul bitter!
3
As long as there is breathing in me
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4
my lips will surely speak no injustice
and my tongue will utter no deceit!
5
Far be it from me to declare you in the right; (b)
until I die I will not put aside my integrity!
6
I have held fast to my righteousness and I will not let it go!
My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
7
May my enemy be as the wicked (c) II
and my adversary like the unjust!
8
For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?
9
Will El hear his cry for help, (d)
when distress comes upon him?
10
Can he still take delight in Shaddai,
call upon God at all times?
11
I will teach you about the hand of El, (e) III
the purpose of Shaddai I will not conceal.
12
Look, all of you behold it,
why then do you utter such vain talk?
13
This is the wicked man’s portion from El (f)
and the heritage the ruthless receive from Shaddai:
14
If his sons are many, it is to the sword
and his offspring will never have enough bread.
15
His survivors will be buried by the plague
and their widows will not weep.
‫חֶמר ָי ִ֥כין ַמְלֽבּוּשׁ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 16‬אם־ ִיְצ ֣בֹּר ֶכָּﬠ ָ֣פר ָ֑כֶּסף ְ֝וַכ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ֭ 17‬יִכין ְוַצ ִ֣דּיק ִיְל ָ֑בּשׁ ְ֝וֶ֗כֶסף ָנ ִ֥קי ַיֲחֽ􀀉ק‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 18‬בּ ָ֣נה ָכ ָ֣ﬠשׁ ֵבּי֑תוֹ ֝וְּכֻסָ֗כּה ָﬠָ֥שׂה ֹנ ֵֽצר‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 19‬ﬠִ֣שׁיר ִ֭יְשַׁכּב ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵיָא ֵ֑סף ֵﬠי ָ֖ניו ָפּ ַ֣קח ְוֵאי ֶֽננּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 20‬תִשּׂי ֵ֣גהוּ ַ ֭כַמּ ִים ַבָּלּ֑הוֹת ַ֗ל ְיָלה ְגּ ָנ ַ֥בתּוּ סוּ ָֽפה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 21‬יָשּׂ ֵ֣אהוּ ָק ִ֣דים ְו ֵי ַ֑ל􀀇 ִֽויָשֲׂﬠ ֵ֗רהוּ ִמְמּקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מל ִ֝מ ָיּ֗דוֹ ָבּ ֥רוַֹח ִיְב ָֽרח‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 22‬ו ַיְשׁ ֵ֣ל􀀇 ָ ֭ﬠָליו ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיְח ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 23‬יְשֹׂ֣פּק ָﬠ ֵ֣לימוֹ ַכ ֵ֑פּימוֹ ְו ִיְשׁ ֥ר ֹק ָ֝ﬠָ֗ליו ִמְמּקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 28:1‬כּי ֵי ֣שׁ ַל ֶ֣כֶּסף מוֹ ָ֑צא ֝וָּמ֗קוֹם ַל ָזּ ָ֥הב ָי ֽזֹקּוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ַ 2‬בּ ְר ֶזל ֵמָﬠ ָ֣פר ֻי ָ֑קּח ְ֝וֶ֗אֶבן ָי֥צוּק ְנחוָּֽשׁה‪:‬‬
‫אֶפל ְוַצְלָֽמ ֶות‪:‬‬

‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ֽוְּלָכל־ ַ ֭תְּכִלית ֣הוּא חוֹ ֵ֑קר ֶ֖אֶבן ֣ ֹ‬ ‫‪ֵ֤ 3‬קץ ׀ ָ ֤שׂם ַל ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ֤ 4‬פּ ַרץ ַ֨נַחל ׀ ֵֽמִﬠם־ ֗ ָגּר ַֽה ִנְּשָׁכּ ִ֥חים ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑ר ֶגל ַ֖דּלּוּ ֵמֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ָֽנﬠוּ‪:‬‬
16
Though he heaps up silver like dust (g) IV
and stores up clothing like piles of clay,
17
he may store up, but the righteous will wear it
and the innocent will share the silver.
18
He has built his house like a bird’s nest (h)
or like a booth made by a watchman;
19
Rich he lies down, but this cannot be retained,
when he opens his eyes it is no more.
20
Terrors overtake him like flfood waters, (i) V
by night a storm carries him off.
21
The east wind lifts him up and he is gone,
it whirls him away, out of his place.
22
It hurls itself at him and has no mercy; (j)
he tries to flfee headlong, out of its grip.
23
Men will clap their hands at him
and whistle at him, in his former place.
Job’s Final Judgment on Wisdom, Ch. 28
 1Surely there is a mine for silver (a) I

and a place where they refifne gold.
2
Iron is taken from the soil
and from stone copper is smelted.
3
He puts an end to darkness (b)
and to the farthest limit he searches
the ore in deepest darkness.
4
They open up a shaft far from where people dwell;
forgotten they dangle, far from the traveler,
far from men they sway suspended.
‫‪ֶ֗ 5‬א ֶרץ ִמֶ֥מּ ָנּה ֵֽיֵצא־ ָ֑לֶחם ְ֝וַתְחֶ֗תּיָה ֶנְה ַ֥פּ􀀇 ְכּמוֹ־ ֵֽאשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 6‬מקוֹם־ַס ִ֥פּיר ֲאָב ֶ֑ניָה ְוַﬠְפ ֖ר ֹת ָז ָ֣הב ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֭ 7‬נִתיב ֽל ֹא־ ְי ָ֣דﬠוֹ ָ֑ﬠ ִיט ְו ֥ל ֹא ְ֝שׁ ָזַ֗פתּוּ ֵ֣ﬠין ַא ָֽיּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 8‬ל ֹא־ִה ְד ִרי ֻ֥כהוּ ְב ֵני־ ָ ֑שַׁחץ ֽל ֹא־ָﬠ ָ֖דה ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ָֽשַׁחל‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 9‬בַּחָלִּמישׁ ָשׁ ַ֣לח ָי ֑דוֹ ָה ַ֖פ􀀇 ִמ ֣שּׁ ֹ ֶרשׁ ָה ִֽרים‪:‬‬

‫א ִ֣רים ִבּ ֵ֑קַּﬠ ְוָכל־ ְ֝י ָ ֗קר ָרֲא ָ֥תה ֵﬠי ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 10‬בּצּוּרוֹת ְי ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ִ 11‬מְבִּכי ְנָה ֣רוֹת ִח ֵ֑בּשׁ ְ֝וַתֲﬠֻלָ֗מהּ ֣י ִֹצא ֽאוֹר‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ְֽ 12‬וַהָחְכָמה ֵמ ַ֣א ִין ִתָּמּ ֵ֑צא ְו ֵ֥אי ֶ֜זה ְמ֣קוֹם ִבּי ָֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ 13‬ל ֹא־ ָי ַ֣דﬠ ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ֶﬠ ְר ָ֑כּהּ ְו ֥ל ֹא ִ֝תָמֵּ֗צא ְבּ ֶ֣א ֶרץ ַֽהַח ִֽיּים‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 14‬תּ֣הוֹם ָ ֭אַמר ֣ל ֹא ִבי־ ִ֑היא ְו ָ֥ים ָ֝אַ֗מר ֵ֣אין ִﬠָמּ ִֽדי‪:‬‬
‫‪ 15‬ל ֹא־ ֻי ַ֣תּן ְס ֣גוֹר ַתְּח ֶ֑תּיָה ְו ֥ל ֹא ִ֝יָשּׁ ֵ ֗קל ֶ֣כֶּסף ְמִחי ָֽרהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 16‬ל ֹא־ ְ ֭תֻסֶלּה ְבּ ֶ֣כֶתם אוֹ ִ֑פיר ְבּ ֖שׁ ַֹהם ָי ָ֣קר ְוַס ִֽפּיר‪:‬‬
‫‪ 17‬ל ֹא־ ַיַﬠ ְר ֶ֣כ ָנּה ָ֭זָהב וּ ְזכוֹ ִ֑כית וְּת֖מוּ ָר ָ֣תהּ ְכִּלי־ ָֽפז‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 18‬רא֣מוֹת ְ֭ו ָגִבישׁ ֣ל ֹא ִי ָזּ ֵ֑כר וֶּ֥מֶשׁ􀀇 ָ֝חְכָ֗מה ִמְפּ ִני ִֽנים‪:‬‬
‫פ‬ ‫‪ֽ 19‬ל ֹא־ ַ֭יַﬠ ְרֶכ ָנּה ִפְּט ַדת־֑כּוּשׁ ְבּ ֶ֥כֶתם ָ֝ט֗הוֹר ֣ל ֹא ְתֻס ֶֽלּה‪:‬‬
5
The earth—out of it comes bread, (c)
and its lower parts are overturned as if by fifre.
6
Its stones are a place of sapphires
and this contains gold dust too.
7
The path to it no bird of prey knows (d)
and the eye of the falcon has not perceived it.
8
The proud beasts have not trodden it,
the lion has not passed over it.
9
Against the flfinty rock he sets his hand, (e)
he overturns mountains by the roots.
10
In the rocks he cleaves channels
and his eye sees every precious thing.
11
The sources of the rivers he dams up,
so that he can bring hidden things to light.
12
But Wisdom, where can she be found? (f) II
And where is the place of understanding?
13
Man does not know her value
and she cannot be found in the land of the living.
14
The ocean deep says, ‘it is not in me’
and the sea says, ‘not with me’.
15
Fine gold cannot be given for her (g)
and silver cannot be weighed as her price.
16
She cannot be estimated in gold of Ophir,
nor with precious onyx and sapphire.
17
Gold and glass cannot match her value
nor vessels of fifne gold be exchanged for her.
18
Coral and crystal cannot be considered, (h)
a pouch of wisdom is better than rubies.
19
Topaz from Nubia cannot match her value,
she cannot be estimated in pure gold.
‫‪ְֽ 20‬וַהָחְכָמה ֵמ ַ֣א ִין ָתּ֑בוֹא ְו ֵ֥אי ֶ֗זה ְמ֣קוֹם ִבּי ָֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 21‬ו ֶנֶﬠְלָמה ֵמֵﬠי ֵ֣ני ָכל־ ָ֑חי וֵּמ֖ﬠוֹף ַהָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ִנְס ָֽתּ ָרה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 22‬אַב ֣דּוֹן ָ֭וָמ ֶות ָ֣אְמ ֑רוּ ְ֝בָּא ְז ֵ֗נינוּ ָשַׁ֥מְﬠנוּ ִשְׁמ ָֽﬠהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֱ֭ 23‬א􀀉ִהים ֵה ִ֣בין ַדּ ְר ָ֑כּהּ ְ֝ו֗הוּא ָי ַ֥דﬠ ֶאת־ְמקוָֹֽמהּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 24‬כּי־֖הוּא ִלְקצוֹת־ָה ָ֣א ֶרץ ַי ִ֑בּיט ַ֖תַּחת ָכּל־ַהָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ִי ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 25‬לֲﬠ֣שׂוֹת ָל ֣רוַּח ִמְשׁ ָ֑קל ֝וַּ֗מ ִים ִתּ ֵ֥כּן ְבִּמ ָֽדּה‪:‬‬
‫חק ְ֝ו ֶ֗ד ֶר􀀇 ַלֲח ִ֥זיז קֹֽלוֹת‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 26‬בֲּﬠשׂ֣תוֹ ַלָמּ ָ֣טר ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ֣ 27‬אז ָ֭רָאהּ ַֽו ְיַסְפּ ָ֑רהּ ֱ֝הִכי ָ֗נהּ ְו ַגם־ֲחָק ָֽרהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 28‬ו ֤יּ ֹאֶמר ָֽלָא ָ֗דם‬
‫ס‬ ‫ֵ֤הן ִי ְר ַ֣את ֲ֭אד ֹ ָני ִ֣היא ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ְו֖סוּר ֵמ ָ֣רﬠ ִבּי ָֽנה‪:‬‬
20
But Wisdom, where does she come from? (i) III
And where is the place of understanding?
21
She is hidden from the eyes of all living
and from the birds of heaven she is concealed.
22
Abaddon and Death say,
‘what we heard of her is hearsay.’
23
It is God who understands her way (j)
and it is he who knows her place,
24
for he it is who looks to the ends of the earth,
everything under the heavens he sees,
25
as he assigns the weight of the wind
and metes out the waters by measure.
26
When he made a rule for the rain (k)
and the way for the thunderstorm,
27
then he saw her and gauged her;
he established her and searched her out,
28
and he said to man,
‘Truly, awe of the Lord—that is wisdom
and to shun evil—that is understanding!’
‫‪ַ 29:1‬ו ֣יֶֹּסף ִ ֭איּוֹב ְשׂ ֵ֥את ְמָשׁ ֗לוֹ ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 2‬מי־ ִיְתּ ֵ֥נ ִני ְכ ַי ְרֵחי־ ֶ֑ק ֶדם ִ֝כּיֵ֗מי ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ִיְשְׁמ ֵֽר ִני‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 3‬בִּה֣לּוֹ ֵ֭נרוֹ ֲﬠ ֵ֣לי ר ֹאִ֑שׁי ְ֝לאוֹרוֹ ֵ֣אֶל􀀇 ֽ ֹ‬
‫שׁר ָ ֭ה ִייִתי ִבּי ֵ ֣מי ָח ְר ִ֑פּי ְבּ֥סוֹד ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹהּ ֲﬠ ֵ֣לי ָאֳה ִֽלי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 4‬כֲּא ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ְ 5‬בּ֣ﬠוֹד ַ ֭שׁ ַדּי ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ְס ִ֖ביבוֹ ַ֣תי ְנָﬠ ָֽרי‪:‬‬
‫חץ ֲהִלי ַ֣כי ְבֵּח ָ ֑מה ְו֥צוּר ָי֥צוּק ִ֝ﬠָמּ ִ֗די ַפְּל ֵגי־ָֽשֶׁמן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 6‬בּ ְר ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 7‬בּ ֵ֣צאִתי ַ ֣שַׁﬠר ֲﬠֵלי־ ָ֑ק ֶרת ָ֝בּ ְר֗חוֹב ָא ִ֥כין מוָֹשׁ ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 8‬ר֣אוּ ִני ְנָﬠ ִ֣רים ְו ֶנְח ָ֑בּאוּ ִֽויִשׁיִשׁים ָ֣קמוּ ָﬠָֽמדוּ‪:‬‬
‫ְ֝וַ֗כף ָיִ֥שׂימוּ ְלִפי ֶֽהם‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ָ 9‬שׂ ִרים ָﬠְצ ֣רוּ ְבִמ ִ֑לּים‬
‫֝וְּלשׁוֹ ָ֗נם ְלִח ָ֥כּם ָדּ ֵֽבָקה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ 10‬קוֹל־ ְנ ִגי ִ֥דים ֶנְח ָ֑בּאוּ‬
‫א ֶזן ָ ֭שְׁמָﬠה ַֽוְתַּאְשּׁ ֵ֑ר ִני ְו ַ֥ﬠ ִין ָ֝רֲאָ֗תה ַוְתִּﬠי ֵֽד ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 11‬כּי ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 12‬כּי־ֲ֭אַמֵלּט ָﬠ ִ֣ני ְמַשֵׁ֑וַּﬠ ְ֝ו ָי֗תוֹם ְֽול ֹא־ﬠֹ ֵ֥זר ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫אֵבד ָﬠ ַ֣לי ָתּ ֑ב ֹא ְו ֵ֖לב ַאְלָמ ָ֣נה ַא ְר ִֽנ ן‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 13‬בּ ְר ַ֣כּת ֭ ֹ‬
CLIMAX I, CHS. 29–31
Job’s Survey of His Situation
 1
Job continued his theme and said:
2
Oh, if only I were as in the months of old, (a) I
those days when God watched over me,
3
when his lamp shone over my head
and by his light I could go in darkness;
4
the days when I was in my prime, (b)
in God’s council, by my tent,
5
when Shaddai was still with me
and my boys were all around me,
6
when my steps were washed with cream
and the rock flfowed with streams of oil.
7
When I went out to the gate, on behalf of the city, (c) II
set up my seat in the square,
8
the lads saw me and hid,
the aged rose up and stood.
9
Princes restrained their words (d)
and clapped their hands to their mouths.
10
The voices of leaders were hidden
and their tongues stuck to their palates.
11
Yes, each ear that heard me called me blessed (e) III
and each eye that saw me testififed for me,
12
for I let escape the poor one who cried out
and the orphan who had no one to help him.
13
The blessing of the lost one came upon me
and I made the widow’s heart exult.
‫‪136‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫‪ֶ֣ 14‬צ ֶדק ָ ֭לַבְשִׁתּי ַו ִיְּלָבּ ֵ ֑שׁ ִני ִֽכְּמ ִ֥ﬠיל ְ֝וָצ ִ֗ניף ִמְשָׁפּ ִֽטי‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 15‬ﬠי ַ֣נ ִים ָ ֭ה ִייִתי ַֽלִﬠ ֵוּ ֑ר ְו ַר ְג ַ֖ל ִים ַלִפּ ֵ֣סַּח ָֽא ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֣ 16‬אב ָ ֭אֹנ ִֽכי ָֽלֶאְביוֹ ִ֑נים ְו ִ֖רב ל ֹא־ ָי ַ֣דְﬠִתּי ֶאְחְק ֵֽרהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָֽ 17‬וֲאַשְׁבּ ָרה ְמַתְלּ֣ﬠוֹת ַﬠָ֑וּל ֝וִּמִשּׁ ָ֗נּיו ַאְשׁ ִ֥לי􀀇 ָֽט ֶרף‪:‬‬
‫אַמר ִﬠם־ִק ִ֣נּי ֶא ְגָ֑וﬠ ְ֝וַכ֗חוֹל ַא ְר ֶ֥בּה ָיִֽמים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ֭ 18‬ו ֹ‬

‫‪ָ 19‬שׁ ְרִ֣שׁי ָפ֣תוַּח ֱאֵלי־ ָ ֑מ ִים ְ֝וַ֗טל ָי ִ֥לין ִבְּקִצי ִֽרי‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 20‬כּבוֹ ִדי ָח ָ֣דשׁ ִﬠָמּ ִ֑די ְ֝וַקְשִׁ֗תּי ְבּ ָי ִ֥די ַתֲח ִֽליף‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 21‬לי־ָשְׁמ֥ﬠוּ ְו ִי ֵ֑חלּוּ ְ֝ו ִי ְדּ֗מוּ ְל֣מוֹ ֲﬠָצ ִֽתי‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 22‬אֲח ֵ֣רי ְ ֭דָב ִרי ֣ל ֹא ִיְשׁ ֑נוּ ְ֝וָﬠֵ֗לימוֹ ִתּ ֥טֹּף ִמָלּ ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 23‬ו ִֽיֲח֣לוּ ַכָמּ ָ֣טר ִ֑לי ֝וִּפיֶ֗הם ָפֲּﬠ ֥רוּ ְלַמְלֽקוֹשׁ‪:‬‬
‫ְו֥אוֹר ָ֝פּ ַ֗ני ֣ל ֹא ַיִפּיֽלוּן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶ 24‬אְשׂ ַ֣חק ֲ֭אֵלֶהם ֣ל ֹא ַיֲאִ֑מינוּ‬

‫ַכֲּא ֶ ֖שׁר ֲאֵב ִ֣לים ְי ַנ ֵֽחם‪:‬‬ ‫ְ֭וֶאְשׁכּוֹן ְכּ ֶ ֣מֶל􀀇 ַבּ ְגּ ֑דוּד‬ ‫‪ֶֽ 25‬אֲב ַ֣חר ַדּ ְרָכּ֮ם ְוֵא ֵ ֢שׁב ֥ר ֹאשׁ‬
‫‪ְ 30:1‬וַﬠ ָ֤תּה ׀ ָֽשֲׂח֣קוּ ָﬠַל֮י ְצִﬠי ִ֥רים ִמֶ֗מּ ִנּי ְל ָ֫יִ֥מים‬
‫ֲאֶשׁר־ָמ ַ֥אְסִתּי ֲאבוֹ ָ֑תם ָ֝לִ֗שׁית ִﬠם־ַכְּל ֵ֥בי צ ֹא ִֽני‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬גּם־ ֣כַֹּח ְ֭י ֵדיֶהם ָ֣לָמּה ִ֑לּי ָ֝ﬠֵ֗לימוֹ ָ֣אַבד ָֽכַּלח ְבּ ֶ֥חֶסר וְּבָכָ֗פן ֫ ַגְּל֥מוּד ‪:‬‬
climax i 137
14
With righteousness I clothed myself and it clothed me, (f)
my justice was like a robe and turban.
15
I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame was I.
16
I was a father to the needy (g)
and inquired into the case of the stranger.
17
I broke the jaws of the wrongdoer
and snatched the prey from his teeth.
18
I thought, ‘I will die with my nest (h) IV
and multiply my days like the phoenix.
19
My root is reaching for water,
and the dew lies all night on my branches.
20
My glory will remain fresh with me
and my bow ever new in my hand.’
21
To me they would listen and wait, (i)
they would keep silence for my counsel.
22
After my word they had nothing to say,
and my speech dropped upon them.
23
They would wait for me as for rain
and opened their mouths as for spring showers.
24
When I smiled at them, they would not believe it, (j)
but they did not neglect the light of my face.
25
I chose the way for them and sat as their head,
I dwelt like a king among his band,
like one who comforts mourners.
 1But now they laugh at me, (a) I

those younger than I,
whose fathers I have rejected
to put them with the dogs of my flfock.
2
The power of their hands too—what use is it to me?
Their vigor has perished,
3a
wasted from want and starvation.
‫‪138‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫ﬠ ְר ִ֥קים ִצ ָיּ֑ה ֶ֗אֶמשׁ שׁוֹ ָ֥אה וְּמשׁ ֹ ָֽאה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַֽ 3‬ה ֹ‬

‫‪ַ 4‬הקְֹּט ִ֣פים ַמ֣לּוַּח ֲﬠֵלי־ִ֑שׂיַח ְו ֖שׁ ֹ ֶרשׁ ְרָתִ֣מים ַלְחָֽמם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 5‬מן־ ֵ֥גּו ְיֹג ָ֑רשׁוּ ָי ִ֥ריﬠוּ ָ֝ﬠֵ֗לימוֹ ַכּ ַגּ ָֽנּב‪:‬‬
‫ח ֵ֖רי ָﬠ ָ֣פר ְוֵכ ִֽפים‪:‬‬

‫ֹ‬ ‫‪ַ 6‬בֲּﬠ ֣רוּץ ְנָח ִ֣לים ִלְשׁ ֑כֹּן‬
‫‪ֵ 7‬בּין־ִשׂי ִ֥חים ִי ְנ ָ֑הקוּ ַ֖תַּחת ָח ֣רוּל ְיֻס ָֽפּחוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 8‬בּ ֵני־ ָ֭נָבל ַגּם־ְבּ ֵ֣ני ְבִלי־ ֵ ֑שׁם ִ֝נְכּ֗אוּ ִמן־ָה ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ֭ 9‬וַﬠָתּה ְנ ִגי ָנ ָ֣תם ָה ִ֑ייִתי ָוֱא ִ֖הי ָל ֶ֣הם ְלִמ ָֽלּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 10‬תֲּﬠבוּ ִני ָ֣רֲחקוּ ֶ ֑מ ִנּי ֝וִּמָפּ ַ֗ני ל ֹא־ ָ֥חְשׂכוּ ֽר ֹק‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 11‬כּי־ ִיְתרוֹ ִ ֭פַתּח ַו ְיַﬠ ֵ֑נּ ִני ְ֝ו ֶ֗רֶסן ִמָפּ ַ֥ני ִשׁ ֵֽלּחוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 12‬ﬠל־ ָיִמי֮ן ִפּ ְר ַ֢חח ָ֫י֥קוּמוּ ַר ְג ַ֥לי ִשׁ ֵ֑לּחוּ‪:‬‬
‫סלּוּ ָ֝ﬠַ֗לי ָא ְר֥חוֹת ֵאי ָֽדם ‪ָ 13‬נְת֗סוּ ְֽנִתי ָ֫ב ִ֥תי‪:‬‬ ‫ַו ָיּ ֥ ֹ‬
‫ﬠ ֵז֣ר ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 13‬לַה ָוּ ִֽתי־י ֹ ִ֑ﬠילוּ ֖ל ֹא ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 14‬כּ ֶ֣פ ֶרץ ָר ָ֣חב ֶיֱא ָ֑תיוּ ַ֥תַּחת ֝שׁ ָֹ֗אה ִהְת ַגְּל ָֽגּלוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 15‬הְה ַ֥פּ􀀇 ָﬠַ֗לי ַבָּ֫לּ֥הוֹת ִתּ ְר ֣דּ ֹף ָ ֭כּרוַּח ְנ ִדָב ִ֑תי ֝וְּכָ֗ﬠב ָﬠְב ָ֥רה ְיֻשָׁﬠ ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 16‬וַﬠָ֗תּה ָ ֭ﬠַלי ִתְּשַׁתּ ֵ֣פּ􀀇 ַנְפִ֑שׁי י ֭ ֹאֲח ֣זוּ ִני ְיֵמי־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ֗ 17‬ל ְיָלה ֲ֭ﬠָצַמי ִנַ֣קּר ֵמָﬠ ָ֑לי ְ֝וﬠֹ ְר ַ ֗קי ֣ל ֹא ִיְשָׁכּֽבוּן‪:‬‬
climax i 139
3b
[They are] people who flfee to a parched land (b)
in the gloom of wasted wasteland;
4
who pluck saltwort from the bushes
and the roots of broom for their bread.
5
They are driven out from society,
people shout after them as after a thief.
6
So they must dwell in the gullies of wadies, (c)
in holes in the ground and in rocks.
7
Between the bushes they groan,
under the nettles they huddle together,
8
a senseless brood, a nameless brood,
they are scourged out of the land.
9
But now I have become their mocking song (d) II
and I am a byword to them.
10
They abhor me, they keep aloof from me
and they do not withhold spittle from my face.
11
For He has loosened my cord and humiliated me (e)
and they have thrown off restraint in my face.
12
On the right the rabble rise,
they trip up my feet.
They build ramps against me to ruin me,
13a
they have broken up my path.
13b
They promote my downfall, (f)
there is no helper against them.
14
As through a wide breach they come in,
amid the waste they keep rolling in.
15
Terrors are turned upon me;
they sweep away my prestige like the wind
and my safety vanishes like a cloud.
16
So now my life is poured out upon me, (g) III
days of misery seize hold of me.
17
The night gnaws at my bones
and my sinews fifnd no rest.
‫‪140‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫‪ְ 18‬בּ ָרב־ ֖כַֹּח ִיְתַח ֵ֣פּשׂ ְלבוִּ֑שׁי ְכּ ִ֖פי ֻכָתּ ְנ ִ֣תּי ַֽיַא ְז ֵֽר ִני‪:‬‬
‫חֶמר ָ֝וֶאְתַמֵ֗שּׁל ֶכָּﬠ ָ֥פר ָו ֵֽאֶפר‪:‬‬ ‫ה ָ֥ר ִני ַל ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ֹ 19‬‬
‫‪ֲ 20‬אַשַׁ֣וּﬠ ֵ ֭אֶלי􀀈 ְו ֣ל ֹא ַתֲﬠ ֵ֑נ ִני ָ֝ﬠַ֗מ ְדִתּי ַוִתְּת ֥בֹּ ֶנן ִֽבּי‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶצם ָי ְד֣􀀈 ִתְשְׂטֵֽמ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 21‬תָּה ֵ֣פ􀀇 ְלַאְכ ָ֣זר ִ֑לי ְבּ ֖ ֹ‬
‫מ ְג ֗ ֵג ִני ְתֻּשׁ ָוּה‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 22‬תָּשּׂ ֵ֣א ִני ֶאל־ ֖רוַּח ַתּ ְרִכּי ֵ֑ב ִני ֝וְּת ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 23‬כּי־ ָ֭י ַדְﬠִתּי ָ ֣מ ֶות ְתִּשׁי ֵ֑ב ִני וּ ֵ֖בית מוֹ ֵ֣ﬠד ְלָכל־ ָֽחי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֣ 24‬א􀀇 ל ֹא־ ְ ֭בִﬠי ִיְשַׁלח־ ָ֑יד ִאם־ ְ֝בִּפי֗דוֹ ָל ֶ֥הן ֽשׁוַּﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 25‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ָ ֭בִכיִתי ִלְקֵשׁה־ ֑יוֹם ָֽﬠ ְגָ֥מה ַ֝נְפִ֗שׁי ָלֶאְב ֽיוֹן‪:‬‬
‫אֶפל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 26‬כּי ֣טוֹב ִ ֭ק ִוּיִתי ַו ָיּ֣ב ֹא ָ֑רﬠ ַֽוֲא ַיֲח ָ֥לה ְ֝ל֗אוֹר ַו ָ֥יּב ֹא ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ֵ 27‬מ ַ֖ﬠי ֻרְתּ֥חוּ ְול ֹא־ ָ֗דמּוּ ִק ְדֻּ֥מ ִני ְיֵמי־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ 28‬קֹ ֵ֣דר ִ ֭הַלְּכִתּי ְבּ ֣ל ֹא ַח ָ ֑מּה ַ֖קְמִתּי ַבָקּ ָ֣הל ֲאַשׁ ֵֽוַּﬠ‪:‬‬
‫ְ֝ו ֵ֗רַﬠ ִלְב ֥נוֹת ַיֲﬠ ָֽנה‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ָ 29‬אח ָה ִ֣ייִתי ְלַת ִ֑נּים‬
‫ח ֶרב‪:‬‬
‫ְוַﬠְצִמי־ ָ֗ח ָרה ִמ ִנּי־ ֽ ֹ‬ ‫‪֖ 30‬ﬠוֹ ִרי ָשׁ ַ֣חר ֵמָﬠ ָ֑לי‬
‫ְ֝וֻﬠ ָג ִ֗בי ְל֣קוֹל בֹּ ִֽכים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 31‬ו ְי ִ֣הי ְ ֭לֵאֶבל ִכֹּנּ ִ֑רי‬
climax i 141
18
With great strength He wrenches my garment, (h)
the neck of my tunic is pinching me.
19
He has thrown me in the mud,
so that I am the likeness of dust and ashes.
20
I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; (i)
so I stand and You keep staring at me.
21
You have turned cruel to me,
with the might of your hand You persecute me.
22
You lift me up and make me ride on the wind (j)
and You dissolve me in a downpour,
23
for I know you will return me to death,
to the house where all the living meet.
24
But does one not stretch out his hand against a poor man (k) IV
when he is in distress and cries for help?
25
Did I not weep for him whose day was hard?
My heart was grieved for the needy.
26
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
I waited for light, but darkness came.
27
My bowels are in turmoil and never rest, (l)
days of misery confront me.
28
In black I walk about, with no sun;
I rise up in the assembly and cry out for help.
29
I have become a brother to jackals (m)
and a companion to ostriches.
30
My skin turns black and falls from me,
my bones are burning with heat.
31
So my lyre has become mourning
and my flfute the voice of weepers.
‫‪142‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 31:1‬בּ ִרית ָכּ ַ֣רִתּי ְלֵﬠי ָ֑ני וָּ֥מה ֶ֝אְתבּוֹ ֵ֗נן ַﬠל־ְבּתוּ ָֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ 2‬וּ ֶ ֤מה ׀ ֵ֣חֶלק ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ִמ ָ ֑מַּﬠל ְֽו ַנֲח ַ֥לת ַ֝שׁ ַ֗דּי ִמְמּר ִֹֽמים‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 3‬הל ֹא־ ֵ֥איד ְלַﬠָ֑וּל ְ֝ו ֵ֗נֶכר ְלֹ֣פֲﬠֵלי ָֽא ֶון‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 4‬הל ֹא־֖הוּא ִי ְר ֶ֣אה ְד ָר ָ֑כי ְֽוָכל־ְצָﬠ ַ֥די ִיְסֽפּוֹר‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 5‬אם־ָה ַ֥לְכִתּי ִﬠם־ ָ ֑שׁ ְוא ַו ַ֖תַּחשׁ ַﬠל־ִמ ְר ָ ֣מה ַר ְג ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬יְשְׁק ֵ֥ל ִני ְבמ ֹא ְז ֵני־ ֶ֑צ ֶדק ְו ֵי ַ֥דﬠ ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹהּ ֻתָּמּ ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫פ‬ ‫֝וְּבַכַ֗פּי ָ֣דַּבק ֻמֽאוּם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֥ 7‬אם ִתּ ֶ֣טּה ַאֻשּׁ ִר֮י ִמ ִנּי ַ֫ה ָ֥דּ ֶר􀀇 ְוַא ַ֣חר ֵ ֭ﬠי ַני ָה ַ֣ל􀀇 ִל ִ֑בּי‬
‫‪ֶ֭ 8‬א ְז ְרָﬠה ְוַא ֵ֣חר י ֹא ֵ֑כל ְֽוֶצֱאָצ ַ֥אי ְישׁ ֹ ָֽרשׁוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 9‬אם־ ִנְפ ָ֣תּה ִ֖לִבּי ַﬠל־ִא ָ ֑שּׁה ְוַﬠל־ ֶ֖פַּתח ֵר ִ֣ﬠי ָא ָֽרְבִתּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 10‬תְּט ַ֣חן ְלַא ֵ֣חר ִאְשׁ ִ֑תּי ְ֝וָﬠֶ֗ליָה ִיְכ ְר֥ﬠוּן ֲאֵח ִֽרין‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 11‬כּי־ ִ֥היא ִז ָ ֑מּה ְ֝ו֗הוּא ָﬠ ֥וֹן ְפִּלי ִֽלים ‪ִ 12‬כּי ֵ֣אשׁ ִ ֭היא ‪:‬‬
‫ַ֤ﬠד־ֲאַב ֣דּוֹן תּ ֹא ֵ֑כל ֽוְּבָכל־ְתּ֖בוָּא ִ֣תי ְתָשׁ ֵֽרשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 13‬אם־ֶאְמַ֗אס ִמְשׁ ַ֣פּט ַ ֭ﬠְב ִדּי ַוֲאָמ ִ֑תי ְ֝בּ ִר ָ֗בם ִﬠָמּ ִֽדי‪:‬‬
‫‪ 14‬וּ ָ ֣מה ֶֽאֱﬠֶשׂה ִֽכּי־ ָי֣קוּם ֵ֑אל ְו ִֽכי־ ִ֝יְפ ֗קֹד ָ ֣מה ֲאִשׁי ֶֽבנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫שׂ ִני ָﬠ ָ ֑שׂהוּ ַ֝ו ְיֻכ ֶ֗ננּוּ ָבּ ֶ֥רֶחם ֶא ָֽחד‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֵ֣‬
‫‪ֲֽ 15‬הל ֹא־ ַ ֭בֶבֶּטן ֹ‬
climax i 143
 1I made a covenant with my eyes (a) I

and how could I stare at a maiden?
2
And what is the portion from God above,
the heritage from Shaddai in the heights?
3
Is it not calamity for the wrongdoer,
and disaster for those who work evil?
4
Is it not He who sees my ways (b)
and numbers all my steps?
5
I have not walked with falsehood
and my foot has not hurried to deceit.
6
Let Him weigh me on the scales of righteousness,
then God will know my integrity.
7
If my steps have strayed from the way (c) II
and my heart has gone after my eyes
and a stain clings to my hands,
8
then another may eat what I sow
and may my crops be uprooted.
9
If my heart has been enticed to a woman (d)
and I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
10
then let my wife grind for another,
and may others kneel over her!
11
Yes, that is debauchery (e)
and it is a criminal offense,
yes, that is a fifre.
12
It would consume down to Abaddon
and it would uproot all my revenue.
13
If I reject the cause of my slave (f) III
or my maidservant in their complaint with me,
14
what then shall I do when El rises up?
And when he enquires, what shall I answer him?
15
Did not my Maker make him too in the belly
and did not One fashion us both in the womb?
‫‪144‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫‪ִ 16‬אם־ ֶ֭אְמ ַנﬠ ֵמ ֵ֣חֶפץ ַדּ ִ֑לּים ְוֵﬠי ֵ֖ני ַאְלָמ ָ֣נה ֲאַכ ֶֽלּה‪:‬‬
‫א ַ֣כל ִפּ ִ֣תּי ְלַב ִ֑דּי ְול ֹא־ָא ַ֖כל ָי֣תוֹם ִמֶֽמּ ָנּה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 17‬ו ֹ‬
‫‪ִ֣ 18‬כּי ִ ֭מ ְנּﬠוּ ַרי ְגּ ֵד ַ֣ל ִני ְכ ָ֑אב וִּמ ֶ֖בֶּטן ִאִ֣מּי ַא ְנ ֶֽח ָנּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 19‬אם־ֶא ְר ֶ֣אה ֖אוֵֹבד ִמְבּ ִ֣לי ְל֑בוּשׁ ְו ֵ֥אין ְ֝כּ֗סוּת ָלֶאְב ֽיוֹן‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 20‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ֵב ֲר֣כוּ ִני ֲחָל ָ֑ציו וִּמ ֵ֥גּז ְ֝כָּבַשׂי ִיְתַחָֽמּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 21‬אם־ֲה ִני֣פוִֹתי ַﬠל־ ָי֣תוֹם ָי ִ֑די ִֽכּי־ֶא ְר ֶ֥אה ַ֝בַ֗שַּׁﬠר ֶﬠ ְז ָר ִֽתי‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 22‬כֵּתִפי ִמִשְּׁכ ָ ֣מה ִת֑פּוֹל ְ֝וֶא ְזר ִֹ֗ﬠי ִמָקּ ָ֥נה ִתָשּׁ ֵֽבר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 23‬כּי ַ֣פַחד ֵ ֭אַלי ֵ֣איד ֵ֑אל ֝וִּמְשֵּׂא֗תוֹ ֣ל ֹא אוּ ָֽכל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 24‬אם־ ַ ֣שְׂמִתּי ָז ָ֣הב ִכְּס ִ֑לי ְ֝וַלֶ֗כֶּתם ָאַ֥מ ְרִתּי ִמְבַט ִֽחי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 25‬אם־ ֶ֭אְשַׂמח ִכּי־ ַ֣רב ֵחי ִ֑לי ְו ִֽכי־ ַ֝כ ִ֗בּיר ָמְצ ָ֥אה ָי ִֽדי‪:‬‬
‫ה ֵֽל􀀇‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 26‬אם־ֶא ְר ֶ֣אה ֖אוֹר ִ֣כּי ָי ֵ֑הל ְ֝ו ָי ֵ֗רַח ָי ָ֥קר ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 27‬ו ִ֣יְּפְתּ ַבּ ֵ֣סֶּתר ִל ִ֑בּי ַוִתַּ֖שּׁק ָי ִ֣די ְל ִֽפי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 28‬גּם־֖הוּא ָﬠ ֣וֹן ְפִּלי ִ֑לי ִֽכּי־ִכ ַ֖חְשִׁתּי ָל ֵ֣אל ִמָֽמַּﬠל‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ ַ֗ר ְרִתּי ִֽכּי־ְמ ָ֥צאוֹ ָֽרﬠ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 29‬אם־ ֶ֭אְשַׂמח ְבּ ִ֣פיד ְמַשׂ ְנ ִ֑אי ְ֝וִהְת ֹ‬
‫אל ְבָּא ָ֣לה ַנְפֽשׁוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 30‬ול ֹא־ ָנ ַ֣תִתּי ַלֲח ֣ט ֹא ִח ִ֑כּי ִלְשׁ ֖ ֹ‬
climax i 145
16
I do not withhold what the poor need (g)
nor do I cause the eyes of the widow to fail
17
by eating my morsel alone,
so that the orphan can not eat from it.
18
For since my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
and since my mother’s womb I have guided her.
19
If I have seen anyone perishing without clothing (h) IV
and the needy one with no cover:
20
did not his loins bless me
as he warmed himself with the flfeece of my sheep?
21
If I ever have waived my hand against an orphan, (i)
while I saw support for me in the gate,
22
then let my shoulder blade fall from the shoulder
and let my arm be broken from its socket;
23
for a calamity from El is what I dread
and his angry blaze I could not stand.
24
I have not placed my confifdence in gold (j) V
and have not said fifne gold is my security.
25
I did not rejoice that my wealth was great
and that my hand found richess.
26
If ever I saw the light how it shines (k)
and how the moon goes by in splendor,
27
so that my heart was secretly enticed
and my hand touched my mouth for a kiss,
28
that too would be a criminal offense,
because I would have deceived El above.
29
I do not rejoice in the distress of my hater (l) VI
nor do I get excited when evil fifnds him.
30
I never allowed my palate to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
‫‪146‬‬ ‫‪climax i‬‬
‫‪ִ 31‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ָ ֭אְמרוּ ְמ ֵ֣תי ָאֳה ִ֑לי ִֽמי־ ִי ֵ֥תּן ִ֝מְבָּשׂ֗רוֹ ֣ל ֹא ִנְשׂ ָֽבּﬠ‪:‬‬
‫א ַרח ֶאְפ ָֽתּח‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ַ 32‬בּחוּץ ל ֹא־ ָי ִ֣לין ֵ֑גּר ְ֝דָּלַ֗תי ָל ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 33‬אם־ִכּ ִ֣סּיִתי ְכָא ָ֣דם ְפָּשׁ ָ֑ﬠי ִלְט֖מוֹן ְבֻּח ִ֣בּי ֲﬠ ֽוֹ ִני‪:‬‬
‫ָ֝וֶא ֗דּ ֹם ל ֹא־ ֵ֥אֵצא ָֽפַתח‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֤ 34‬כּי ֶֽאֱﬠ֨רוֹץ ָ ֮ה֤מוֹן ַר ָ֗בּה וּבוּז־ִמְשָׁפּ֥חוֹת ְיִח ֵ֑תּ ִני‬
‫‪ִ֤ 35‬מי ִיֶתּן־ִ֨לי ֮שׁ ֹ ֵ ֤מ ַֽﬠ ִ֗לי ֶהן־ ָ ֭תּ ִוי ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ַיֲﬠ ֵ֑נ ִני ְו ֵ֥סֶפר ָ֝כַּ֗תב ִ֣אישׁ ִרי ִֽבי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 36‬אם־ ֣ל ֹא ַﬠל־ ִ ֭שְׁכִמי ֶאָשּׂ ֶ֑אנּוּ ֶֽאֶﬠ ְנ ֶ֖דנּוּ ֲﬠָט ֣רוֹת ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 37‬מְס ַ֣פּר ְ ֭צָﬠ ַדי ַא ִגּי ֶ֑דנּוּ ְכּמוֹ־ ָ֝נ ֗ ִגיד ֲאָק ֲר ֶֽבנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 38‬אם־ ָ ֭ﬠַלי ַא ְדָמ ִ֣תי ִת ְז ָ֑ﬠק ְ֝ו ַ֗יַחד ְתָּלֶ֥מיָה ִיְבָכּ ֽיוּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 39‬אם־ ֖כָֹּחהּ ָא ַ֣כְלִתּי ְבִלי־ ָ֑כֶסף ְו ֶ֖נֶפשׁ ְבָּﬠ ֶ֣ליָה ִה ָֽפְּחִתּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֤ 40‬תַּחת ִחָ֨טּה ֵ֥יֵצא ֗חוַֹח ְו ַֽתַחת־ְשׂﬠֹ ָ֥רה ָבְא ָ ֑שׁה‬
‫פ‬ ‫ַ֗תּמּוּ ִדְּב ֵ֥רי ִא ֽיּוֹב‪:‬‬

climax i 147
31
Did not the men of my clan say, (m)
‘who has not become sated with his meat?’
32
The stranger never spent the night outside,
I used to open my doors to the traveler.
33
I have not covered my transgressions like Adam (n)
by burying my guilt in my bosom,
34
because I so feared the great crowd
and the contempt of families so frightened me
that I would keep silent and not go out the door.
35
Oh, if only I had someone to hear me! (o) VII
Here is my signature, Shaddai should answer me!
If only I had the document my accuser has drafted.
36
I certainly would carry it on my shoulder,
I would bind it on me as a wreath.
37
The number of my steps I would tell him,
like a prince I would present it to him.
38
If my fifeld cries out against me (p)
and its furrows weep together,
39
if I have eaten its yield without payment
and driven the soul of its owners to despair,
40
let thorns grow instead of wheat
and stinkweed instead of barley!
(The words of Job are completed.)

:‫ִמְס ַ֣פּר ְ ֭צָﬠ ַדי ַא ִגּי ֶ֑דנּוּ ְכּמוֹ־ ָנ ִגיד ֲאָק ֲר ֶֽבנּוּ‬
31:37
The number of my steps I would tell him,

like a prince I would present it to him.
‫‪ַֽ 32:1‬ו ִיְּשְׁבּ֡תוּ ְשׁ֤􀀉ֶשׁת ָהֲא ָנִ֣שׁים ָ ֭הֵאֶלּה ֵמֲﬠ ֣נוֹת ֶאת־ִא ֑יּוֹב ִ֤כּי ֖הוּא‬
‫ַצ ִ֣דּיק ְבֵּﬠי ָֽניו‪ :‬פ ‪ַ 2‬ו ִ֤יַּחר ַ֨אף ׀ ֱאִלי֣הוּא ֶבן־ַבּ ַרְכ ֵ֣אל ַהבּוּ ִז֮י ִמִמְּשׁ ַ֢פּ ַ֫חת‬
‫ָ֥רם ְ ֭בִּאיּוֹב ָח ָ֣רה ַא֑פּוֹ ַֽﬠל־ַצ ְדּ֥קוֹ ַ֝נְפ֗שׁוֹ ֵמֱא􀀉 ִֽהים‪:‬‬
‫שׁר ל ֹא־ָמְצ֣אוּ ַמֲﬠ ֶ֑נה ַ֝ו ַיּ ְרִ֗שׁיﬠוּ ֶאת־ִא ֽיּוֹב‪:‬‬ ‫‪ 3‬וִּבְשׁ֣􀀉ֶשׁת ֵרָﬠי֮ו ָח ָרה ַ֫א֥פּוֹ ַ֤ﬠל ֲא ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ֶֽ 4‬וֱאִליהוּ ִח ָ֣כּה ֶאת־ ִ ֭איּוֹב ִבּ ְדָב ִ֑רים ִ֤כּי ְֽז ֵק ִנים־ ֵ֖הָמּה ִמ ֶ ֣מּנּוּ ְל ָיִֽמים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 5‬ו ַיּ֤ ְרא ֱאִלי֗הוּא ִ֮כּי ֵ֤אין ַמֲﬠ ֶ֗נה ְ ֭בִּפי ְשׁ֥􀀉ֶשׁת ָהֲא ָנִ֗שׁים ַו ִ֥יַּחר ַאֽפּוֹ‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ַ 6‬ו ַיַּ֤ﬠן ׀ ֱאִלי֖הוּא ֶבן־ ַֽבּ ַרְכ ֵ֥אל ַהבּוּ ִ֗זי ַו ֫יּ ֹאַ֥מר‬
‫ָ֮צ ִ֤ﬠיר ֲא ִ֣ני ְ ֭ל ָיִמים ְוַא ֶ֣תּם ְיִשׁיִ֑שׁים‬

‫ַﬠל־ ֵ֖כּן ָז ַ֥חְלִתּי ָֽוִאי ָ֓רא ֵמַחֹ֖וּת ֵדּ ִ֣ﬠי ֶאְת ֶֽכם‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 7‬אַמ ְרִתּי ָיִ֣מים ְי ַד ֵ֑בּרוּ ְו ֥ר ֹב ָ֝שׁ ִ֗נים י ֹ ִ֥דיﬠוּ ָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 8‬אֵכן ֽרוַּח־ ִ֣היא ֶבֱא ֑נוֹשׁ ְו ִנְשַׁ֖מת ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ְתִּבי ֵֽנם‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 9‬ל ֹא־ ַר ִ֥בּים ֶיְח ָ֑כּמוּ ֝וּ ְזֵק ִ֗נים ָי ִ֥בינוּ ִמְשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 10‬ל ֵ֣כן ָ ֭אַמ ְרִתּי ִשְׁמָﬠה־ ִ֑לּי ֲאַחֶ֖וּה ֵדּ ִ֣ﬠי ַאף־ ָֽא ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 11‬הן הוֹ ַ֨חְלִתּי ְֽל ִדְב ֵריֶ֗כם ָ ֭א ִזין ַﬠד־ְתּֽבוֹּֽנֵתי ֶ֑כם ַﬠד־ַתְּחְק ֥רוּן ִמ ִֽלּין‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬ו ָֽﬠ ֵדיֶ֗כם ֶאְת֫בּוֹ ָ֥נ ן ְוִה ֵ֤נּה ֵ֣אין ְלִא ֣יּוֹב מוֹ ִ֑כיַח ﬠוֹ ֶ֖נה ֲאָמ ָ֣ריו ִמ ֶֽכּם‪:‬‬
THE INTERVENTION OF A FOURTH FRIEND, ELIHU, CHS. 32–37
 1These three men stopped answering Job, for he was righteous in his own
eyes. 2Then the anger of Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, from the clan
of Ram, flfared up against Job because he declared himself righteous rather
than God. 3And against his three friends his anger flfared up because they
had not found an answer, but had declared Job to be guilty.
4
Elihu had waited for Job with words because they were older than he.
5
And Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of the three men
and his anger flfared up.
6
Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, spoke up and said:
I am young in days (a) I

and you are aged.
Therefore I was timid
and feared to declare my opinion to you.
7
I said, ‘let the days speak
and let the many years teach wisdom.’
8
But surely it is the spirit in man (b)
and the breath of Shaddai that gives them understanding.
9
It is not the old who are wise
nor the elderly who understand justice.
10
Therefore I say, ‘listen to me,
let me also declare my opinion.’
11
Look, I waited for your words, (c) II
I listened to your insights,
while you searched out what to say,
12
and I paid close attention to you,
but behold, there is no one who confutes Job,
none of you has an answer to his sayings.
‫‪152‬‬ ‫‪the intervention of a fourth friend, elihu‬‬
‫‪ֶ 13‬פּן־ ֣תּ ֹאְמרוּ ָמ ָ֣צאנוּ ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ֵ֖אל ִי ְדּ ֶ֣פנּוּ ל ֹא־ ִֽאישׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 14‬ול ֹא־ָﬠ ַ֣ר􀀇 ֵא ַ֣לי ִמ ִ֑לּין ֝וְּבִאְמ ֵריֶ֗כם ֣ל ֹא ֲאִשׁי ֶֽבנּוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 15‬חתּוּ ל ֹא־ ָ֣ﬠנוּ ֑ﬠוֹד ֶהְﬠ ִ֖תּיקוּ ֵמ ֶ֣הם ִמ ִֽלּים‪:‬‬

‫‪ְ֭ 16‬והוַֹחְלִתּי ִכּי־ ֣ל ֹא ְי ַד ֵ֑בּרוּ ִ֥כּי ָ֝ﬠְמ֗דוּ ל ֹא־ ָ֥ﬠנוּ ֽﬠוֹד‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 17‬אֲﬠ ֶ֣נה ַאף־ֲא ִ֣ני ֶחְל ִ֑קי ֲאַחֶ֖וּה ֵד ִ֣ﬠי ַאף־ ָֽא ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 18‬כּי ָמ ֵ֣לִתי ִמ ִ֑לּים ֱ֝הִצי ַ ֗קְת ִני ֣רוַּח ִבְּט ִֽני‪:‬‬
‫א֥בוֹת ֲ֝ח ָדִ֗שׁים ִיָבּ ֵֽקַﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 19‬ה ֵֽנּה־ִבְט ִ֗ני ְכּ ַ֥י ִין ל ֹא־ ִיָפּ ֵ֑תַח ְכּ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 20‬א ַדְבּ ָ֥רה ְו ִֽי ְר ַֽוח־ ִ֑לי ֶאְפ ַ֖תּח ְשָׂפ ַ֣תי ְו ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 21‬אל־ ָ֭נא ֶא ָ ֣שּׂא ְפ ֵני־ ִ֑אישׁ ְוֶאל־ָ֝א ָ֗דם ֣ל ֹא ֲאַכ ֶֽנּה‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֵֽשׂ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 22‬כּי ֣ל ֹא ָי ַ֣דְﬠִתּי ֲאַכ ֶ֑נּה ִ֝כְּמַ֗ﬠט ִיָשּׂ ֵ֥א ִני ֹ‬
‫‪ְֽ 33:1‬ואוָּ֗לם ְשַֽׁמﬠ־ ָ֣נא ִא ֣יּוֹב ִמ ָ֑לּי ְֽוָכל־ ְדָּב ַ֥רי ַהֲא ִֽזי ָנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 2‬ה ֵנּה־ ָ֭נא ָפּ ַ֣תְחִתּי ִ֑פי ִדְּבּ ָ֖רה ְלשׁוֹ ִ֣ני ְבִח ִֽכּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 3‬י ֶֹשׁר־ִל ִ֥בּי ֲאָמ ָ֑רי ְו ַ֥דַﬠת ְ֝שָׂפַ֗תי ָבּ ֥רוּר ִמ ֵֽלּלוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 4‬רוַּח־ ֵ֥אל ָﬠ ָ ֑שְׂת ִני ְו ִנְשַׁ֖מת ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ְתַּח ֵֽיּ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 5‬אם־תּוּ ַ֥כל ֲהִשׁי ֵ֑ב ִני ֶﬠ ְר ָ֥כה ְ֝לָפ ַ֗ני ִהְת ַי ָֽצָּבה‪:‬‬
the intervention of a fourth friend, elihu 153
13
So do not say, ‘we have found wisdom, (d)
let El refute him, not man.’
14
He has not arranged his arguments against me
and with your sayings I cannot reply to him.
15
They are dismayed, they answer no more, (e)
arguments have failed them;
16
I have waited although they do not speak any more,
for they stand still, they answer no more.
17
I will answer, now it is my turn, (f) III
let me also declare my opinion,
18
for I am full of arguments,
the spirit oppresses me, in my belly.
19
Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent, (g)
like new wineskins it will burst.
20
I must speak so as to get relief,
I must open my lips and answer.
21
I will surely show partiality to no one (h)
and I will not flfatter any man,
22
for I do not know how to flfatter,
my Maker would soon take me away!
 1But now, hear my arguments, Job, (a) I

and give ear to all my words.
2
Behold, I open my mouth,
my tongue speaks on my palate.
3
My sayings are the uprightness of my heart
and my lips argue clear knowledge.
4
The spirit of El has made me (b)
and the breath of Shaddai gives me life.
5
Refute me if you can,
arrange your case before me, take your stand!
‫חֶמר קֹ ַ֥רְצִתּי ַגם־ ָֽא ִני‪:‬‬

‫‪ֵ 6‬הן־ֲא ִ֣ני ְכ ִ֣פי􀀈 ָל ֵ֑אל ֵ֝מ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 7‬ה ֵ֣נּה ֵ ֭אָמִתי ֣ל ֹא ְתַבֲﬠ ֶ֑תָךּ ְ֝וַאְכִ֗פּי ָﬠ ֶ֥לי􀀈 ל ֹא־ ִיְכ ָֽבּד‪:‬‬
‫ְו֖קוֹל ִמ ִ֣לּין ֶאְשָֽׁמﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ַ 8‬א􀀇 ָא ַ ֣מ ְרָתּ ְבָא ְז ָ֑ני‬

‫ַ֥חף ָאֹנ ִ֑כי ְו ֖ל ֹא ָﬠ ֣וֹן ִֽלי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ֥ 9‬ז 􀀇 ֲא ִ֗ני ְֽבִּ֫לי ָ֥פַשׁﬠ‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 10‬הן ְ ֭תּנוּאוֹת ָﬠ ַ֣לי ִיְמ ָ֑צא ַיְחְשׁ ֵ֖ב ִני ְלאוֹ ֵי ֣ב ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ח ָֽתי‪:‬‬
‫מר ָכּל־ָא ְר ֹ‬
‫שׂם ַבּ ַ֣סּד ַר ְג ָ֑לי ִ֝יְשׁ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ 11‬י ֵ ֣‬
‫‪ֶ 12‬הן־ ֣ז ֹאת ל ֹא־ָצ ַ֣דְקָתּ ֶאֱﬠ ֶ֑נ ָךּ ִֽכּי־ ִי ְר ֶ֥בּה ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹה ֵמֱא ֽנוֹשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 13‬מדּוַּﬠ ֵא ָ֣ליו ִרי֑בוָֹת ִ֥כּי ָכל־ ְ֝דָּב ָ֗ריו ֣ל ֹא־ ַיֲﬠ ֶֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 14‬כּי־ְבַא ַ֥חת ְי ַדֶבּר־ ֵ֑אל ֝וִּבְשַׁ֗תּ ִים ֣ל ֹא ְישׁוּ ֶֽר ָנּה‪:‬‬
‫ִ֝בְּתנוּ֗מוֹת ֲﬠ ֵ֣לי ִמְשׁ ָֽכּב‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַ 15‬בֲּח֤לוֹם ׀ ֶח ְז ֬יוֹן ַ֗ל ְיָלה ִבּ ְנֹ֣פל ַ ֭תּ ְר ֵדָּמה ַﬠל־ֲא ָנִ֑שׁים‬
‫תּם‪:‬‬‫מָס ָ֣רם ַיְח ֽ ֹ‬

‫א ֶזן ֲא ָנִ֑שׁים וְּב ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ָ֣ 16‬אז ִ֭י ְגֶלה ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ְ 17‬לָהִסיר ָא ָ֣דם ַמֲﬠ ֶ ֑שׂה ְו ֵג ָ֖וה ִמ ֶ֣גֶּבר ְיַכ ֶֽסּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 18‬יְח ֣שׂ ֹ􀀇 ַ֭נְפשׁוֹ ִמ ִנּי־ ָ ֑שַׁחת ְ֝וַח ָיּ֗תוֹ ֵמֲﬠ ֥בֹר ַבָּֽשַּׁלח‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 19‬והוּ ַ֣כח ְ ֭בַּמְכאוֹב ַﬠל־ִמְשָׁכּ֑בוֹ ְו ִריב ֲﬠָצ ָ ֣מיו ֵא ָֽתן‪:‬‬

‫‪ְ 20‬ו ִֽזֲה ַ ֣מתּוּ ַח ָיּ֣תוֹ ָ֑לֶחם ְ֝ו ַנְפ֗שׁוֹ ַמֲא ַ֥כל ַתֲּא ָֽוה‪:‬‬
6
Look, I am just like you to God, (c)
I too was pinched from clay.
7
Behold, no fear of me should terrify you
and my care will not be heavy upon you.
8
Indeed you have said to my ears (d) II
and I hear the voice of your arguments:
9
‘I am pure, without transgression,
I am innocent and without guilt.’
10
‘Look, He fifnds occasions against me, (e)
he counts me as his enemy.
11
He puts my feet in the stocks,
he watches all my paths.’
12
Look, in this you are not in the right, I answer you, (f) III
for God is greater than man.
13
Why do you contend with him,
although he answers none of man’s words?
14
No, El speaks in one way (g)
or two, though no one can perceive it:
15
in a dream, a night vision,
when deep sleep falls on men,
as they slumber in their beds.
16
Then he opens the ears of men (h)
and seals how he will discipline them,
17
to turn man away from an action,
and to quell pride in people.
18
He spares his soul from the Pit,
his life from going under by weapons.
19
One may be chastened by pain on his bed, (i) IV
and by continuous strife in his bones.
20
so that his life detests bread
and his throat, choice food.
‫‪ִ֣ 21‬יֶכל ְבָּשׂ ֣רוֹ ֵמ ֑ר ִֹאי ְוֻשׁ֥פּוּ ַ֝ﬠְצמוָֹ֗תיו ֣ל ֹא ֻרֽאוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 22‬וִתְּק ַ֣רב ַל ַ ֣שַּׁחת ַנְפ֑שׁוֹ ְ֝וַח ָיּ֗תוֹ ַֽלְמִמ ִֽתים‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 23‬אם־ ֵי֤שׁ ָﬠָ֨ליו ַמְלָ֗א􀀇 ֵמִ֗ליץ ֶא ָ֥חד ִמ ִנּי־ ָ֑אֶלף ְלַה ִ֖גּיד ְלָא ָ֣דם ָיְשׁ ֽרוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 24‬ו ְיֻח ֶ֗נּנּוּ ַו ֗יּ ֹאֶמר ְ ֭פּ ָדֵﬠהוּ ֵמ ֶ֥ר ֶדת ָ֗שַׁחת ָמ ָ֥צאִתי ֽכֶֹפר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֻֽ 25‬רֲט ַ֣פשׁ ְבָּשׂ ֣רוֹ ִמֹ֑נַּﬠר ָ֝י֗שׁוּב ִליֵ֥מי ֲﬠלוָּֽמיו‪:‬‬

‫ַו ָ֥יֶּשׁב ֶ֝לֱא ֗נוֹשׁ ִצ ְדָקֽתוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֶ 26‬יְﬠ ַ֤תּר ֶאל־ֱא ֨לוַֹהּ ַו ִיּ ְרֵ֗צהוּ ַו ַיּ֣ ְרא ָ ֭פּ ָניו ִבְּתרוּ ָ֑ﬠה‬
‫ְול ֹא־ָ֥שׁ ָוה ִֽלי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 27‬י ֤שׁ ֹר ַﬠל־ֲא ָנִ֗שׁים ַו ֗יּ ֹאֶמר ָ ֭חָטאִתי ְו ָיָ֥שׁר ֶהֱﬠ ֵ֗ויִתי‬
‫‪ָ 28‬פּ ָ֣דה ַנְפִשׁי ֵמֲﬠ ֣בֹר ַבּ ָ ֑שַּׁחת ְוַח ָיִּתי ָבּ֥אוֹר ִתּ ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 29‬הן־ָכּל־ ֵ ֭אֶלּה ִיְפַﬠל־ ֵ֑אל ַפֲּﬠַ֖מ ִים ָשׁ֣לוֹשׁ ִﬠם־ ָֽגֶּבר‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 30‬לָהִ֣שׁיב ַ֭נְפשׁוֹ ִמ ִנּי־ ָ ֑שַׁחת ֵ֝ל֗אוֹר ְבּ֣אוֹר ַֽהַח ִיּים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 31‬הְק ֵ ֖שׁב ִא ֥יּוֹב ְֽשַֽׁמﬠ־ ִ֑לי ַ֝הֲח ֵ֗רשׁ ְוָאֹנ ִ֥כי ֲא ַד ֵֽבּר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 32‬אם־ ֵישׁ־ִמ ִ֥לּין ֲהִשׁי ֵ֑ב ִני ַ֝דּ ֵ֗בּר ִֽכּי־ָח ַ֥פְצִתּי ַצ ְדּ ֶֽקָךּ‪:‬‬
‫ס‬ ‫‪ִ 33‬אם־ ַ ֭א ִין ַא ָ֥תּה ְֽשַֽׁמﬠ־ ִ֑לי ַ֝הֲח ֵ֗רשׁ ַוֲאַאֶלְּפ֥􀀈 ָחְכָֽמה‪:‬‬
21
His flfesh wastes so that it cannot be seen (j)
and his bones, once unseen, are laid bare.
22
His soul draws near to the Pit
and his life to the causes of death.
23
If there is a messenger by him, (k) V
one advocate among a thousand
to explain a person’s uprightness,
24
then He has mercy on him and says,
‘redeem him from going down to the Pit,
I have found a ransom.’
25
His flfesh then becomes as fresh as in youth, (l)
he will return to the days of his vigor.
26
He prays to God and fifnds favor with him,
he sees his face with shouts of joy,
for He has restored righteousness to the man.
27
He sings to others and says: (m)
‘I have sinned and perverted what was right,
but He did not requite me.
28
He has redeemed my soul from passing into the Pit
and my life can see the light.’
29
Look, all these things El does (n) VI
two, three times with a man
30
to bring his soul back from the Pit,
so that he may bask in the light of life.
31
Pay attention, Job, hear me, (o)
be silent, and I will speak.
32
If you have arguments, refute me,
speak, for I like to fifnd you in the right.
33
But if not, then you hear me,
be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.
‫‪ַ 34:1‬ו ַ֥יַּﬠן ֱאִלי֗הוּא ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 2‬שְׁמ֣ﬠוּ ֲחָכִ֣מים ִמ ָ֑לּי ְ֝וי ֹ ְדִ֗ﬠים ַהֲא ִ֥זינוּ ִֽלי‪:‬‬

‫א ֶזן ִמ ִ֣לּין ִתְּב ָ֑חן ְ֝ו ֵ֗ח􀀇 ִיְט ַ֥ﬠם ֶלֱא ֽכֹל‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 3‬כּי־ ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 4‬מְשׁ ָ֥פּט ִנְבֲח ָרה־ ָ֑לּנוּ ֵנ ְד ָ֖ﬠה ֵבי ֵ֣נינוּ ַמה־ֽטּוֹב‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 5‬כּי־ ָ ֭אַמר ִא ֣יּוֹב ָצ ַ֑דְקִתּי ְ֝וֵ֗אל ֵה ִ֥סיר ִמְשָׁפּ ִֽטי‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 6‬ﬠל־ִמְשָׁפּ ִ֥טי ֲאַכ ֵ֑זּב ָא ֖נוּשׁ ִח ִ֣צּי ְבִלי־ ָֽפַשׁﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 7‬מי־ ֶ֥גֶבר ְכִּא ֑יּוֹב ִֽיְשֶׁתּה־ ַ֥לַּﬠג ַכָּֽמּ ִים‪:‬‬

‫‪ְ 8‬וָא ַ֣רח ְ ֭לֶחְב ָרה ִﬠם־ֹ֣פֲּﬠֵלי ָ֑א ֶון ְ֝וָלֶ֗לֶכת ִﬠם־ַא ְנֵשׁי־ ֶֽרַשׁﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 9‬כּי־ ָ ֭אַמר ֣ל ֹא ִיְסָכּן־ ָ֑גֶּבר ִ֝בּ ְרצֹ֗תוֹ ִﬠם־ֱא􀀉 ִֽהים‪:‬‬
‫ְוַשׁ ַ֥דּי ֵמ ָֽﬠ ֶול‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 10‬ל ֵ֤כן ׀ ַֽא ֲנֵ֥שׁי ֵל ָ֗בב ִשְׁמ֫ﬠוּ ִ֥לי ָח ִ֖לָלה ָל ֵ֥אל ֵמ ֶ֗רַשׁﬠ‬
‫א ַרח ִ֗אישׁ ַיְמִצ ֶֽאנּוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֤ 11‬כּי ֹ֣פַﬠל ָ ֭א ָדם ְיַשֶׁלּם־֑לוֹ ֽוְּכ ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 12‬אף־ָאְמ ָ֗נם ֵ֥אל ֽל ֹא־ ַי ְרִ֑שׁיַﬠ ְ֝וַשׁ ַ֗דּי ֽל ֹא־ ְיַﬠ ֵ֥וּת ִמְשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 13‬מי־ָפ ַ֣קד ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ָ֑א ְרָצה וִּ֥מי ָ֗שׂם ֵתּ ֵ֥בל ֻכּ ָֽלּהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 14‬אם־ ָיִ֣שׂים ֵא ָ֣ליו ִל֑בּוֹ רוּ֥חוֹ ְ֝ו ִנְשָׁמ֗תוֹ ֵא ָ֥ליו ֶיֱא ֽסֹף‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 15‬י ְגַ֣וﬠ ָכּל־ָבּ ָ ֣שׂר ָ֑יַחד ְ֝וָא ָ֗דם ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ָיֽשׁוּב‪:‬‬
 1Elihu spoke up and said:
2
Hear my arguments, wise men, (a) I
you who know, give ear to me.
3
For the ear tests arguments
and the palate tastes when eating.
4
Let us choose what is justice to us,
let us know among ourselves what is good.
5
For Job has said, ‘I am in the right, (b)
but El has put aside my justice.
6
I call the judgment against me a lie;
I am wounded by an arrow for no transgression.’
7
What fellow is like Job (c)
who drinks scoffifng like water,
8
wanders in company with evildoers
and walks with the wicked?
9
For he has said, ‘it does not profift a fellow
to seek favor with God.’
10
Therefore, men of understanding, hear me! (d) II
Wickedness be far from El,
and wrongdoing from Shaddai!
11
It is rather man’s action that he pays back
and he lets him fifnd what his path is like.
12
In truth, El does not appear wicked (e)
and Shaddai does not pervert justice.
13
Who put the earth in his charge?
And who presented the entire world?
14
If He would pay attention to himself, (f)
would gather his spirit and his breath to himself,
15
then all flfesh would die equally
and mankind would return to dust.
‫‪ְ 16‬וִאם־ ִ֥בּי ָנה ִשְׁמָﬠה־ ֑זּ ֹאת ַ֝הֲא ִ֗זי ָנה ְל֣קוֹל ִמ ָֽלּי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 17‬הַ֬אף שׂוֹ ֵ֣נא ִמְשׁ ָ֣פּט ַיֲח֑בוֹשׁ ְוִאם־ַצ ִ֖דּיק ַכּ ִ֣בּיר ַתּ ְרִֽשׁיַﬠ‪:‬‬
‫מר ְל ֶ ֣מֶל􀀇 ְבִּל ָיַּ֑ﬠל ָ֝רָ֗שׁﬠ ֶאל־ ְנ ִדי ִֽבים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 18‬הֲא ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 19‬א ֶ ֤שׁר ֽל ֹא־ ָנָ֨שׂא ְפּ ֵ֥ני ָשׂ ִ֗רים ְו ֣ל ֹא ִנַכּר־֖שׁוַֹﬠ ִלְפ ֵני־ ָ֑דל ִכּי־ַמֲﬠ ֵ ֖שׂה ָי ָ֣דיו ֻכּ ָֽלּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֤ 20‬ר ַגﬠ ָיֻמת ֮וּ ַוֲחצוֹת ָ֥ל ְיָלה ְיֹגֲﬠ֣שׁוּ ָ֣ﬠם ְו ַיֲﬠ ֑בֹרוּ ְו ָי ִ֥סירוּ ַ֝א ִ֗בּיר ֣ל ֹא ְב ָֽיד‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 21‬כּי־ ֵ ֭ﬠי ָניו ַﬠל־ ַדּ ְרֵכי־ ִ֑אישׁ ְֽוָכל־ְצָﬠ ָ֖דיו ִי ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ְו ֵ֣אין ַצְל ָ ֑מ ֶות ְלִה ָ֥סֶּתר ָ֗שׁם ֹ֣פֲּﬠֵלי ָֽא ֶון‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵֽ 22‬אין־ ֖ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ֤ 23‬כּי ֣ל ֹא ַﬠל־ ִ ֭אישׁ ָיִ֣שׂים ֑ﬠוֹד ַלֲה֥􀀉􀀇 ֶאל־ֵ֗אל ַבִּמְּשׁ ָֽפּט‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 24‬י ֣ר ַֹﬠ ַכִּבּי ִ֣רים ל ֹא־ ֵ֑חֶקר ַו ַיֲּﬠ ֵ ֖מד ֲאֵח ִ֣רים ַתְּח ָֽתּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 25‬לֵ֗כן ַ֭יִכּיר ַמְﬠ ָֽבּ ֵדי ֶ֑הם ְו ָ֥הַפ􀀇 ַ֗ל ְיָלה ְו ִי ַדּ ָֽכּאוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 26‬תַּחת־ ְרָשׁ ִ֥ﬠים ְסָפ ָ ֗קם ִבְּמ֥קוֹם ר ֹ ִֽאים‪:‬‬

‫שׁר ַﬠל־ ֵ ֭כּן ָ֣סרוּ ֵֽמַאֲח ָ֑ריו ְוָכל־ ְ֝דּ ָרָ֗כיו ֣ל ֹא ִהְשׂ ִֽכּילוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 27‬א ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ְ 28‬לָה ִ֣ביא ָ ֭ﬠָליו ַֽצֲﬠַקת־ ָ֑דּל ְוַצֲﬠ ַ֖קת ֲﬠ ִנ ִ֣יּים ִיְשָֽׁמﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 29‬ו֤הוּא ַיְשִׁ֨קט וִּ֥מי ַי ְרִ֗שַׁﬠ ְו ַיְס ֵ֣תּר ָ ֭פּ ִנים וִּ֣מי ְישׁוּ ֶ֑רנּוּ‬
‫מְּקֵשׁי ָֽﬠם‪:‬‬
‫ְוַﬠל־ ֖גּוֹי ְוַﬠל־ָא ָ֣דם ָֽיַחד ‪֭ ִ 30‬מְמּ􀀉􀀇 ָא ָ֥דם ָח ֵ֗נף ִמ ֥ ֹ‬
16
But if there is any notion, hear this, (g) III
give ear to the voice of my arguments.
17
Would the very one who hates justice govern?
And will you declare the Righteous and Mighty One wicked?
18
Is it possible to say ‘scoundrel’ to a king,
‘wicked’ to nobles?
19
He is not partial to princes (h)
and does not favor the rich over the poor,
for all of them are the work of his hands.
20
Suddenly they die, in the middle of the night,
rulers are shaken and pass away,
the strong one is put aside, without effort.
21
Yes, his eyes are upon a man’s ways (i)
and he sees his every step.
22
There is no darkness and there is no gloom
where the evildoers can hide themselves.
23
For he does not set a time for man (j) IV
to go to El for judgment.
24
He shatters the mighty without inquiry
and sets others in their place.
25
Thus he assesses their deeds;
he overthrows by night and they are crushed.
26
Among the wicked he smites them, (k)
where everybody can see it,
27
because they turned away from following him
and did not consider any of his ways,
28
while he lets the cry of the poor reach him
and hears the cry of the miserable.
29
If he is quiet, who can declare him wicked? (l)
Or he hides his face: who can perceive him?
30
But he watches nation as well as individual,
so that the godless does not become king,
the people will not be ensnared.
‫‪ִֽ 31‬כּי־ֶאל־ ֵ ֭אל ֶהָאַ֥מר ָנָ֗שׂאִתי ֣ל ֹא ֶאְח ֽבֹּל‪:‬‬

‫א ִֽסיף‪:‬‬
‫ה ֵ֑ר ִני ִֽאם־ ָ֥ﬠ ֶול ָ֝פַּ֗ﬠְלִתּי ֣ל ֹא ֹ‬
‫‪ִ 32‬בְּלֲﬠ ֵ֣די ֶ֭אֱח ֶזה ַא ָ֣תּה ֹ‬
‫ֽוַּמה־ ָי ַ֥דְﬠָתּ ַד ֵֽבּר‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַֽ 33‬הֵמִﬠְמּ֬􀀈 ְיַשְׁלֶ֨מ ָנּה ִֽכּי־ָמַ֗אְסָתּ ִכּי־ַא ָ֣תּה ִתְב ַ֣חר ְול ֹא־ ָ֑א ִני‬
‫שׁי ֵ ֭לָבב ֣י ֹאְמרוּ ִ֑לי ְו ֶ֥גֶבר ָ֝חָ֗כם שׁ ֵֹ֥מ ַֽﬠ ִֽלי‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 34‬א ְנ ֵ ֣‬
‫‪֭ ִ 35‬איּוֹב ל ֹא־ְב ַ֣דַﬠת ְי ַד ֵ֑בּר ֝וּ ְדָב ָ֗ריו ֣ל ֹא ְבַהְשׂ ֵֽכּיל‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 36‬א ִ֗בי ִיָבּ ֵ֣חן ִא ֣יּוֹב ַﬠד־ ֶ֑נַצח ַﬠל־ְ֝תֻּשׁ ֗בֹת ְבַּא ְנֵשׁי־ ָֽא ֶון‪:‬‬
‫ס‬ ‫‪ִ֥ 37‬כּי ֮י ֹ ִ֤סיף ַֽﬠל־ַחָטּא֣תוֹ ֶ֭פַשׁﬠ ֵבּי ֵ֣נינוּ ִיְס֑פּוֹק ְו ֶי֖ ֶרב ֲאָמ ָ֣ריו ָל ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 35:1‬ו ַ֥יַּﬠן ֱאִלי֗הוּ ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 2‬הז ֹאת ָח ַ ֣שְׁבָתּ ְלִמְשׁ ָ֑פּט ָ֝אַ֗מ ְרָתּ ִצ ְד ִ֥קי ֵמ ֵֽאל‪:‬‬
‫אִ֗ﬠיל ֵֽמַחָטּא ִֽתי‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 3‬כּי־ ֖ת ֹאַמר ַמה־ ִיְּסָכּן־ ָ֑ל􀀇 ָֽמה־ ֝ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 4‬א ִני ֲאִֽשׁיְב֣􀀈 ִמ ִ֑לּין ְֽוֶאת־ ֵר ֶ֥ﬠי􀀈 ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 5‬ה ֵ֣בּט ָשׁ ַ ֣מ ִים וּ ְר ֵ֑אה ְו֥שׁוּר ְ֝שָׁחִ֗קים ָגְּב֥הוּ ִמֶֽמָּךּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 6‬אם־ ָ ֭חָטאָת ַמה־ִתְּפָﬠל־֑בּוֹ ְו ַר֥בּוּ ְ֝פָשֶׁ֗ﬠי􀀈 ַמה־ַתֲּﬠֶשׂה־ֽלּוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 7‬אם־ ָ ֭צ ַדְקָתּ ַמה־ִתֶּתּן־֑לוֹ ֖אוֹ ַמה־ִמ ָיּ ְד֥􀀈 ִי ָֽקּח‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 8‬לִאישׁ־ָכּ֥מוֹ􀀈 ִרְשׁ ֶ֑ﬠ􀀈 וְּלֶבן־ָ֝א ָ֗דם ִצ ְדָק ֶֽת􀀈‪:‬‬
31
For has he ever said to El: (m) V
‘I bear [my punishment], I will offend no more.
32
What I do not see, do teach me;
if I have done injustice, I will do it no more.’?
33
Will he pay back on your terms when you reject him? (n)
But it is you who have to choose, not I,
and do speak what you know.
34
Men of understanding say to me,
a wise fellow who hears me:
35
‘Job is not speaking with knowledge
and his words are without insight.’
36
Would that Job were tested to the limit (o)
on his answers, which are like those of evil men;
37
for he keeps adding to his sin,
he casts doubt among us on his transgression
and he multiplies his words against El.
 1Elihu answered and said:
2
Do you consider this good judgment, (a) I
when you say, ‘I am in the right rather than El’?
3
when you ask how it brings you profift,
‘what do I gain if I do not sin?’
4
Then let me answer you with arguments (b)
and your friends with you.
5
Look to the heavens and see,
and notice how high the clouds are above you.
6
If you sin, what are you doing to Him? (c)
And if your transgressions are many, how do you affect Him?
7
If you are in the right, what do you give Him,
or what does He receive from your hand?
8
Your wickedness affects a mortal like you
and your righteousness fellow human beings.
‫‪֭ ֵ 9‬מר ֹב ֲﬠשׁוּ ִ֣קים ַי ְז ִ֑ﬠיקוּ ְיַשׁ ְוּ֖ﬠוּ ִמ ְזּ ֣רוַֹﬠ ַר ִֽבּים‪:‬‬

‫ﬠ ָ ֑שׂי ֹנ ֵ֖תן ְזִמ ֣רוֹת ַבּ ָֽלּ ְיָלה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְֽ 10‬ול ֹא־ָאַ֗מר ַ ֭א ֵיּה ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ַ 11‬מְלֵּפנוּ ִמַבֲּה֣מוֹת ָ֑א ֶרץ וֵּמ֖ﬠוֹף ַהָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ְיַחְכֵּֽמנוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪֣ ָ 12‬שׁם ִ֭יְצֲﬠקוּ ְו ֣ל ֹא ַיֲﬠ ֶ֑נה ִ֝מְפּ ֵ֗ני ְגּ֣אוֹן ָר ִֽﬠים‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 13‬א􀀇־ ָ ֭שׁ ְוא ל ֹא־ ִיְשַׁ֥מﬠ ֵ֑אל ְ֝וַשׁ ַ֗דּי ֣ל ֹא ְישׁוּ ֶֽר ָנּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֣ 14‬אף ִֽכּי־ ֖ת ֹאַמר ֣ל ֹא ְתשׁוּ ֶ֑רנּוּ ִ֥דּין ְ֝לָפ ָ֗ניו וְּת֥חוֹ ֵ֥לל ֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫אד‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 15‬וַﬠָ֗תּה ִכּי־ ַ ֭א ִין ָפּ ַ֣קד ַא֑פּוֹ ְו ֽל ֹא־ ָי ַ֖דﬠ ַבּ ַ֣פּשׁ ְמ ֽ ֹ‬
‫פ‬ ‫‪ְ֭ 16‬וִאיּוֹב ֶ֣הֶבל ִיְפֶצה־ ִ֑פּיהוּ ִבְּבִלי־ ַ֗דַﬠת ִמ ִ֥לּין ַיְכ ִֽבּר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 36:1‬ו ֥יֶֹּסף ֱאִלי֗הוּא ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 2‬כַּתּר־ ִ֣לי ְ֭זֵﬠיר ַוֲאַח ֶ֑וּ ָךּ ִ֤כּי ֖ﬠוֹד ֶלֱא֣לוַֹהּ ִמ ִֽלּים‪:‬‬

‫‪ֶ 3‬א ָ ֣שּׂא ֵ ֭דִﬠי ְלֵמ ָר֑חוֹק ְ֝וְלֹפֲﬠִ֗לי ֶֽא ֵֽתּן־ ֶֽצ ֶדק‪:‬‬
‫שֶׁקר ִמ ָ֑לּי ְתִּ֖מים ֵדּ֣ﬠוֹת ִﬠָֽמּ􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 4‬כּי־ ָ ֭אְמ ָנם ל ֹא־ ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ֶ 5‬הן־ ֵ֣אל ַ ֭כִּבּיר ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְמ ָ֑אס ַ֝כּ ִ֗בּיר ֣כֹּ ַֽח ֵֽלב‪:‬‬
‫‪ 6‬ל ֹא־ ְיַח ֶ֥יּה ָר ָ ֑שׁﬠ וִּמְשׁ ַ֖פּט ֲﬠ ִנ ִ֣יּים ִי ֵֽתּן‪:‬‬
‫ַויִֹּשׁי ֵ֥בם ָ֝ל ֶ֗נַצח ַו ִיּ ְג ָֽבּהוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֽ 7‬ל ֹא־ ִי ְג ַ֥רﬠ ִמַצּ ִ֗דּיק ֵ֫ﬠי ָ֥ניו ְוֶאת־ְמָל ִ֥כים ַלִכּ ֵ֑סּא‬
9
For great oppression people cry out, (d) II
they shout because of the arm of the mighty.
10
But none says: ‘Where is God, my Maker,
who gives protection in the night,
11
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’
12
There they are, crying out, but He does not answer, (e)
because of the pride of bad people.
13
El gives no hearing to an empty plea
and Shaddai does not perceive it;
14
how much less when you say that you can not perceive him,
that the case is before him and you have to wait for him!
15
But now, since He has not vented his anger (f)
and cares little about transgression,
16
Job opens his mouth in empty talk
and offers mighty arguments void of knowledge.
 1
Elihu continued and said:
2
Bear with me a little and I will inform you (a) I
that there are more arguments in God’s behalf.
3
I will raise my opinion from far away
and I will prove my Maker in the right.
4
In truth, my words are not deceit,
with you is one of perfect knowledge.
5
Look, El is mighty and he does not reject, (b)
the one mighty in strength and heart.
6
He does not let the wicked live
and gives justice to the miserable.
7
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on a throne
he seats them forever so that they are exalted.
‫‪ְ 8‬וִאם־ֲאסוּ ִ֥רים ַבּ ִזּ ִ֑קּים ִ֝יָלְּכ֗דוּן ְבַּחְבֵלי־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 9‬ו ַיּ ֵ֣גּד ָל ֶ֣הם ָפֳּﬠ ָ֑לם ֝וִּפְשֵׁﬠיֶ֗הם ִ֣כּי ִיְת ַגּ ָֽבּרוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 10‬ו ִ֣יּ ֶגל ָ ֭א ְז ָנם ַלמּוּ ָ֑סר ַ֝ו ֗יּ ֹאֶמר ִֽכּי־ ְיֻשׁ֥בוּן ֵמ ָֽא ֶון‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 11‬אם־ ִיְשְׁמ֗ﬠוּ ְֽו ַ֫יֲﬠ ֥בֹדוּ ְיַכ֣לּוּ ְיֵמי ֶ֣הם ַבּ֑טּוֹב ֝וְּשׁ ֵניֶ֗הם ַבּ ְנִּﬠיִֽמים‪:‬‬
‫שַׁלח ַיֲﬠ ֑בֹרוּ ְ֝ו ִי ְג ְו֗ﬠוּ ִכְּבִלי־ ָֽדַﬠת‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬וִאם־ ֣ל ֹא ִ֭יְשְׁמﬠוּ ְבּ ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ְֽ 13‬וַח ְנֵפי־ ֵ ֭לב ָיִ֣שׂימוּ ָ֑אף ֥ל ֹא ְ֝יַשׁ ְוּ֗ﬠוּ ִ֣כּי ֲאָס ָֽרם‪:‬‬
‫מת ַבֹּ֣נַּﬠר ַנְפ ָ ֑שׁם ְ֝וַח ָיָּ֗תם ַבְּקּ ֵדִֽשׁים‪:‬‬ ‫‪ָ 14‬תּ ֣ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 15‬יַח ֵ֣לּץ ָﬠ ִ֣ני ְבָﬠ ְנ ֑יוֹ ְו ִ֖י ֶגל ַבּ ַ֣לַּחץ ָא ְז ָֽנם‪:‬‬
‫ְו ַ֥נַחת ֻ֝שְׁלָח ְנ֗􀀈 ָ ֣מֵלא ָֽדֶשׁן‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 16‬ו ַ֤אף ֲהִסיְת֙􀀈 ׀ ִמִפּי־ָ֗צר ַ֭רַחב ל ֹא־מוּ ָ֣צק ַתְּח ֶ֑תּיָה‬
‫מכוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 17‬ו ִדין־ ָרָ֥שׁﬠ ָמ ֵ֑לאָת ִ֖דּין וִּמְשׁ ָ֣פּט ִיְת ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ִֽ 18‬כּי־ ֵ ֭חָמה ֶפּן־ ְי ִֽסיְת֣􀀈 ְב ָ֑סֶפק ְו ָרב־ ֗כֶֹּפר ַאל־ ַי ֶֽטָּךּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 19‬ה ַיֲﬠ ֣ר ֹ􀀇 ֖שׁוֲּﬠ􀀈 ֣ל ֹא ְב ָ֑צר ְ֝ו ֗כֹל ַמֲאַמֵצּי־ ֽכַֹח‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 20‬אל־ִתְּשׁ ַ֥אף ַה ָ֑לּ ְיָלה ַלֲﬠ֖לוֹת ַﬠִ֣מּים ַתְּח ָֽתּם‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ִ 21‬הָשֶּׁמר ַאל־ ֵ֣תֶּפן ֶאל־ ָ֑א ֶון ִ֥כּי־ַﬠל־ ֶ ֝֗זה ָבּ ַ֥ח ְרָתּ ֵמ ֽ ֹ‬
8
And if they are bound in fetters, (c) II
caught in bonds of misery,
9
he declares to them their deeds
and their crimes, how excessive they are.
10
He opens their ears to discipline
and tells them to return from evil.
11
If they listen and serve him, (d)
they will complete their days in prosperity
and their years in delight.
12
But if they do not listen,
they will go under by weapons
and expire without knowledge.
13
The godless in heart pile up anger, (e)
they do not cry for help when He binds them.
14
They die still in their youth,
and their life [ends] among the depraved.
15
He rescues the miserable one by his misery
and opens their ear by distress.
16
And He has lured you too from the mouth of distress, (f) III
to a space without constraints
and where your table is set full of choice food.
17
But you are fiflled with the case against a wicked man,
‘may they hold fast to judgment and right’.
18
No, beware that you are not enticed with mockery (g)
and a rich ransom should not turn you aside.
19
Can your wealth defend you in distress,
and all your powerful efforts?
20
Do not long for the night (h)
in which peoples are torn away from their places.
21
Beware, do not turn to evil,
this is what you can choose over misery.
‫מהוּ מוֹ ֶֽרה‪:‬‬ ‫ִ֖מי ָכ ֣ ֹ‬ ‫‪ֶ 22‬הן־ ֵ ֭אל ַיְשׂ ִ֣גּיב ְבּכֹ֑חוֹ‬

‫וִּֽמי־ָ֝אַ֗מר ָפּ ַ֥ﬠְלָתּ ַﬠ ְו ָֽלה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 23‬מי־ָפ ַ֣קד ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ַדּ ְר֑כּוֹ‬
‫‪ְ֭ 24‬זכֹר ִֽכּי־ַתְשׂ ִ֣גּיא ָפֳﬠ֑לוֹ ֲא ֶ ֖שׁר שׁ ֹ ְר ֣רוּ ֲא ָנִֽשׁים‪:‬‬

‫‪ָ 25‬כּל־ָא ָ֥דם ָֽחזוּ־֑בוֹ ֱ֝א ֗נוֹשׁ ַי ִ֥בּיט ֵמ ָרֽחוֹק‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 26‬הן־ ֵ֣אל ַ ֭שׂ ִגּיא ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵנ ָ֑דﬠ ִמְס ַ֖פּר ָשׁ ָ֣ניו ְול ֹא־ ֵֽחֶקר‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 27‬כּי ְי ָג ַ֣רﬠ ִנְטֵפי־ ָ ֑מ ִים ָי ֖זֹקּוּ ָמ ָ֣טר ְלֵא ֽדוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 28‬אֶֽשׁר־ ִי ְזּ֥לוּ ְשָׁח ִ֑קים ִ֝י ְרֲﬠ֗פוּ ֲﬠ ֵ֤לי ׀ ָא ָ֬דם ָֽרב‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֣ 29‬אף ִאם־ ָ֭יִבין ִמְפ ְרֵשׂי־ ָ֑ﬠב ְ֝תֻּשׁ֗אוֹת ֻסָכּֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 30‬הן־ָפּ ַ֣רשׂ ָﬠ ָ֣ליו אוֹ ֑רוֹ ְוָשׁ ְר ֵ ֖שׁי ַה ָיּ֣ם ִכּ ָֽסּה‪:‬‬

‫אֶכל ְלַמְכ ִֽבּיר‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 31‬כּי־ ָ ֭בם ָי ִ֣דין ַﬠִ֑מּים ִֽיֶתּן־ ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 32‬ﬠל־ַכּ ַ֥פּ ִים ִכָּסּה־֑אוֹר ַו ְי ַ֖צו ָﬠ ֶ֣ליָה ְבַמְפ ִֽגּיַﬠ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 33‬י ִ֣גּיד ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ֵר֑ﬠוֹ ִ֝מְק ֶ֗נה ַ֣אף ַﬠל־ﬠוֹ ֶֽלה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 37:1‬אף־ ְ ֭לז ֹאת ֶיֱח ַ֣רד ִל ִ֑בּי ְ֝ו ִיַ֗תּר ִמְמּקוֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 2‬שְׁמ֤ﬠוּ ָשׁ֣מוַֹﬠ ְבּ ֣ר ֹ ֶגז קֹ֑לוֹ ְ֝וֶ֗ה ֶגה ִמ ִ֥פּיו ֵי ֵֽצא‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 3‬תַּחת־ָכּל־ַהָשַּׁ֥מ ִים ִיְשׁ ֵ֑רהוּ ְ֝ואוֹ֗רוֹ ַﬠל־ַכּ ְנ֥פוֹת ָה ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
22
Look, El is exalted in his power; (i) IV
who is a teacher like him?
23
Who ever took him to task over his way,
and who said, ‘You have done wrong’?
24
Remember, then, to extol his work (j)
of which the people have sung praises.
25
All mankind has beheld it,
man looks on it from afar.
26
Look, El is exalted, and we do not comprehend; (k) V
the number of his years is beyond research.
27
For he draws up the drops of water,
they distill as rain from his mist.
28
The clouds pour it out, (l)
they drip on all mankind.
29
Can one really understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings from his pavilion?
30
Look, He spreads his light over it (m) VI
and exposes the roots of the sea.
31
For by these he governs peoples,
he gives food in abundance.
32
He fiflls his hands with lightning (n)
and orders it to strike its mark
33
His thunder tells of him
who kindles his anger over injustice.
 1At this indeed my heart trembles (a) I

and leaps from its place.
2
Listen, listen to the raging of his voice
and the growling that comes from his mouth.
3
Under the whole heaven he lets it loose
and his light reaches the corners of the earth.
‫‪ַ 4‬אֲח ָ֤ריו ִיְשַׁאג־֗קוֹל ַ֭י ְרֵﬠם ְבּ֣קוֹל ְגּאוֹ ֑נוֹ‬

‫ְו ֥ל ֹא ְ֝יַﬠְקּ ֵ֗בם ִֽכּי־ ִיָשַּׁ֥מﬠ קוֹֽלוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ﬠֶ֥שׂה ְ֝גד ֹ ֗לוֹת ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵנ ָֽדﬠ‪:‬‬

‫ֹ‬ ‫‪ַ 5‬י ְר ֵ֤ﬠם ֵ֣אל ְ ֭בּקוֹלוֹ ִנְפָל֑אוֹת‬
‫‪ִ֤ 6‬כּי ַלֶ֨שַּׁלג ׀ י ֹאַ֗מר ֱה ֵ֫וא ָ֥א ֶרץ ְו ֶ֥גֶשׁם ָמ ָ֑טר ְ֝ו ֗ ֶגֶשׁם ִמְט ֥רוֹת ֻﬠ ֽזּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 7‬בּ ַיד־ָכּל־ָא ָ֥דם ַיְח֑תּוֹם ָ֝ל ַ֗דַﬠת ָכּל־ַא ְנֵ֥שׁי ַמֲﬠֵֽשׂהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 8‬וָתּ ֣ב ֹא ַח ָיּ֣ה ְבמוֹ־ ָ֑א ֶרב וִּבְמ֖ﬠוֹֹנ ֶ֣תיָה ִתְשׁ ֽכֹּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 9‬מן־ ַ ֭הֶח ֶדר ָתּ֣בוֹא סוּ ָ֑פה ֽוִּמְמּ ָז ִ֥רים ָק ָֽרה‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 10‬מ ִנְּשַׁמת־ ֵ֥אל ִיֶתּן־ ָ֑ק ַרח ְו ֖ר ַֹחב ַ ֣מ ִים ְבּמוּ ָֽצק‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 11‬אף־ ְ ֭בּ ִרי ַיְט ִ֣ריַח ָ֑ﬠב ָ֝יִ֗פיץ ֲﬠ ַ֣נ ן אוֹ ֽרוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬ו֤הוּא ְמִס֨בּוֹת ׀ ִמְתַה ֵ֣פּ􀀇 ְבַּתְחבּוּ􀀉 ָ֣תיו ְלָפֳﬠ ָ֑לם‬

‫֖כֹּל ֲאֶ֥שׁר ְיַצ ֵ֓וּם ַﬠל־ְפּ ֵ֖ני ֵת ֵ֣בל ָֽא ְרָצה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 13‬אם־ְלֵ֥שֶׁבט ִאם־ְלַא ְר֑צוֹ ִאם־ְ֝ל ֶ֗חֶסד ַיְמִצ ֵֽאהוּ‪:‬‬
‫מד ְוִהְתבּוֹ ֵ֤נ ן ׀ ִנְפְל֬אוֹת ֵֽאל‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 14‬הֲא ִ֣זי ָנה ֣זּ ֹאת ִא ֑יּוֹב ֲ֝ﬠ ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 15‬הֵת ַדﬠ ְבּשׂוּם־ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ֲﬠֵלי ֶ֑הם ְ֝והוִֹ֗פיַﬠ ֣אוֹר ֲﬠ ָנ ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
4
After it a voice roars, (b)
he thunders with his majestic voice
and he does not restrain [the lightnings]
when his voice is heard.
5
El thunders marvelously with his voice, (c)
he does great things, but we do not comprehend,
6
for he says to the snow, ‘fall on the earth!’
and the downpour of rain is his mighty showers.
7
It is a seal on everybody’s hand, (d) II
so that all people know his work.
8
The beasts enter their lair
and remain in their dens.
9
The storm wind comes out of its chamber (e)
and cold from the scattering winds.
10
By the breath of El ice is formed
so that the wide waters become solid.
11
He also loads the clouds with moisture,
and scatters his lightning all over them.
12
He moves to and fro in circles, (f)
with the instructions they have to carry out
—everything he commands them—
over the face of the whole world.
13
Whether as a scourge for his land,
or as a blessing, he makes it happen.
14
Give ear to this, Job, (g) III
stop and consider the marvels of El.
15
Do you know how God gives them a task
and how he makes the light shine across his fifrmament?
‫‪ֲ֭ 16‬הֵת ַדﬠ ַﬠל־ִמְפְלֵשׂי־ ָ֑ﬠב ִ֝מְפְל֗אוֹת ְתִּ֣מים ֵדּ ִֽﬠים‪:‬‬

‫‪ֲ 17‬אֶשׁר־ְבּ ָג ֶ֥די􀀈 ַחִ֑מּים ְבַּהְשׁ ִ֥קט ֶ֗א ֶרץ ִמ ָדּ ֽרוֹם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 18‬תּ ְר ִ֣קיַﬠ ִ ֭ﬠמּוֹ ִלְשָׁח ִ֑קים ֲ֝ח ָזִ֗קים ִכּ ְר ִ֥אי מוּ ָֽצק‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇‪:‬‬ ‫‪֖ 19‬הוֹ ִדיֵﬠנוּ ַמה־ ֣נּ ֹאַמר ֑לוֹ ֥ל ֹא־ ַ֝נֲﬠ ֗ר ֹ􀀇 ִמְפּ ֵני־ ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ַֽ 20‬ה ְיֻסַפּר־֖לוֹ ִ֣כּי ֲא ַד ֵ֑בּר ִֽאם־ ָ֥אַמר ִ֗אישׁ ִ֣כּי ְיֻב ָֽלּﬠ‪:‬‬
‫ְו ֥רוַּח ָ֝ﬠְב ָ֗רה ַֽוְתַּטֲה ֵֽרם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 21‬וַﬠ ָ֤תּה ֮ל ֹא ָ֤ראוּ ֗אוֹר ָבּ ִ֣היר ֖הוּא ַבְּשָּׁח ִ֑קים‬
‫‪֭ ִ 22‬מָצּפוֹן ָז ָ֣הב ֶֽיֱא ֶ֑תה ַﬠל־ֱ֝א ֗לוַֹהּ ֣נוֹ ָרא ֽהוֹד‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 23‬שׁ ַ֣דּי ֽל ֹא־ ְ ֭מָצא ֻנהוּ ַשׂ ִגּיא־ ֑כַֹח וִּמְשׁ ָ֥פּט ְור ֹב־ְ֝צ ָד ָ ֗קה ֣ל ֹא ְיַﬠ ֶֽנּה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 24‬לֵכן ְי ֵר֣אוּהוּ ֲא ָנִ֑שׁים ֽל ֹא־ ִ֝י ְרֶ֗אה ָכּל־ַחְכֵמי־ ֵֽלב‪ :‬פ‬
16
Do you know about the spreading of clouds, (h)
the marvels of the One with perfect knowledge?
17
Your garments become warm
when the earth is still under the south wind.
18
Can you, like him, hammer out the heavenly vault,
strong as a mirror of cast metal?
19
Let us know, then, what we can say to him, (i)
we cannot prepare because of darkness.
20
Is something told to him when I speak?
If a man says something, will He be informed?
21
Now when one cannot see the light (j) IV
which is brilliant behind the clouds,
the wind passes by and clears them away.
22
From the north gold approaches,
awesome is the splendor about God.
23
Shaddai, we cannot fifnd him, (k)
he is great in power and justice,
and the master of righteousness does not oppress.
24
Therefore, mortals are in awe of him,
but even all the wise of heart do not see him.
‫‪ַ 38:1‬ו ַֽיַּﬠן־ ְיהָ֣וה ֶאת־ ִ ֭איּוֹב ִ֥מן ַהְסָּﬠ ָרה ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 2‬מי ֶ֨זה ַמְחִ֖שׁי􀀇 ֵﬠ ָ֥צה ְבִמִ֗לין ְֽבִּלי־ ָֽדַﬠת‪:‬‬

‫‪ֱ 3‬א ָזר־ ָ֣נא ְכ ֶ֣גֶבר ֲחָל ֶ֑צי􀀈 ְ֝וֶאְשָׁאְל֗􀀈 ְוהוֹ ִדי ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫ַ֝ה ֗ ֵגּד ִאם־ ָי ַ֥דְﬠָתּ ִבי ָֽנה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ 4‬איֹ֣פה ָ ֭ה ִייָת ְבּ ָיְס ִדי־ ָ֑א ֶרץ‬
‫֤אוֹ ִֽמי־ ָנ ָ֖טה ָﬠ ֶ֣ליָה ָֽקּו‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ 5‬מי־ ָ ֣שׂם ְ ֭מַמ ֶדּיָה ִ֣כּי ֵת ָ֑דﬠ‬
‫‪ַ 6‬ﬠל־ ָ ֭מה ֲא ָד ֶ֣ניָה ָהְט ָ֑בּﬠוּ ֥אוֹ ִֽמי־ ָ֝י ָ֗רה ֶ֣אֶבן ִפּ ָנּ ָֽתהּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 7‬בּ ָרן־ ַ֭יַחד ֣כּוְֹכֵבי ֑בֶֹקר ַ֝ו ָיּ ִ֗ריﬠוּ ָכּל־ְבּ ֵ֥ני ֱא􀀉 ִֽהים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 8‬ו ָיֶּ֣ס􀀇 ִבּ ְדָל ַ֣ת ִים ָ֑ים ְ֝בּ ִגי֗חוֹ ֵמ ֶ֥רֶחם ֵי ֵֽצא‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 9‬בּשׂוִּ֣מי ָﬠ ָ֣נ ן ְלֻב֑שׁוֹ ַ֝וֲﬠ ָרֶ֗פל ֲחֻתָלּֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 10‬וֶאְשׁ ֣בֹּר ָﬠ ָ֣ליו ֻח ִ֑קּי ָֽוָאִ֗שׂים ְבּ ִ֣ריַח וּ ְדָל ָֽת ִים‪:‬‬
‫ת ִ֑סיף וּ ֥פ ֹא־ ָ֝יִ֗שׁית ִבּ ְג֥אוֹן ַגּ ֶֽלּי􀀈‪:‬‬ ‫אַ֗מר ַﬠד־ֹ֣פּה ָ ֭תבוֹא ְו ֣ל ֹא ֹ‬ ‫‪ָ 11‬ו ֹ‬
‫‪֭ ְֽ 12‬הִמ ָיֶּמי􀀈 ִצ ִ֣וּיָת ֑בֶֹּקר ִי ַדְּﬠָתּה ַה ַ ֣שַּׁחר ְמקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬

‫חז ְבַּכ ְנ֣פוֹת ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ְו ִי ָנֲּﬠ ֖רוּ ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ִמֶֽמּ ָנּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֭ 13‬לֱא ֹ‬
CLIMAX II, THE LAST LONG SPEECH
God Speaks Four Poems, Chs. 38–41
 1Then Yahweh answered Job from the tempest, and said:
2
Who is this who darkens counsel (a) I
with arguments void of knowledge?
3
Gird up your loins like a man,
then I can ask you, and you will make me know.
4
Where were you when I founded the earth? (b)
Tell me if you have understanding!
5
Who set its measurements? Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line over it?
6
On what were its sockets sunk? (c)
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God exulted?
8
Who shut the sea within doors (d) II
when it gushed forth from the womb,
9
when I made the cloud its garment
and swaddled it in thick darkness?
10
I prescribed my limit for it (e)
and set up a bar and doors,
11
and I said, ‘thus far you may come and no farther,
and here your proud waves will stop!’
12
Have you commanded the morning since your days began, (f) III
and let dawn know its place,
13
so that it might seize the corners of the earth
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
‫‪176‬‬ ‫‪climax ii, the last long speech‬‬
‫ְ֝ו ִֽיְת ַיְצּ֗בוּ ְכּ֣מוֹ ְלֽבוּשׁ‪:‬‬ ‫חֶמר חוֹ ָ֑תם‬ ‫‪֭ ִ 14‬תְּתַהֵפּ􀀇 ְכּ ֣ ֹ‬

‫וּ ְז ֥רוַֹﬠ ָ֝רָ֗מה ִתָּשּׁ ֵֽבר‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 15‬ו ִיָמּ ַ֣נﬠ ֵמ ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים אוֹ ָ֑רם‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 16‬הָבאָת ַﬠד־ ִנְבֵכי־ ָ֑ים וְּב ֵ֥חֶקר ְ֝תּ֗הוֹם ִהְתַה ָֽלְּכָתּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 17‬ה ִנ ְג֣לוּ ְ ֭ל􀀈 ַשֲׁﬠ ֵרי־ ָ ֑מ ֶות ְוַשֲׁﬠ ֵ֖רי ַצְל ָ ֣מ ֶות ִתּ ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 18‬הְתבֹּ ַנ ְנָתּ ַﬠד־ ַרֲחֵבי־ ָ֑א ֶרץ ַ֝ה ֗ ֵגּד ִאם־ ָי ַ֥דְﬠָתּ ֻכ ָֽלּהּ‪:‬‬
‫חֶשׁ􀀇 ֵאי־ ֶ֥זה ְמקֹֽמוֹ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ 19‬אי־ ֶז֣ה ַ ֭ה ֶדּ ֶר􀀇 ִיְשָׁכּן־֑אוֹר ְ֝ו ֗ ֹ‬
‫‪ִ֣ 20‬כּי ִ ֭תָקֶּחנּוּ ֶאל־ ְגּבוּ֑לוֹ ְו ִ֥כי ָ֝ת ִ֗בין ְנִתי֥בוֹת ֵבּיֽתוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֭ 21‬י ַדְﬠָתּ ִכּי־ ָ֣אז ִתּ ָוּ ֵ֑לד וִּמְס ַ֖פּר ָי ֶ ֣מי􀀈 ַר ִֽבּים‪:‬‬
‫אְצ ֖רוֹת ָבּ ָ֣רד ִתּ ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬

‫אְצ ֣רוֹת ָ ֑שֶׁלג ְו ֹ‬ ‫‪ֲ֭ 22‬הָבאָת ֶאל־ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 23‬אֶשׁר־ָחַ֥שְׂכִתּי ְלֶﬠת־ ָ֑צר ְל ֥יוֹם ְ֝ק ָ֗רב וִּמְלָחָֽמה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ 24‬אי־ ֶז֣ה ַ ֭ה ֶדּ ֶר􀀇 ֵי ָ֣חֶלק ֑אוֹר ָי ֵ֖פץ ָק ִ֣דים ֲﬠֵלי־ ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫שֶּׁטף ְתָּﬠ ָ֑לה ְ֝ו ֶ֗ד ֶר􀀇 ַלֲח ִ֥זיז קֹֽלוֹת‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 25‬מי־ִפ ַ֣לּג ַל ֶ ֣‬
‫‪֭ ְ 26‬לַהְמִטיר ַﬠל־ ֶ֣א ֶרץ ל ֹא־ ִ֑אישׁ ִ֝מ ְד ָ֗בּר ל ֹא־ָא ָ֥דם ֽבּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מָצא ֶֽדֶשׁא‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 27‬לַהְשׂ ִ֣בּיַﬠ ֖שׁ ָֹאה וְּמשׁ ֹ ָ֑אה ֝וְּלַהְצִ֗מיַח ֣ ֹ‬
climax ii, the last long speech 177
14
It is transformed like clay under a seal (g)
and its features stand out like a garment.
15
Their light is withheld from the wicked
and the upraised arm is broken.
16
Have you come to the springs of the sea (h) IV
and walked in the recesses of the deep?
17
Have they been revealed to you, the gates of death,
and the gates of deep darkness, have you seen them?
18
Have you examined the expanses of the earth?
Tell me if you know all this!
19
Where is the way to the dwelling of light? (i)
And darkness, where is its place?
20
Surely you can take it to its territory,
and you must know the paths to its home!
21
You know it, for you were born then
and the number of your days is great!
22
Have you come to the storehouses of the snow (j) V
and have you seen the storehouses of hail,
23
which I have reserved for a time of distress,
for a day of attack and war?
24
Where is the way where light is dispersed,
the east wind scattered over the earth?
25
Who has cut a channel for the torrent of rain (k)
and a way for thunder and lightning,
26
to bring rain on a land with no one in it,
the wilderness where no man lives,
27
to saturate the desolate desert
and to make it sprout with grass?
‫‪ֲ 28‬ה ֵישׁ־ַלָמּ ָ֥טר ָ֑אב ֥אוֹ ִמי־֝הוִֹ֗ליד ֶא ְגֵלי־ ָֽטל‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 29‬מ ֶ֣בֶּטן ִ ֭מי ָי ָ֣צא ַה ָ֑קּ ַרח וְּכֹ֥פר ָ֝שַׁ֗מ ִים ִ֣מי ְיָל ֽדוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 30‬כֶּאֶבן ַ ֣מ ִים ִיְתַח ָ֑בּאוּ וְּפ ֵ֥ני ְ֝ת֗הוֹם ִיְתַל ָֽכּדוּ‪:‬‬
‫מְשׁ֖כוֹת ְכּ ִ֣סיל ְתַּפ ֵֽתַּח‪:‬‬ ‫‪ַֽ 31‬הְתַקֵשּׁר ַמֲﬠ ַד ֣נּוֹת ִכּי ָ ֑מה ֽאוֹ־ ֹ‬
‫ת ִ֣ציא ַמ ָזּ ֣רוֹת ְבִּﬠ֑תּוֹ ְ֝וַ֗ﬠ ִישׁ ַﬠל־ָבּ ֶ֥ניָה ַת ְנ ֵֽחם‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 32‬ה ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 33‬ה ָי ַדְﬠָתּ ֻח֣קּוֹת ָשׁ ָ ֑מ ִים ִאם־ָתִּ֖שׂים ִמְשָׁט ֣רוֹ ָב ָֽא ֶרץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 34‬הָת ִ֣רים ָל ָ֣ﬠב קוֹ ֶ֑ל􀀈 ְֽוִשְׁפַﬠת־ַ֥מ ִים ְתַּכ ֶֽסָּךּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 35‬הְתַשׁ ַ֣לּח ְבּ ָר ִ֣קים ְו ֵי ֵ֑לכוּ ְוי ֹאְמ ֖רוּ ְל֣􀀈 ִה ֵֽנּנוּ‪:‬‬
‫שְּׂכ ִוי ִבי ָֽנה‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 36‬מי־ ָ ֭שׁת ַבֻּטּ֣חוֹת ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ֤אוֹ ִֽמי־ ָנ ַ֖תן ַל ֶ ֣‬
‫‪ִֽ 37‬מי־ ְיַס ֵ֣פּר ְשָׁח ִ֣קים ְבָּחְכ ָ ֑מה ְו ִנְב ֵ֥לי ָ֝שַׁ֗מ ִים ִ֣מי ַיְשׁ ִֽכּיב‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 38‬בּ ֶ֣צֶקת ָ ֭ﬠָפר ַלמּוּ ָ֑צק וּ ְר ָג ִ֥בים ְי ֻד ָֽבּקוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 39‬הָת֣צוּד ְלָל ִ֣ביא ָ֑ט ֶרף ְוַח ַ֖יּת ְכִּפי ִ֣רים ְתַּמ ֵֽלּא‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 40‬כּי־ ָי ֥שׁ ֹחוּ ַבְמּﬠוֹ ֑נוֹת ֵיְשׁ֖בוּ ַבֻסּ ָ֣כּה ְלמוֹ־ ָֽא ֶרב‪:‬‬
‫אֶכל‪:‬‬
‫ִ֝יְת֗ﬠוּ ִלְבִלי־ ֽ ֹ‬ ‫ﬠ ֵ֗רב ֵ֫צי ֥דוֹ ִֽכּי־ ְ֭יָל ָדיו ֶאל־ ֵ֣אל ְיַשֵׁ֑וּﬠוּ‬
‫‪ִ֤ 41‬מי ָי ִ֥כין ָל ֹ‬
28
Does the rain have a father? (l)
Or who has begotten the dewdrops?
29
From whose belly comes forth the ice?
And the hoarfrost of heaven, who bore it?
30
The waters become hard as stone
and the surface of the deep is frozen.
31
Can you tie the cords of the Pleiades (m) VI
or loose the reins of Orion?
32
Can you lead the constellations on time
and guide the Bear with her sons?
33
Do you know the rules of heaven? (n)
Can you impose its order on earth?
34
Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flfood of waters may cover you?
35
Can you send out lightning bolts, so that they go
and say to you, ‘here we are!’?
36
Who put wisdom in the inward parts, (o)
or who gave understanding to the mind?
37
Who counts the clouds with wisdom,
and the jars of the heavens, who can tilt them,
38
so that the dust fuses into a solid mass
and the clods stick together?
38:39–41 and Chapter 39
39
Can you hunt prey for the lion, (a) I
and satisfy the hunger of its cubs,
40
when they crouch in their dens,
lie in their lair for an ambush?
41
Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young cry out to El
while they wander about for lack of food?
‫מ ר‪:‬‬
‫ח ֵ֖לל ַא ָיּ֣לוֹת ִתְּשׁ ֽ ֹ‬‫ֹ‬ ‫‪ֲ 39:1‬ה ָי ַ֗דְﬠָתּ ֵ ֭ﬠת ֶ֣ל ֶדת ַיֲﬠֵלי־ ָ֑סַלﬠ‬
‫‪ִ 2‬תְּסֹ֣פּר ְי ָר ִ֣חים ְתַּמ ֶ֑לּא ָנה ְ֝ו ָי ַ֗דְﬠָתּ ֵ֣ﬠת ִל ְד ָֽתּ ָנה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 3‬תְּכ ַרְﬠ ָנה ַיְל ֵדי ֶ֣הן ְתַּפ ַ֑לְּח ָנה ֶחְבֵלי ֶ֥הם ְתַּשׁ ַֽלְּח ָנה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 4‬יְחְל֣מוּ ְ ֭ב ֵניֶהם ִי ְר֣בּוּ ַב ָ֑בּר ָ֝יְצ֗אוּ ְול ֹא־ָ֥שׁבוּ ָֽלמוֹ‪:‬‬
‫מְס ֥רוֹת ָ֝ﬠ֗רוֹד ִ֣מי ִפ ֵֽתַּח‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 5‬מי־ִשׁ ַ֣לּח ֶ֣פּ ֶרא ָחְפִ֑שׁי וּ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 6‬אֶשׁר־ ַ ֣שְׂמִתּי ֲﬠ ָר ָ֣בה ֵבי֑תוֹ ֽוִּמְשְׁכּנוֹ ָ֥תיו ְמ ֵֽלָחה‪:‬‬
‫ְתֻּשׁ֥אוֹת ֝נוֹ ֗ ֵגשׂ ֣ל ֹא ִיְשָֽׁמﬠ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִ֭ 7‬יְשַׂחק ַלֲה֣מוֹן ִק ְר ָ֑יה‬

‫ְוַא ַ֖חר ָכּל־ ָי ֣רוֹק ִי ְד ֽרוֹשׁ‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 8‬י֣תוּר ָה ִ֣רים ִמ ְר ֵ֑ﬠהוּ‬
‫‪ֲ 9‬ה ֣י ֹאֶבה ֵ֣רים ָﬠְב ֶ֑ד􀀈 ִאם־ ָ֝יִ֗לין ַﬠל־ֲאבוּ ֶֽס􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲֽ 10‬הִתְקָשׁר־ ֵ֭רים ְבּ ֶ֣תֶלם ֲﬠבֹ֑תוֹ ִאם־ ְיַשׂ ֵ֖דּד ֲﬠָמ ִ֣קים ַאֲח ֶֽרי􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 11‬הִתְבַטח־֖בּוֹ ִכּי־ ַ֣רב כֹּ֑חוֹ ְוַתֲﬠ ֖זֹב ֵא ָ֣ליו ְי ִגי ֶֽﬠ􀀈‪:‬‬
‫סף‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 12‬הַתֲאִ֣מין ֖בּוֹ ִכּי־ ָיִ֣שׁיב ַז ְר ֶ֑ﬠ􀀈 ְֽו ָג ְר ְנ֥􀀈 ֶיֱא ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ְ 13‬כּ ַנף־ ְר ָנ ִ֥נים ֶנֱﬠ ָ֑לָסה ִאם־ֶ֝אְב ָ֗רה ֲחִסי ָ֥דה ְוֹנ ָֽצה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 14‬כּי־ַתֲﬠ ֣זֹב ָל ָ֣א ֶרץ ֵבּ ֶ֑ציָה ְֽוַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ְתַּחֵֽמּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֭ 15‬וִתְּשַׁכּח ִכּי־ ֶ֣ר ֶגל ְתּזוּ ֶ֑רָה ְוַח ַ֖יּת ַהָשּׂ ֶ֣דה ְתּדוֶּֽשָׁה‪:‬‬
 1
Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? (b)
Do you watch over the calving of hinds?
2
Can you count the months that they fulfifll
and do you know the time they give birth?
3
They crouch, they bring forth their young, (c)
they expel their cords.
4
Their children are strong, they grow in the open,
they leave and do not return.
5
Who let the wild ass go free? (d) II
and the onager’s bonds, who loosed them?
6
I made the wilderness his home
and his dwelling-place the salt land.
7
He laughs at the tumult of the city, (e)
the shouts of the driver he does not hear.
8
He roams the hills for his pasture
and for every green he searches.
9
Is the wild ox willing to serve you? (f) III
Will he spend the night at your crib?
10
Can you tie the wild ox in the furrow with rope?
Will he harrow the valley behind you?
11
Can you rely on him because his strength is great, (g)
and leave your heavy work to him?
12
Can you trust him to bring in your grain
and gather it to your threshing flfoor?
13
The wing of the ostrich flfaps wildly— (h) IV
are her pinions and feathers like the stork’s?
14
For she leaves her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the dust.
15
She forgets that a foot may crush them
and that some wild animal may trample them.
‫‪ִ 16‬הְקִ֣שׁיַח ָבּ ֶ֣ניָה ְלּל ֹא־ ָ֑להּ ְל ִ֖ריק ְי ִגי ָ֣ﬠהּ ְבִּלי־ ָֽפַחד‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 17‬כּי־ִה ָ ֣שּׁהּ ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ָחְכ ָ ֑מה ְול ֹא־ ָ֥חַלק ָ֗להּ ַבִּבּי ָֽנה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 18‬כֵּﬠת ַבָּמּ ֣רוֹם ַתְּמ ִ֑ריא ִֽתְּשׂ ַ֥חק ַ֝ל֗סּוּס וְּל ֽר ְֹכֽבוֹ‪:‬‬
‫ֲהַתְל ִ֖בּישׁ ַצ ָוּא ֣רוֹ ַרְﬠָֽמה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ 19‬הִת ֵ֣תּן ַל֣סּוּס ְגּבוּ ָ֑רה‬
‫֖הוֹד ַנְח ֣רוֹ ֵאיָֽמה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְֽ 20‬הַת ְרִﬠיֶשׁנּוּ ָכַּא ְר ֶ֑בּה‬
‫‪ַ 21‬יְחְפּ ֣רוּ ָ ֭בֵﬠֶמק ְו ָיִ֣שׂישׂ ְבּ ֑כַֹח ֵ֝יֵ֗צא ִלְק ַראת־ ָֽנֶשׁק‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 22‬יְשׂ ַ֣חק ְ ֭לַפַחד ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵי ָ֑חת ְו ֽל ֹא־ ָ֝י֗שׁוּב ִמְפּ ֵני־ ָֽח ֶרב‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 23‬ﬠָליו ִתּ ְר ֶ֣נה ַאְשׁ ָ֑פּה ַ֖לַהב ֲח ִ֣נית ְוִכי ֽדוֹן‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 24‬בּ ַ֣רַﬠשׁ ְ֭ור ֹ ֶגז ְי ַגֶמּא־ ָ֑א ֶרץ ְו ֽל ֹא־ ַ֝יֲאִ֗מין ִכּי־֥קוֹל שׁוֹ ָֽפר‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 25‬בּ ֵ֤די שׁ ָֹ֨פר ֮י ֹא ַ ֤מר ֶהָ֗אח ֽוֵּמ ָרחוֹק ָי ִ֣ריַח ִמְלָח ָ ֑מה ַ֥רַﬠם ָ֜שׂ ִרים וְּתרוּ ָֽﬠה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲֽ 26‬הִמִבּי ָ֣נְת􀀈 ַֽיֲאֶבר־ ֵ֑נץ ִיְפ ֖ר ֹשׂ ְכּ ָנ ָ֣פיו ְלֵתיָֽמן‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 27‬אם־ַﬠל־ ִ ֭פּי􀀈 ַי ְג ִ֣בּיַהּ ָ֑נֶשׁר ְ֝וִ֗כי ָי ִ֥רים ִק ֽנּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ֣ 28‬סַלﬠ ִ֭יְשׁכֹּן ְו ִיְת􀀉 ָ֑נ ן ַֽﬠל־ֶשׁן־ ֶ֗סַלﬠ וְּמצוּ ָֽדה‪:‬‬

‫אֶכל ְ֝לֵמ ָר֗חוֹק ֵﬠי ָ֥ניו ַי ִֽבּיטוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 29‬מָ֥שּׁם ָֽחַפר־ ֑ ֹ‬
‫פ‬ ‫‪ְ 30‬וֶאְפר ֹ ָ֥חיו ְיַﬠְלﬠוּ־ ָ֑דם וַּבֲאֶ֥שׁר ֲ֝חָלִ֗לים ָ ֣שׁם ֽהוּא‪:‬‬
16
She treats her young cruelly as if they were not hers, (i)
she has no fear her labor may be in vain.
17
For God has made her forget wisdom
and given her no share in understanding.
18
As soon as she spreads her plumes aloft,
she laughs at the horse and his rider.
19
Do you give the horse his might? (j) V
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
20
Do you make him leap like a locust?
His majestic snorting is a terror.
21
He paws with force and enjoys his strength, (k)
he rushes to meet the fray.
22
He laughs at fear and remains undaunted,
he does not turn back from the sword.
23
Past him whizzes a quiverful of arrows,
the flfash of spear and lance.
24
Flying out and wild he stamps on the ground (l)
and does not give way at the blast of the trumpet.
25
At the trumpet call he says, ‘aha!’
and he catches the scent of battle from afar,
the roar of captains and the war cry.
26
Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, (m) VI
spreads its wings to the south?
27
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts
and builds its nest on high?
28
It dwells and spends the night on a rock, (n)
on a rocky crag, a stronghold.
29
From there it spies out for prey,
its eyes are looking far away.
30
Its young ones feast on blood
and wherever the slain are, there it is.
‫‪ַ 40:1‬ו ַ֖יַּﬠן ְיה ָ֥וה ֶאת־ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫פ‬ ‫מוֹ ִ֖כיַח ֱא֣לוַֹהּ ַיֲﬠ ֶֽנ ָנּה‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲ֭ 2‬הר ֹב ִﬠם־ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ִי֑סּוֹר‬
‫‪ַ 3‬ו ַ֖יַּﬠן ִא ֥יּוֹב ֶאת־ ְיה ָ֗וה ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֣ 4‬הן ַ ֭ק􀀊ִתי ָ ֣מה ֲאִשׁי ֶ֑בָךּ ָ֝י ִ֗די ַ ֣שְׂמִתּי ְלמוֹ־ ִֽפי‪:‬‬
‫פ‬ ‫‪ַ 5‬א ַ֣חת ִ ֭דַּבּ ְרִתּי ְו ֣ל ֹא ֶֽאֱﬠ ֶ֑נה ֝וְּשַׁ֗תּ ִים ְו ֣ל ֹא אוֹ ִֽסיף‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 6‬ו ַֽיַּﬠן־ ְיהָ֣וה ֶאת־ ִ ֭איּוֹב ִ֥מן ְסָﬠ ָרה ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֱ 7‬א ָזר־ ָ֣נא ְכ ֶ֣גֶבר ֲחָל ֶ֑צי􀀈 ֶ֝אְשָׁאְל֗􀀈 ְוהוֹ ִדי ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 8‬הַאף ָתּ ֵ֣פר ִמְשָׁפּ ִ֑טי ַ֝תּ ְרִשׁיֵ֗ﬠ ִני ְל ַ ֣מַﬠן ִתְּצ ָֽדּק‪:‬‬
‫מהוּ ַת ְר ֵֽﬠם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 9‬וִאם־ ְז ֖רוַֹﬠ ָכּ ֵ֥אל ָ֑ל􀀇 ֝וְּב֗קוֹל ָכּ ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ֲ 10‬ﬠ ֵ֥דה ָ֣נא ָֽג֣אוֹן ָוֹ֑גַבהּ ְו֖הוֹד ְוָה ָ֣דר ִתְּל ָֽבּשׁ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ָ 11‬הֵפץ ֶﬠְב ֣רוֹת ַא ֶ֑פּ􀀈 וּ ְר ֵ֥אה ָכל־ ֵ֝גֶּ֗אה ְוַהְשִׁפּי ֵֽלהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 12‬ר ֵ֣אה ָכל־ ֵ֭גֶּאה ַהְכ ִני ֵ֑ﬠהוּ ַוֲה ֖ד ֹ􀀇 ְרָשׁ ִ֣ﬠים ַתְּח ָֽתּם‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ 13‬טְמ ֵ֣נם ֶבָּﬠ ָ֣פר ָ֑יַחד ְ֝פּ ֵניֶ֗הם ֲח ֣בֹשׁ ַבָּטּֽמוּן‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 14‬ו ַגם־ֲא ִ֥ני אוֹ ֶ֑דָךּ ִֽכּי־תוִֹ֖שַׁﬠ ְל֣􀀈 ְיִמי ֶֽנ 􀀈‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 15‬ה ֵנּה־ ָ֣נא ְ ֭בֵהמוֹת ֲאֶשׁר־ָﬠִ֣שׂיִתי ִﬠ ָ ֑מּ􀀇 ָ֝חִ֗ציר ַכָּבּ ָ֥קר י ֹא ֵֽכל‪:‬‬
‫א ֗נוֹ ִבְּשׁ ִרי ֵ֥רי ִבְט ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 16‬ה ֵנּה־ ָ֣נא כֹ֣חוֹ ְבָמְת ָ֑ניו ְ֝ו ֹ‬
A Discussion, Ch. 40:1–5, and a Poem, vv. 7–32
 1Yahweh answered Job and said:
2
Will one who contends with Shaddai correct him?
Let him who reproves God answer all this.
3
Job answered Yahweh and said:
4
Look, I am small; what could I reply to you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
5
I have spoken once, and I cannot answer,
twice, and I will not continue.
6
Yahweh answered Job from the tempest and said:
7
Gird up your loins like a man, (a) I
then I can ask you, and you will make me know!
8
Would you even annul my justice?
Would you prove me wrong so that you are in the right?
9
Have you an arm like El?
Can you thunder with a voice like his?
10
Bedeck yourself now with grandeur and dignity (b)
and clothe yourself with majesty and splendor.
11
Unleash the furies of your anger,
see every proud one and bring him low.
12
See every proud one, humble him
and tread down the wicked where they stand!
13
Hide them in the dust together, (c)
shroud their faces in the grave.
14
Then even I will praise you,
because your right hand can give you victory.
15
Behold now Behemoth, whom I made as well as you, (d) II
he eats grass like the cattle.
16
Behold now his strength in his loins
and his might in the muscles of his belly.
‫‪ַ 17‬יְחֹ֣פּץ ְז ָנ֣בוֹ ְכמוֹ־ ָ֑א ֶרז ִגּי ֵ֖די ַפֲח ָ֣דיו ְישׂ ֹ ָֽרגוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ֭ 18‬ﬠָצָמיו ֲאִפי ֵ֣קי ְנחוּ ָ ֑שׁה ְ֝גּ ָרָ֗מיו ִכְּמ ִ֥טיל ַבּ ְר ֶֽזל‪:‬‬
‫ﬠ֗שׂוֹ ַי ֵ֥גּשׁ ַח ְרֽבּוֹ‪:‬‬

‫ָ֝ה ֹ‬ ‫‪֖ 19‬הוּא ֵראִ֣שׁית ַדּ ְרֵכי־ ֵ֑אל‬
‫ְֽוָכל־ַח ַ֥יּת ַ֝הָשּׂ ֶ֗דה ְיַֽשֲׂחקוּ־ָֽשׁם‪:‬‬ ‫‪ִֽ 20‬כּי־֖בוּל ָה ִ֣רים ִיְשׂאוּ־֑לוֹ‬
‫‪ַֽ 21‬תַּחת־ ֶֽצֱא ִ֥לים ִיְשׁ ָ֑כּב ְבּ ֵ֖סֶתר ָק ֶ֣נה וִּב ָֽצּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 22‬יֻס ֻ֣כּהוּ ֶצֱא ִ֣לים ִֽצֲל֑לוֹ ְ֝יֻס֗בּוּהוּ ַﬠ ְרֵבי־ ָֽנַחל‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵ֤ 23‬הן ַיֲﬠ ֣שׁ ֹק ָ֭נָהר ֣ל ֹא ַיְח֑פּוֹז ִיְבַ֓טח ׀ ִֽכּי־ ָי ִ֖גיַח ַי ְר ֵ֣דּן ֶאל־ ִֽפּיהוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ְ 24‬בֵּﬠי ָ֥ניו ִיָקּ ֶ֑חנּוּ ְ֝בּֽמוְֹקִ֗שׁים ִי ְנָקב־ ָֽאף‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 25‬תְּמ ֣שׁ ֹ􀀇 ִל ְו ָי ָ֣תן ְבַּח ָ֑כּה ֝וְּב ֶ֗חֶבל ַתְּשׁ ִ֥קיַﬠ ְלשׁ ֹ ֽנוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 26‬הָתִ֣שׂים ַא ְג֣מוֹן ְבַּא֑פּוֹ ֝וְּב֗חוַֹח ִתּ֥קּוֹב ֶֽלֱחיוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 27‬ה ַי ְר ֶ֣בּה ֵ ֭אֶלי􀀈 ַתֲּחנוּ ִ֑נים ִאם־ ְי ַד ֵ֖בּר ֵא ֶ֣לי􀀈 ַרֽכּוֹת‪:‬‬
‫‪ֲ 28‬ה ִיְכ ֣ר ֹת ְבּ ִ֣רית ִﬠ ָ ֑מּ􀀇 ִ֝תָּקּ ֶ֗חנּוּ ְל ֶ֣ﬠֶבד ﬠוֹ ָֽלם‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 29‬הְתַשֶׂחק־֖בּוֹ ַכִּצּ֑פּוֹר ְ֝וִתְקְשׁ ֶ֗רנּוּ ְל ַנֲﬠרוֹ ֶֽתי􀀈‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 30‬יְכ ֣רוּ ָ ֭ﬠָליו ַחָבּ ִ֑רים ֶ֝יֱח֗צוּהוּ ֵ֣בּין ְֽכּ ַנֲﬠ ִֽנים‪:‬‬
‫‪ַֽ 31‬הְתַמ ֵ֣לּא ְבֻשׂ֣כּוֹת ﬠוֹ ֑רוֹ וְּבִצְל ַ֖צל ָדּ ִ֣גים ר ֹאֽשׁוֹ‪:‬‬

‫‪ִ 32‬שׂים־ָﬠ ָ֥ליו ַכּ ֶ֑פּ􀀈 ְז ֥כֹר ִ֝מְלָחָ֗מה ַאל־תּוֹ ַֽסף‪:‬‬
17
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar, (e)
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18
His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs are like iron rods.
19
He is the fifrst of El’s ways, (f)
only his maker can approach him with his sword.
20
The mountains bring him their produce
and all the beasts of the fifeld play there.
21
Under the lotus plants he lies, (g) III
in covert of reeds and marsh.
22
The lotus plants form a bower of shade over him,
the willows of the brook surround him.
23
Look, he restrains the river but is in no hurry,
he is secure even if the Jordan surges at his mouth.
24
Let anyone capture him by his eyes, (h)
pierce his nose with hooks!
25
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fifshhook,
and press down his tongue with a rope?
26
Can you put a ring through his nose
and pierce his jaw with a barb?
27
Will he keep begging you for mercy? (i) IV
Will he speak soft words to you?
28
Will he make a covenant with you,
so that you can take him as your slave for life?
29
Can you play with him as with a bird, (j)
and put him on a leash for your girls?
30
Will traders bargain over him,
divide him up among merchants?
31
Can you fifll his skin with harpoons (k)
and his head with a fifsh-spear?
32
Lay your hand on him,
and you will never think of battle again …
‫תַּחְל֥תּוֹ ִנְכ ָ֑זָבה ֲה ַ֖גם ֶאל־ַמ ְר ָ֣איו ֻי ָֽטל‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֵ 41:1‬הן־ ֹ‬

‫‪ֽ 2‬ל ֹא־ ַ ֭אְכ ָזר ִ֣כּי ְיﬠוּ ֶ֑רנּוּ וִּ֥מי ֗הוּא ְלָפ ַ֥ני ִיְת ַי ָֽצּב‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֣ 3‬מי ִ ֭הְק ִדּיַמ ִני ַוֲאַשׁ ֵ֑לּם ַ֖תַּחת ָכּל־ַהָשּׁ ַ ֣מ ִים ִלי־ֽהוּא‪:‬‬
‫‪ 4‬ל ֹא־ַאֲח ִ֥רישׁ ַבּ ָ֑דּיו וּ ְדַבר־ ְ֝גּבוּ֗רוֹת ְו ִ֣חין ֶﬠ ְרֽכּוֹ‪:‬‬
‫‪ִֽ 5‬מי־ ִ֭גָלּה ְפּ ֵ֣ני ְלבוּ֑שׁוֹ ְבּ ֶ֥כֶפל ִ֝רְס ֗נוֹ ִ֣מי ָיֽבוֹא‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 6‬דְּל ֵ֣תי ָ ֭פ ָניו ִ֣מי ִפ ֵ֑תַּח ְסִבי֖בוֹת ִשׁ ָ֣נּיו ֵאיָֽמה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ֭ 7‬גֲּא ָוה ֲאִפי ֵ֣קי ָֽמ ִג ִ֑נּים ָ֝ס ֗גוּר חוֹ ָ֥תם ָֽצר‪:‬‬
‫‪ֶ 8‬א ָ֣חד ְבֶּא ָ֣חד ִי ַ֑גּשׁוּ ְ֝ו֗רוַּח ל ֹא־ ָי֥בוֹא ֵֽבי ֵני ֶֽהם‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ 9‬אישׁ־ְבָּא ִ֥חיהוּ ְי ֻד ָ֑בּקוּ ִ֝יְתַלְכּ֗דוּ ְו ֣ל ֹא ִיְתָפּ ָֽרדוּ‪:‬‬
‫ְ֝וֵﬠי ָ֗ניו ְכַּﬠְפַﬠֵפּי־ָֽשַׁחר‪:‬‬ ‫‪ֲֽ 10‬ﬠִטישׁ ָֹתיו ָ֣תֶּהל ֑אוֹר‬

‫ִכּי ֥דוֹ ֵדי ֵ֗אשׁ ִיְתַמ ָֽלּטוּ‪:‬‬ ‫‪֭ ִ 11‬מִפּיו ַלִפּי ִ֣דים ַיֲה֑􀀉כוּ‬
‫מ ן‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 12‬מ ְנִּחי ָריו ֵי ֵ֣צא ָﬠ ָ ֑שׁן ְכּ ֖דוּד ָנ֣פוַּח ְוַא ְג ֽ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ֭ 13‬נְפשׁוֹ ֶגָּח ִ֣לים ְתַּל ֵ֑הט ְ֝וַ֗לַהב ִמ ִ֥פּיו ֵי ֵֽצא‪:‬‬
‫ﬠז ֝וְּלָפ ָ֗ניו ָתּ ֥דוּץ ְדָּא ָֽבה‪:‬‬

‫‪ְֽ 14‬בַּצ ָוּארוֹ ָי ִ֣לין ֑ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 15‬מְפּ ֵ֣לי ְבָשׂ ֣רוֹ ָד ֵ֑בקוּ ָי֥צוּק ָ֝ﬠָ֗ליו ַבּל־ ִיֽמּוֹט‪:‬‬
 1Look, any hope [to catch him] proves to be false, (a) I

one is laid low at the very sight of him.
2
No one is so fiferce as to rouse him;
and who can take a stand before my face?
3
Whoever confronts me I will requite, (b)
he is mine, everywhere under heaven.
4
I will not be silent about his limbs,
but speak of his might and the grace of his frame.
5
Who can uncover his outer garment? (c) II
His double coat of mail, who can penetrate it?
6
The doors of his face, who dares pry them open?
The rows of his teeth are sheer terror.
7
His back is a series of shields, (d)
locked with a tight seal.
8
They touch each other one to one,
not even a breath of air can come between.
9
Each one is joined fast to the next,
they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
10
His sneezes flfash forth light (e) III
and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn.
11
Out of his mouth come flfaming torches,
sparks of fifre escape.
12
Out of his nostrils comes smoke (f)
as from a pot fanned and seething.
13
His throat ignites coals
and a flfame comes out of his mouth.
14
Strength resides in his neck (g) IV
and before his face dread dances.
15
The layers of his flfesh stick together,
cast hard upon him and immovable.
‫‪ִ֖ 16‬לבּוֹ ָי֣צוּק ְכּמוֹ־ ָ֑אֶבן ְ֝ו ָי֗צוּק ְכּ ֶ֣פַלח ַתְּח ִֽתּית‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ִ 17‬מֵשּׂתוֹ ָי ֣גוּרוּ ֵא ִ֑לים ִ֝מְשָּׁב ִ֗רים ִיְתַח ָֽטּאוּ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 18‬מִשּׂי ֵ֣גהוּ ֶ֭ח ֶרב ְבּ ִ֣לי ָת֑קוּם ֲח ִ֖נית ַמ ָ֣סּﬠ ְוִשׁ ְר ָֽיה‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 19‬יְח ֣שׁ ֹב ְל ֶ֣תֶבן ַבּ ְר ֶ֑זל ְל ֵ֖ﬠץ ִרָקּ֣בוֹן ְנחוָּֽשׁה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֽ 20‬ל ֹא־ ַיְב ִרי ֶ֥חנּוּ ֶבן־ ָ֑קֶשׁת ְ֝ל ַ ֗קשׁ ֶנְהְפּכוּ־֥לוֹ ַאְב ֵני־ ָֽקַלﬠ‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ְ 21‬כַּקשׁ ֶנְחְשׁ֣בוּ תוֹ ָ֑תח ְ֝ו ִיְשׂ ַ֗חק ְל ַ֣רַﬠשׁ ִכּי ֽדוֹן‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 22‬תְּחָתּיו ַח ֣דּוּ ֵדי ָ֑ח ֶרשׂ ִי ְר ַ֖פּד ָח ֣רוּץ ֲﬠֵלי־ ִֽטיט‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 23‬י ְר ִ֣תּיַח ַכּ ִ֣סּיר ְמצוּ ָ֑לה ָ֗ים ָיִ֥שׂים ַכֶּמּ ְרָק ָֽחה‪:‬‬
‫‪֭ ַ 24‬אֲח ָריו ָי ִ֣איר ָנ ִ֑תיב ַיְח ֖שׁ ֹב ְתּ֣הוֹם ְלֵשׂי ָֽבה‪:‬‬
‫‪ֵֽ 25‬אין־ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ָמְשׁ֑לוֹ ֶ֝הָﬠ֗שׂוּ ִלְבִלי־ ָֽחת‪:‬‬

‫ס‬ ‫‪ֵֽ 26‬את־ָכּל־ ָגּ ֥בַֹהּ ִי ְר ֶ֑אה ֗הוּא ֶ ֣מֶל􀀇 ַﬠל־ָכּל־ְבּ ֵני־ָֽשַׁחץ‪:‬‬
‫‪ַ 42:1‬ו ַ֖יַּﬠן ִא ֥יּוֹב ֶאת־ ְיה ָ֗וה ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬
‫‪ָ֭ 2‬י ַדְﬠִתּי ִכּי־ ֣כֹל תּוּ ָ֑כל ְול ֹא־ ִיָבּ ֵ֖צר ִמְמּ֣􀀈 ְמ ִזָֽמּה‪:‬‬
‫‪ִ֤ 3‬מי ֶ֨זה ַמְﬠ ִ֥לים ֵﬠָ֗צה ְֽבִּ֫לי ָ֥דַﬠת‬
‫ָל ֵ֣כן ִ ֭ה ַגּ ְדִתּי ְו ֣ל ֹא ָא ִ֑בין ִנְפָל֥אוֹת ִ֝מֶ֗מּ ִנּי ְו ֣ל ֹא ֵא ָֽדﬠ‪:‬‬
16
His heart is cast hard as a stone, (h)
hard as the nether millstone.
17
At his angry rising gods are afraid,
at his crashings they cringe.
18
No sword one draws against him can prevail, (i) V
nor spear, nor missile, nor lance.
19
He counts iron as straw,
bronze as rotten wood.
20
No arrow can make him flfee, (j)
slingstones turn into stubble for him.
21
Clubs are counted as chaff,
and he laughs at the quivering of the javelin.
22
His nether parts are jagged shards, (k) VI
he drags them like a threshing sledge on the mire.
23
He seethes the deep like a cauldron,
he makes the sea like an ointment pot.
24
Behind him he leaves a glistening wake,
he makes the abyss seem white-haired.
25
On earth he has no equal, (l)
made as he was without fear.
26
He looks down on all that is haughty,
he is king over all that are proud.
Job’s Answer, 42:1–6
 1Job answered Yahweh and said:
2
I know that you can do everything (a)
and that no scheme of yours can be thwarted.
3
[You said,]
“Who is this who obscures counsel without knowledge?”
Indeed, I spoke—but do not understand—
Of things too wonderful for me—and I do not know.
‫‪192‬‬ ‫‪last strophe and closing narrative‬‬
‫‪ְֽ 4‬שַֽׁמﬠ־ ָ֭נא ְוָאֹנ ִ֣כי ֲא ַד ֵ֑בּר ֶ֝אְשָׁאְל֗􀀈 ְוהוֹ ִדי ֵֽﬠ ִני‪:‬‬
‫א ֶזן ְשַׁמְﬠ ִ֑תּי􀀈 ְ֝וַﬠָ֗תּה ֵﬠי ִ֥ני ָר ָֽאְת􀀈‪:‬‬ ‫‪ְ 5‬לֵֽשַׁמﬠ־ ֥ ֹ‬
‫‪ַ 6‬ﬠל־ ֵ ֭כּן ֶאְמ ַ֣אס ְו ִנ ַ֑חְמִתּי ַﬠל־ָﬠ ָ֥פר ָו ֵֽאֶפר‪ :‬פ‬
‫‪ַ 7‬ו ְיִ֗הי ַא ַ֨חר ִדּ ֶ֧בּר ְיהָ֛וה ֶאת־ַה ְדָּב ִ֥רים ָה ֵ֖אֶלּה ֶאל־ִא ֑יּוֹב ַו ֨יּ ֹאֶמר ְיה ָ֜וה‬
‫ֶאל־ֱאִלי ַ֣פז ַה ֵֽתּיָמ ִ֗ני ָח ָ֨רה ַא ִ֤פּי ְב֙􀀈 וִּבְשׁ ֵ֣ני ֵרֶ֔ﬠי􀀈 ִ֠כּי ֣ל ֹא ִדַבּ ְר ֶ֥תּם ֵא ַ֛לי‬
‫ְנכוֹ ָ֖נה ְכַּﬠְב ִ֥דּי ִא ֽיּוֹב‪ְ 8 :‬וַﬠָ֡תּה ְקֽחוּ־ָל ֶ֣כם ִשְׁב ָֽﬠה־ָפ ִרי֩ם ְוִשְׁבָ֨ﬠה‬
‫ֵאיִ֜לים וְּל֣כוּ ׀ ֶאל־ַﬠְב ִ֣דּי ִא ֗יּוֹב ְוַהֲﬠִלי ֶ֤תם ﬠוָֹל֙ה ַֽבַּﬠ ְדֶ֔כם ְוִא ֣יּוֹב ַﬠְב ִ֔דּי‬
‫ִיְתַפּ ֵ֖לּל ֲﬠֵלי ֶ֑כם ִ֧כּי ִאם־ָפּ ָ֣ניו ֶאָ֗שּׂא ְלִבְלִ֞תּי ֲﬠ֤שׂוֹת ִﬠָמֶּכ֙ם ְנָבָ֔לה ִ֠כּי ֣ל ֹא‬
‫ִדַבּ ְר ֶ֥תּם ֵא ַ֛לי ְנכוֹ ָ֖נה ְכַּﬠְב ִ֥דּי ִא ֽיּוֹב‪ַ 9 :‬ו ֵיְּלכ ֩וּ ֱאִליַ֨פז ַה ֵֽתּיָמ ִ֜ני וִּבְל ַ֣דּד‬
‫ַהשּׁוּ ִ֗חי צַֹפ֙ר ַה ַ֣נֲּﬠָמִ֔תי ַֽו ַיֲּﬠ֔שׂוּ ַכֲּא ֶ ֛שׁר ִדּ ֶ֥בּר ֲאֵלי ֶ֖הם ְיהָ֑וה ַו ִיָּ֥שּׂא ְיה ָ֖וה‬
‫ֶאת־ְפּ ֵ֥ני ִא ֽיּוֹב‪ַֽ 10 :‬ויה ָ֗וה ָ ֚שׁב ֶאת־ְשִׁבית ִא ֔יּוֹב ְבּ ִֽהְת ַֽפְּל֖לוֹ ְבּ ַ֣ﬠד ֵר ֵ֑ﬠהוּ‬
‫ַ֧ויֶֹּסף ְיהָ֛וה ֶאת־ָכּל־ֲאֶ֥שׁר ְלִא ֖יּוֹב ְלִמְשׁ ֶֽנה‪ַ 11 :‬ו ָיּ ֣בֹאוּ ֵ֠אָליו ָכּל־ֶא ָ֨חיו‬
‫ְוָכל־ַאְחי ָֹתיו ְוָכל־י ֹ ְד ָ֣ﬠיו ְלָפ ִ֗נים ַויּ ֹאְכ ֨לוּ ִﬠ֣מּוֹ ֶלֶח֮ם ְבֵּביתוֹ֒ ַו ָיּ ֻנ֤דוּ ל֨וֹ‬
‫א֔תוֹ ַ ֚ﬠל ָכּל־ ָ֣ה ָרָ֔ﬠה ֲאֶשׁר־ֵה ִ֥ביא ְיה ָ֖וה ָﬠ ָ֑ליו ַו ִיְּתּנוּ־ ֗לוֹ ִ֚אישׁ‬ ‫ַו ְי ַנֲח֣מוּ ֹ‬
‫ְקִשׂי ָ֣טה ֶא ָ֔חת ְוִ֕אישׁ ֶ֥נ ֶזם ָז ָ֖הב ֶא ָֽחד‪ַֽ 12 :‬ויה ָ֗וה ֵבּ ַ֛ר􀀇 ֶאת־ַאֲח ִ֥רית ִא ֖יּוֹב‬
‫ֵמ ֵראִשׁ֑תוֹ ַֽו ְיִהי־ ֡לוֹ ַא ְרָבָּﬠ֩ה ָﬠָ֨שׂר ֶ֜אֶלף ֗צ ֹאן ְו ֵ ֤שֶׁשׁת ֲאָלִפי֙ם ְגַּמִ֔לּים‬
‫ְו ֶֽאֶלף־ ֶ֥צֶמד ָבּ ָ֖קר ְו ֶ֥אֶלף ֲאתוֹ ֽנוֹת‪ַֽ 13 :‬ו ְיִהי־֛לוֹ ִשְׁב ָ֥ﬠ ָנה ָב ִ֖נים ְוָשׁ֥לוֹשׁ‬
‫ָבּ ֽנוֹת‪ַ 14 :‬ו ִיְּק ָ֤רא ֵשׁם־ ָֽהַאַח֙ת ְיִמיָ֔מה ְוֵ֥שׁם ַהֵשּׁ ִ֖נית ְקִצי ָ֑ﬠה ְוֵ֥שׁם ַהְשִּׁליִ֖שׁית‬
‫ֶ֥ק ֶרן ַהֽפּוּ􀀇‪ְ 15 :‬ו ֨ל ֹא ִנְמָ֜צא ָנִ֥שׁים ָי֛פוֹת ִכְּב ֥נוֹת ִא ֖יּוֹב ְבָּכל־ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ַו ִיֵּ֨תּן‬
‫ָל ֶ֧הם ֲאִבי ֶ֛הם ַנֲח ָ֖לה ְבּ֥תוֹ􀀇 ֲאֵחי ֶֽהם‪ :‬ס ‪ַ 16‬ו ְי ִ֤חי ִאיּוֹ֙ב ַֽאֲח ֵרי־‬
‫֔ז ֹאת ֵמ ָ֥אה ְוַא ְרָבּ ִ֖ﬠים ָשׁ ָ֑נה ַו ַיּ ְרא ֶאת־ָבּ ָני ֨ו ְוֶאת־ְבּ ֵ֣ני ָב ָ֔ניו ַא ְרָבּ ָ֖ﬠה‬
‫דּ ֹ ֽרוֹת‪ַ 17 :‬ו ָיָּ֣מת ִא ֔יּוֹב ָז ֵ֖קן וְּשׂ ַ֥בﬠ ָיִֽמים‪:‬‬
last strophe and closing narrative 193
4
[You said,] (b)
“Hear now, for I am the one who will speak;
I will ask you, and you will make me know!”
5
By the hearing of the ear I had heard of you,
but now my eye has seen you.
6
Therefore I quit,
and I am consoled over dust and dirt.
The Writer Concludes with Narrative Prose, 42:7–17
7
After Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the
Temanite: “My anger has flfared up against you and your two friends, because
you have not spoken to me what is right, as my servant Job has.
8
But now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and
sacrififce a burnt-offering on behalf of yourselves. My servant Job will pray
for you, for only to him will I show favor, and not expose you to disgrace. For
you have not spoken to me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
9
Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite
went and did as Yahweh had spoken to them, and Yahweh showed favor
to Job.10Yahweh reversed Job’s fortunes when he had prayed on behalf of
his friends, and Yahweh increased what Job had had before twofold. 11All his
brothers and all his sisters and all his former acquaintances came to him and
ate a meal with him in his house. They consoled and comforted him about
all the evil that Yahweh had brought upon him. Each one of them gave him
one piece of silver and one golden ring.
12
Thus Yahweh blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the fifrst. He
had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of
oxen and one thousand she-asses. 13He had seven sons and three daughters.
14
He called the name of the fifrst Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah
and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15No women as beautiful as Job’s
daughters could be found in all the land, and their father gave them an
inheritance among their brothers. 16After this Job lived one hundred and
forty years and saw his sons and grandsons to four generations. 17So Job died,
an old man and sated with days.
PART III
READING AIDS, NOTES, MEASURES

INTRODUCTORY PROSE, CHS. 1–2
The author begins in the role of narrator. The fifrst thing he does is to give
the hero of his story a place. Remarkably enough, Job is not an Israelite. He
lives as a gentleman farmer of great distinction—one might say as a sheik—
either in a landscape situated some four days’ march north-eastward from
the Lake of Galilee or some two hundred miles southward, east of the Dead
Sea. And the friends that soon come to visit him do not come from the
heartland of the people of Israel either. They are from the South, from the
peninsula of the Sinai or from adjacent territory in the Trans-Jordan. The
Syrian-Arabian desert is not far away.
The narrator’s second step is to describe the character Job immediately
via a series of two plus two qualities which are each other’s synonyms.
The fifrst is that he is ‘blameless’, and this adjective is at once the most
important, for the word is not only compliantly repeated by God in 1:8, but
also returns as a noun in the precarious confrontation between Job and his
wife in 2:9. As regards content it remains the hero’s polestar, all through the
book.
Blamelessness is everything to Job, and the author mirrors this by not
only mentioning it but also demonstrating it shortly afterwards: in v. 5 Job
puts it into practice with conscientious behaviour: care for his sons. Thus
Job’s moral style forms a frame for the paragraph vv. 1–5, and this piece of
text turns out to have an introductory function: the hero’s background and
qualities.
The real action starts in v. 6, and this leads us on to the design of chapters
1–2. Here, too, we fifnd an application of two plus two. The conversations in
the heavenly council between Yahweh and the Prosecutor are followed by
the latter’s onslaught and its effect in Job’s life:
A fifrst conversation Yahweh—Prosecutor: is Job essentially sincere? 1:6–12

B fifrst series of disasters, report thereof to Job, his reaction 1:13–21
A’ second conversation Yahweh—Prosecutor: test intensififed 2:1–6
B’ last, physical disaster; reactions by Job, wife and friends 2:7–13
The Prosecutor asks a cunning question: is Job’s devoutness ‘for nought’, or,
as some versions have it, ‘without reason’? The underlying suggestion is: it
stands to reason, does it not, that Job keeps serving God with pleasure! For
200 introductory prose, chs. 1–2
he has everything he could possibly wish for, and it was given him by God!
With this argument the Prosecutor challenges God: let’s see you prove that
this man is deeply and entirely sincere in his faith and loyalty. Taking away
his prosperity and his offspring will be the litmus test. Could we get Job to
start cursing?
Cursing God is such an emotionally charged combination of words that
the author replaces the word ‘cursing’ four times with its opposite, ‘blessing’,
which we must therefore take as a euphemism: in 1:5 Job as a father wants to
prevent his sons ‘blessing’ God, in 1:11 and 2:5 the Prosecutor aims at getting
Job to ‘bless’ God by his terrible ordeals, and in 2:11 Job is even urged to do
so by his own wife—but in vain. This quartet of ‘blessings’ which mean just
the opposite, is unmasked and replaced in 3:1.
On the threshold of all the poetry, in the sentence with which he gives
Job the flfoor for his radical and raging prologue, the author tells us that “Job
cursed his day”. ‘His day’: that is a metonym, a fifgure of speech for his whole
existence. Has the truth fifnally come out? Yes and no, for the fatal word, it
is true, is out, but the object of Job’s cursing is (still) not God himself. The
test which the Prosecutor wanted to carry out and which was allowed him
by the deity, seems for the time being to be a monumental failure: Job does
not curse God.
Sequence B in the four-part plan (or in terms of writing: paragraph B)
contains four disasters. The author has decided not to report them himself,
but to sublet that job to anonymous messengers, so that in 1:13–19 the
emphasis is on communication and on Job as a receiver: the blows that are
dealt Job are given the form of tidings of calamities. Once more we see an
arrangement of two plus two:
a) raid (cattle taken away and servants slain by people) vv. 13–15
b) natural phenomenon: lightning kills cattle and servants v. 1
a’) raid (camels taken away and servants slain by people) v. 17
b’) natural phenomenon: stormcauses death of Job’s children vv. 18–19
At the same time, there is here a literary pattern of three plus one. For it is
a matter of property—cattle and shepherds that disappear three times—
whereas the fourth disaster is not about animals but hits Job still more per-
sonally: in his own offspring. Their death robs life of all meaning—thus it
was experienced in ancient Israel. It is obvious that the scheme 3 + 1 has been
contrived with an eye to a climax. When we look back at the ab—a’b’ alter-
nation in the sequences, discussed earlier, we also see that this series has a
climactic peak: the fourth paragraph is an ultimate disaster in the sense that
introductory prose, chs. 1–2 201
it is entirely personal, hitting Job physically. What is now also at stake is his
skin, literally, and after his prosperity now his welfare, too, has been wiped
out.
How does Job take all this? The author shows us his hero’s foremost
reaction by giving him the flfoor and moreover by rendering the speech in
poetry. In 1:21, Job speaks a poem which is a regular S-strophe, and which
leaves no doubt about his position: unbroken integrity. The pattern of the
four half-verses (the reader guesses as much) is again two plus two. The
fifrst pair couples the beginning and the end of a life. The decisive word is
fifrst in each of the two sentences: naked. The second pair is a still cleverer
combination of polarity and similarity:
Yahweh has given and Yahweh has taken,
May Yahweh’s name be blessed.
We recognize the word ‘blessed’. Here its use is sincere (not ironic): a
convincing counterweight to the four cases in which ‘blessing’ was the mask
of cursing. At the same time it is a counterpart to the statement in 3:1 where
‘cursing’ was at last brought into play and which was also without irony.
The fifrst half-verse of Job’s strophe consists of two very short clauses,
in the original 2+ 2 words, describing two actions in balance. They are like
thesis and antithesis. The second half-verse (the B-colon) follows with the
synthesis which transcends the contrast. So, to Job blessing God’s proper
name (again four words in the original) is something that remains valid and
necessary under all circumstances.
Job does not break. The author honours him by giving a sequel to 1:5,
where he had shown the hero’s moral integrity. He himself writes the fifnal
sentence of the fifrst chapter, and with it the certififcation that Job remains
blameless, 1:22. And at the end of 2:10 he says the same thing, in new terms.
THE FIRST POEM: JOB’S PROLOGUE, CH. 3
If the Book of Job is unique among the surprisingly varied collection of writ-
ings which together form the First Testament, chapter 3 is equally unique
with respect to the other texts in the Book of Job. It is the fifrst full-sized
poem, with Job as the speaker, and it clears the way for a great debate, but
is not part of it. The exceptionality of Job 3 lies both in the form and in
the content. Perhaps it is the most intense and disconcerting page of the
Hebrew Bible, thanks to the emotional outpourings of a shattered man, and
the poet underlines this with a special measure of strophe structure involv-
ing numerical precision.
In order for us to keep aflfoat in the whirlpool of passions, it is useful for
us this time to begin with a look at the numerical proportions. The poet
has decided to increase the standard length of both the short and the long
strophes by one verse. Here the short strophe has three verses; the long
one consists of four verses, and this is absolutely exceptional. In this way
the poet marks the particularity of the opening poem. The meaning of this
measure becomes clear when we see how many strophes and verses he
creates. There are seven strophes. They have been grouped in three parts,
and they alternate precisely as 3+4/3+4+3/4+ 3 verses, so that we can
write the three stanzas as S L/S L S/L S.
The increase in the normal strophe length leads to another holy number:
now there are twelve verses in the S-units, and twelve in the L-units. Here
are the measures of the short and the long strophes, noted on four text levels:
– four K-strophes: 12 verses, 26 cola, 97 words and 211 syllables,
– three L-strophes: 12 verses, 26 cola, 95 words and 213 syllables.
The 24 verses have 192 words altogether in the original text, and that pro-
duces a unique average per verse, which is not found in any other poem in
the Book of Job: exactly eight words per verse. Twelve times eight is 96, and
that number clearly is the standard which the fifgures 95 and 97 approach
from both sides.
The passions of Job 3 have been kept under control thanks to a striving
toward numerical precision. The composition shows a combination of the
holy numbers 7 and 12 with the fifgure which to the poets is the primary
measure in making cola, the number 8. And these characteristics of Job
3 do not stand alone. The three prestigious numbers will combine even
204 the first poem: job’s prologue, ch. 3
more convincingly in ch. 31. This is no coincidence, for with that poem the
main character concludes the debate proper, and the content of ch. 31 (the
body of which is a series of oaths of clearance) is most particular and for
Job personally of the utmost importance. The prosodic data of ch. 3 and
ch. 31 hint that exactly these two poems fulfifl a special function, namely
the framing of the great debate. Job himself has the fifrst word by supplying
the prologue, and moreover, Job is twice given the last word: ch. 31 as
completion of the debate proper, and 42:1–6 as the last word (= poem) of
the whole section of poetry. That says a lot about the relationship between
author and hero.
Let us now listen to Job. Nowhere in this fifrst poem is there a second per-
son. Job does not say ‘you’ to God, nor to his wife, nor to his friends. So what
audience does the speaker (or rather: the poet) think he is addressing? This
‘zero’ quality, that is to say the fact that no one in particular is addressed,
deserves a positive valuation. Job speaks as it were to himself, as if he were all
alone—and emotionally speaking that is now his truth: who else could fully
empathise with so much sorrow? That there is no addressee of this speech
also means that the message cannot be limited by the direction of address.
Job’s words go forth into the open; he does not hold back his emotions, and
that yields a new answer to the question: who is or who are his audience?
I would say: whoever wants to listen. Within the story—within the world
evoked by the words—this is true: the friends and God are not shut out;
they do listen. That is true on the level of the speaker, Job. But outside and
above the story is the author, and he aims at his audience. With that, we
readers come into the picture. We are the audience which ultimately inter-
ests the author. He aims at the competent reader. Only when we open our
ears is justice done to his speaking.
The main line of the prologue can be mapped as follows:
main
Stanza strophes verse numbers emotion atmosphere time or place
I (a, b) 3–5/6–9 fury curse womb
II (c, d, e) 10–12/13–16/ longing irrealis then/now:
17–19 realm of Death
III (f, g) 20–23/24–26 sorrow complaint present
The author tells us in his introduction (3:1–2) that Job ‘cursed his day’. Before
Job himself in his fifrst poetic line narrows this down to the fifrst day of his life,
this term has wide implications. I read it as a metonym for life as a whole.
the first poem: job’s prologue, ch. 3 205
Job wants to lift his life off its hinges and wipe it out in two blows: in the
massive strophes (a) and (b).
The fifrst stanza, the beginning of the beginning, is an explosion of rhetor-
ical violence. Strophe (a) is a curse with which Job specififcally turns against
the day of his birth; strophe (b) is a curse which goes back even further in
time and concerns precisely the night of his conception. The author has
placed a well-known pair of words in position, with which in many con-
texts the poets make the halves of a verse parallel: day and night, but now
this complementary pair determines the beginning of two strophes and it
covers a complete pregnancy by indicating its ends. If we remember that
Hebrew, like English, lacks a word for ‘period of twenty-four hours’, we real-
ize that the division of day and night over the fifrst two strophes not only
guarantees balance and cohesion in those units, but also suggests that it
covers the whole of life, in order to … throw it away and, actually, to pre-
vent it. Just as ch. 3 is the prologue to the work of poetry and debate, so its
fifrst part, the stanza on the pregnancy, covers the prologue of Job’s life.
The fact that Job goes back to that period, when he was still ‘speechless,’
has a particular signififcance: it indicates how he now wants to eradicate his
own life, preferably totally. In order to achieve that aim he uses the most
compelling language that a human being has at his disposal: the terms and
intentions of the curse. The language of cursing borders on magic, and here
it is used against life itself: a rhetorical way of performing abortion. In v. 8 Job
even calls for the help of dubious people who have made it their profession
to bring about destruction with professional black magic. Let them mobilize
the powers of the great Sea-dragon, called Leviathan. This appeal exceeds
the proprieties so much that in ch. 41 God returns to it, to indicate who really
is master of creation (see there from 40:25 on).
In the meantime the poet has turned Job’s mood into massive rage by
strengthening both strophes with two C-cola. They now comprise eight and
ten cola; this sets a record for the whole book and makes stanza 1 the centre
of gravity of the poem. Where could we fifnd a poet who comes to the point
more quickly?
What Job wishes for in the fifrst part is of course not to be had; in this
way we have already been introduced almost imperceptibly into a special
environment which is unreal. This reminds us of a syntactical term, the
‘irrealis’, which we use for sentences about an impossible wish or thought.
Such is also exactly the mood which we fifnd in strophe (d) (the middle
of the middle), indicating what would now have been the case with Job
if his mother had had the desired miscarriage many years ago; he would
have enjoyed a fantastic, undisturbed rest since that time—that of the
206 the first poem: job’s prologue, ch. 3
realm of death (in Hebrew called Sheʾol, an abode comparable to the Hades
of the Greeks).
The beginning of this middle part is quite physical: strophe (c) mentions
a part of the body in each half-verse. The spotlight is still on ‘my’ birth.
The ‘why’ questions of vv. 11–12 are vehicles of sorrow and complaint. The
beginning, verse 10, contains a sneaky ambiguity. “Truly, he did not shut the
doors of my [mother’s] womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.” The imagery
is almost ungainly, and it makes of coming into the world a passage through
a strong gate. But who, actually, is the ‘he’ who (disgracefully enough, to
Job’s feeling of the moment) has failed to barricade the entrance? If verse 10
had still been a part of the fifrst stanza, the masculine pronoun might well
have referred to ‘the night’, the dominant subject of strophe (b). However,
this very long unit has long since been concluded, and v. 10 is the beginning
of both strophe (c) and of the entire middle part (stanza II). Moreover, the
poetic line has striking points of contact with the unit which on the level of
stanzas succeeds strophe (c), namely strophe (f). There, we see a recurrence
of words like why, miserable, hide, light (of day), and still more strikingly:
v. 20a, too, has a ‘he’ as subject whose identity is not clear in advance.
In short, a new reading of that ‘he’ is that it is God himself whom Job is
attacking with great bitterness. And precisely the anonymous nature of this
‘he’ (both in v. 10 and in v. 20), which resists simple recognition, is a sign of
Job’s position: he still hesitates to tell the whole story, but at the same time
he is furious with God. And the empathic reader understands this only too
well.
The middle stanza of the three is the only one that consists of three
strophes. The illusion of complete rest and peace which governs the centre
actually bespeaks something very different: the desperate misfortune and
total restlessness which shake Job and impel him to ask the despairing
questions of strophe (c)—rhetorical questions which actually are heavy
reproaches. Once this dissatisfaction has been poured out, with strophe (d)
we come to the axis of the central stanza, which as the fourth strophe is
also the axis of the entire poem. Here total peace and equality reign, which
in strophe (e) emerge even more clearly. But alas, these forms of rest only
have the status of a dream. They are an elaboration of the irrealis.
The poem also reflfects a progression. Job begins with great fury; via illu-
sion and longing he ends up with sorrow and agony. First he must give
vent to his fury (stanza I), and discuss (stanza II) the other side of his
misfortune—this immense longing for death—before he is able to recog-
nize the hallmarks of his present situation and to formulate them in a self-
controlled way.
the first poem: job’s prologue, ch. 3 207
The third part links up with the middle by once more placing the why
question fifrst, in v. 20. The sentence structure of this L-strophe (f) is daring:
the question in its fifrst verse is not completed until the last verse. The
indirect object in v. 20 (the miserable one, they that are bitter of soul) is
repeated and elaborated in v. 23, and the two intervening verses which
fifll this frame are similar in function: illustrating even more how unhappy
mortals are.
When at last the question of v. 20 is fifnished, we are in the seventh
strophe. A dramatic ending: the only strophe in which Job renders his
horrible present state factually and purely, descriptively and unhamperedly.
Whereas v. 13 was still busy dreaming of rest (with four verbs), Job ends
his prologue in v. 26 with four verbs which are for the greater part the
same, but which now suddenly as if by a bolt of lightning (namely by the
negation: ‘not’) mean unrest and vexation. The very last word of the poem
is signififcant, and I would prefer to render it as ‘agony’.
The man cursing angrily and the dreamer have now coalesced and have
changed into a realist who is as plain as he is honest, a man who faces the
terrible facts. The verb ‘come’ serves no fewer than four times as a predicate,
and every time it means: what I feared has now happened to me.
Job began the prologue with manifestations of poetical omnipotence. In
words he made the exceptional gestures which were able to destroy his life
at birth. For some moments the poetry was magic which brought about the
impossible. But this show of omnipotence could not be kept up for long, and
it ended, after an intermezzo of longing and illusions, in a confession of total
impotence. And when we now reread the poem we feel the paradox: the
exercise in omnipotence was actually an expression of complete impotence.
THE FIRST ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 4–14
Eliphaz’ First Speech, Chs. 4–5
Chapter 4
The three friends who visited Job understood what they were to do. “They sat
with him on the ground, seven days and seven nights.” The sight of so much
pain brought about complete speechlessness—a precious moment, which
we fifnd expressed in a composition which itself consists of verbal fifreworks.
Actually there are no words for this: the sorrow of an entirely deprived man.
The men take their time with silence, and that is impressive. They do not
fall back on the clichés and bromides to which a mourning person is often
subjected by people who mean well, but who themselves do not know how
to cope with their powerlessness in the face of great pain and sorrow. No
words like: come on, old boy, things will work out in the end; everybody is
sometimes out of luck; pull yourself together; what can we do for you, and
the like.
After that week of wordless and pure nearness, Job himself may speak
fifrst: seven strophes. After that the debate with his friends begins, and the
fifrst to speak, Eliphaz, speaks for a long time. He speaks eight (!) strophes
in chapter 4, and twelve (!) strophes in chapter 5. I use exclamation marks
because these measures matter. They can hardly be called coincidental
when we see what a precision structure they fift into. Eliphaz’ fifrst speech has
an accurate balance on two or three levels. The strophes are neatly grouped
in twos, as four stanzas, and their alternation of short and long is striking
when we count the verses:
LS/LS//SL/SL = number of verses: 3+2 and 3+2//2+3 and 2+3
The halves of ch. 4 are also in balance, with 10 verses each, and this dichot-
omy is in accordance with what is being discussed.1 Let us now look at the
contents of the stanzas.
Stanza I has as its fifrst (and suffifcient) characteristic the second person:
in each line we meet a ‘you’ or ‘your’, for Eliphaz addresses each half-verse
to his friend. In each strophe, moreover, there are two questions to Job.
In stanza II Eliphaz himself answers, switching from the personal to the
general. The heart of his whole argument is already present here, exactly
210 the first round of the debate, chs. 4–14
in the middle (vv. 6–7). Stanzas III and IV are also a pair, this time as a
description of a nocturnal vision plus its literal content.
With this fifrst contribution to the debate, we at once come into touch—
or shall I say: we clash—with the theodicy, the doctrine that pretends to be
able to reconcile innocent suffering with the idea of God’s goodness and jus-
tice. So far, Job has been a supporter of the same reasoning which his friends
rightly or wrongly will maintain: his pain has been caused by God; it means
punishment and God must have good reason for that: the punished person
must have sinned. In this vision, God is and remains a reasonable and ulti-
mately understandable person. In its basic form, this doctrine advocates a
simple symmetry: he who does good will be treated well, and conversely: he
will come to grief who does ill. On the basis of this nice logic, the adherents
develop some ideas about suffering. Suffering would make sense because it
would serve a higher purpose: the afflficted man is given the chance to admit
his guilt or sin; or the pain is an invitation to him to beg God for forgiveness;
or it has the meaning of a moral lesson or admonition. We will meet the
diverse variants—is it really about making sense of what is senseless?—in
most speeches by the friends.
Eliphaz soon comes with his version, but fifrst in 4:2b he excuses himself
as it were for beginning to speak: he now really wants to give his view of
things. In vv. 3–4 and in v. 6 he soothes Job, but in v. 7 we get the real thing,
a skilfully disguised accusation, under which a dogmatic self-confifdence is
hidden. Verse 6, a rhetorical question in both cola, is a remarkable echo
of the qualififcations that Job was given by the narrator and by God at the
beginning of the prose section. True, Eliphaz recognizes that Job stands
in awe of God and leads a blameless life, but if we listen critically, we see
that mentioning that excellence is a trick to make Job give in in verse 7,
to tempt him to admit being guilty. For that is what verse 7 implies. And
if we remain critical, we see that all the lines of the second stanza are
disgusting generalisations supposedly illustrating an iron law. Strophe (d)
links up well with God’s roaring anger (v. 9b), and with the image of the lion
it says that even the most impressive strength here on earth cannot hold
out.
Now Eliphaz brings stanzas III and IV into play to give his superior view
chic credentials. He has had a nocturnal vision, of which in vv. 12–16 he
gives a rather spooky description. It ends with the words of vv. 17–21 (the
whole fourth stanza), which formally have the status of a quotation: they
are embedded text which Eliphaz pretends was a divine revelation. This
passage takes us to the heart of both Eliphaz’ image of man and his image
of God. And does it make us cheerful?
the first round of the debate, chs. 4–14 211
In v. 17b the reader may be willing to say no to the rhetorical question

whether “a man is purer than his maker”; he may even say no to the question
of v. 17a. But then! In v. 18 Eliphaz maintains that God does not even trust his
own servants and celestials. I regard this ‘theology’ as a dismal projection of
… Eliphaz’ own mentality. The verse is an essential one for him: it is the
foundation of his faith, for he will repeat it, and with more lines, in the
second round of the debate, in 15:14–16; and his friend Bildad will repeat
it after him in ch. 25.
With this image of God as a distrustful potentate, an image of man just
as little appetizing is coupled: man is an absolutely inferior being. So not
surprisingly, strophe (h) is the negative climax of the speech. I point out the
link ‘how much more’ with which the unit starts in v. 9a, and I am appalled
by the cool, callous lines that follow. On Job, these words of destruction are
supposed to have the effect of a veiled threat—as if he could still take more.
Chapter 5
The twelve strophes of this poem are divided over only three stanzas, which
go from long to longest: they form an ascending series of 3 + 4 + 5 strophes,
and the strophes often have the same measures as in the preceding poem.2
Also, the alternation of short and long in the strophes shows a certain
system: in stanza I we fifnd SLS, in II follows SSLS, and in III, SSLLS.
Eliphaz remains unkind in the fifrst series (vv. 1–7). For one verse he seems
to speak personally—we notice ‘you’ in v. 1—but after that he generalizes
again, about the fool (especially in strophe b) and man in general (strophe
c). He has just heard Job’s passionate prologue, and now he reacts in v. 2b
with a dig, “passion kills the simple man”. Again he is concerned with
destruction, in his fifrst L-strophe, and in strophe (c) he argues that man is
the origin of ‘sin’. Verse 7 was probably a proverb: as necessarily as sparks
flfy upward, man is born to trouble—again not a cheerful image. The word
‘trouble’ connects up with lines by Job himself, 3:10b and 20a.
Stanza II is intended as a fifne composition. Its body, vv. 9–15, is a long
hymnic series, with many participles in the original text, which in transla-
tion become attributive subclauses: “who does thus and acts so”, etcetera.
All these verses denote qualities of God’s, supra-temporal qualities as op-
posed to interventions that take place only once. They are not about the
current situation. In strophe (e) we see the deity as creator; in the two stro-
phes after that he determines people’s fates, especially at the expense of the
clever ones. So what is it that Eliphaz wants to tell Job? We fifnd the answer
in the envelope of this praise, in vv. 8 and 16. In v. 8 he gives good counsel
to his friend: seek God, and no doubt he means: in a befiftting, humble tone.
And in v. 16, the conclusion of stanza II, he tries to give Job some hope.
Stanza III works out the motif of hope with a series of verses, which in the
beginning are again hymnic, especially v. 18, but which soon change—at
last—to a personal address. In vv. 19–26 there is continuous use of you
and your. If only you accept God’s ‘chastisement’ (v. 17b), Eliphaz says
seductively, you will be all right after all, and he thinks up a number of
variants to this beautiful prospect. This strategy of rhetorical seduction
(read: pressure) is marked by a fifgure of speech, the little headline in v. 19:
“six, yes seven disasters”.
Job’s First Answer, Chs. 6–7
Chapter 6
Because Job is deeply convinced of his own sincerity, Eliphaz’ suggestions
and insinuations go down the wrong way with him. We now see him defend-
ing himself. At once he announces that he will not mince words: “my words
are rash” (v. 3b). He has nothing more to lose and he feels the poison of God’s
arrows in his body (strophe a). The images of strophe (b) deserve an expla-
nation: when someone (beast or human) enjoys a good meal, you won’t hear
him complaining. If I—Job says—do raise my voice, it is not for nothing, and
I must react to the rotting food that you have served me (v. 7). But for the
time being he does not yet mention the others.
His fifrst poem consists of long stanzas, which comprise 4 + 3 + 3 strophes,
and these ten units are all long, except one. That one short strophe occupies
position (f), precisely the centre of the middle stanza, and it is devoted to
life-saving water. It is flfanked by two L-strophes, which describe the fate of
caravans in desert or steppe.
The middle part, stanza II, presents spectacular images of the wadi that
does not satisfy the travellers’ and merchants’ hope. A wadi is the bed of a
brook which contains running water for only a small part of the year, when
it has been raining higher up in the mountains. Caravans have their routes
determined by stopping points where man and animal can drink and where
they can replenish their water stock. They are in desperate straits when the
wadi they have in mind has unexpectedly gone dry again. The centre of the
poem contains an expressive sketch of all this, in vv. 15–20. This graphic
passage is the main body of the stanza, but what do these verses contribute
to the debate? That is made clear by the envelope in which the middle part
is put: verses 14+21.
Verse 14 formulates a general rule in which solidarity appears to have

everything to do with godliness. From the words ‘my brethren’ which follow
immediately and which introduce a complaint by Job, we understand that
now he has it in for his friends. And indeed, in v. 21 they are given a piece
of his mind. They are as treacherous as the wadi without water, for in the
face of Job’s sorrow they have nothing to offer but a big ‘no’. They cannot
show real empathy. The generalising tone of v. 14 has now been replaced by
a personal address: for the fifrst time the form ‘you’ appears here in the fifnal
verse of stanza II. From this point on, the second person plural becomes
decisive: it is the primary mark of stanza III (= vv. 22–30), for there it occurs
in practically each half-verse, as subject of the clause.
Back to the fifrst stanza. Strophe (a) concentrates on ‘my sorrow’, which
is so heavy that ‘my power’ (strophe d) has quite flfowed away. That is why
the desperate speaker would prefer to be dead; yes, he even hopes that God
will bring him death, strophe (c). In v. 10c he nevertheless touches on the
fact that he does not want to take back a single word of his angry outbursts
(I assume those of the prologue); he remains faithful to himself.
The form ‘you,’ which so much determines stanza III, indicates exactly
who are the targets of Job’s anger in this stanza: the friends. He challenges
them in strophe (h), and he thinks their admonishing attitude rubbish
(strophe i), but in the end he incites them to repent so that the rightfulness
of his own position will be recognized: strophe (j), an urgent request as a
climax.
Some More Details

The poem is framed by the word ‘disaster’, vv. 2b and 30b, a telling repetition.
Strophes (h) and (j) both end with the word ‘understand’—fifrst an under-
standing by ‘me’, then by ‘you’. Such a strophic rhyme is called an epiphora,
and it helps us to discover cohesion (here that of stanza III). In v. 10c the orig-
inal contains a strong possible ambiguity. We could also render the direct
object as ‘words of the Holy one’. In that case, Job lays claim to always hav-
ing observed God’s commands. Thus he implies at the same time: I did not
deserve these disasters at all.
There are more ‘upright words’. Those spoken by himself are honest, Job
says in v. 25, and to his audience he sneers: grim, are they not? Then, in v. 26
he admits: they are words of despair. The quartet of cola in vv. 25–26 turns
out to form a chiasm: they are in criss-cross position.
The parts of the body in the very last verse, tongue and palate, are meton-
ymical for making a distinction; therefore they link up well with the matter
of strophe (b), where the tasting is no less fifgurative.
Chapter 7
While chapter 6 contains almost exclusively long strophes, the situation
in Job’s second poem is just the reverse. Of the eleven strophes, nine are
short, and only the middle units of I and III are long (three poetic lines, in
vv. 3–4 and 19–20). These L-strophes are in mirroring positions: they both
are equally far from the boundaries of the poem. This symmetry leads us to
suspect there is a concentric structure, and this is indeed the case. There
are 49 cola—we recognize the square of the holy number 7—and that odd
number has been made possible because the poem contains one tricolon,
v. 11. The C-colon in this verse stands out from a body of bipartite poetic
lines. It is the exact middle of the poem, so that there are 5 + 5 strophes on
both sides and 12+12 verses.3 All this is not coincidental, for what v. 11 says is
typical of this chapter: “I shall express myself in the bitterness of my soul.”
An intention that indeed is quite synonymous with the preceding colon, 11b.
Bitterness is the pivot of the poem.
In stanza I, Job concentrates on his misfortune. The fifrst strophe is still in
general terms, about the human being who is the vexed day-labourer, but
we are not surprised when in strophes (b) and (c) he is talking about himself.
His terminology of pain does not need further explanation: the verses speak
for themselves.
The second stanza at once introduces a second person. Reading open-
mindedly, we think at fifrst: would this be Eliphaz, who is addressed with
‘remember’ and ‘your eye’? Hebrew does not have an honorififc form, so that
for a while we cannot yet decide between man and God. But reading on, we
easily discern in which context strophe (d) functions. It is about the whole
of stanza II, the last line of which, v. 16b, is synonymous with the fifrst (v. 7a).
The second person deserves to be rendered by ‘thou’, in any case starting
with v. 12b: he is the deity. And this address continues until the end; in
almost every following verse the ‘thou’ returns. Actually, after verse 1 there
is no more sign of the friends in the text.
In stanzas II and III the fifrst and the second person singular are dom-
inant, so that this chapter oscillates in the form of a dialogue between
‘my suffering’ and ‘thy part in that’. This main characteristic leads me on
to the main lines of the speech-in-two-poems: ch. 6 angrily chooses the
friends as target (they are ‘you’); ch. 7 makes a turnabout and makes God
its target in a despairing and complaining, accusatory tone. In strophe
(e) the speech is, for a moment, still generalising, but via the unit which
is the axis, strophe (f) with the single C-colon, the speaking becomes an
uninterrupted address to God, with many bitter questions which func-
tion as reproaches. The watcher of v. 20b is none other than the guard of
v. 12b.
Job begins his third stanza with an intertextual question: he chooses a
famous verse from Psalm 8, which says
What is man that Thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that Thou dost care for him?
The Psalmist himself gives an answer: “Thou hast made him little less than
God, and dost crown him with glory and honour” (RSV). The song is full
of admiration for creator and creation, and it awards man a special high
position in the whole. But now Job! He, too, answers his question from 7:17,
in spite of the fact that it is a rhetorical one, like Psalm 8:5. “Thou dost visit
him every morning”, Job says in 7:18a, and he does not mean that positively
at all, for v. 18b continues with: “Thou dost test him every moment.” So Job
uses the fifne verse from Psalm 8 to give the content a radical turnabout.
The following part corroborates this impression. In strophe (j) God turns
out to have become nothing less than a disgusting spy, and Job calls himself
God’s ‘target’ and ‘burden’. Strophe (k), the end of the poem, also speaks
of the end; it is death, ‘lie in the earth’ (v. 21c). The very last half-verse is
identical to the end of v. 8 (strophe d): “I shall not be.” The same relation of
form and content occurred at the end of stanza I. Verse 6 says of ‘my days’
that they ‘come to their end’ and is itself the end of the fifrst series of strophes.
Bildad’s First Contribution, Ch. 8
In the fifrst round of the debate, Eliphaz is the only friend who is assigned
two poems by the author. The other two get one chapter each. Now it is
Bildad’s turn. His text consists of four short stanzas, that is to say, units
of two strophes each. I note the rhythm of the strophes: LL / LS / LS / SL.
The poetic lines are all twofold, and the average number of syllables per
half-verse is exactly eight in the original. This chapter (number 8, and I do
not know if that is a coincidence) is the fifrst one that deploys the central
normative fifgure in that way.
Bildad takes a fifrm line with Job in his fifrst strophe, and this will occur
more often: see the beginnings of chs. 11 (Zophar’s fifrst speech), 15, 18, and
22. Just like the average believer, he cannot imagine that God perverts
justice (v. 3), and at once he shoves aside his friend in v. 2. He picks up
the expression ‘words’ from Job’s speech in ch. 6 and uses it against him:
they are idle chatter. He does not believe that Job is sincere, but that he can
become sincere if only he fifrst gives in and begs God for forgiveness (strophe
b). Frightened by his own unfeeling tone, he starts buttering him up as early
as v. 7 with the sweet words that fifnish his speech in vv. 21–22.
What Bildad does in stanza II is traditional: recommend the wisdom of
the fathers and tradition (strophe c), and add a vegetative image (strophe d):
just as papyrus needs a lot of water to grow, you, Job, must suck up the pieces
of wisdom that have been handed down. Or else? The metaphor from the
realm of plants gives the answer at once, in v. 12. This negative poetic line is a
transition to the second half of the poem, which tries to intimidate Job. But
this threatening language about the inevitable downfall of the wrongdoer
(vv. 13–19) is also a pollyanna repetition of old (read: tame) wisdom. This
material will return extensively in chs. 18 (again Bildad), 20 (Zophar) and
27 (surprisingly: the old, but now outdated conviction of Job himself). The
unique situation into which Job, as a person whose integrity is generally
recognized, has been thrown unmasks the statement that the wrongdoer
perishes early as a trite cliché. The metaphors with which the friends bring
that conviction on stage—here for instance in vv. 14–17—colourful as they
may be, can do little to change that.
After the ‘withering’ in strophe (d), there is still strophe (f), which again
employs vegetative metaphors. The disappearance of the bad man, in v. 18b
livened up by a little quote (‘I have not seen you’), together with the last
words of the poem (22b: ‘… will be no more’), sees to the demarcation of
stanza IV and at the same time cleverly links up with the words of Job
himself in 7:8b and 21d (that he himself is about to disappear; also compare
7:10, and for the motif also 6:17–18). When we think that connection through,
we conclude that it is a nasty insinuation by Bildad, namely that Job himself
must be such a doomed wrongdoer.
In stanza IV two more details strike us. Verse 19a is ironic. Verse 20 is a
subtle mix of parallelism and antithesis. The half-verses are parallel thanks
to the negation: God does neither a nor b; but the contrast is strengthened
by the word-pairs reject/take and their direct objects, blameless/evildoers.
These elements affect each other so strongly that the result is complemen-
tary: good and evil each get their turn, so that the picture of God’s associa-
tion with man’s world becomes complete.
Job himself is given a sop by Bildad, who uses the word that from the
very beginning was so decisive for Job (and for his maker: the author): the
adjective ‘blameless’ (v. 20a). Here it is connected with ‘(not) reject’, and
we shall gradually notice how the word-pair choose / reject, prominent ever
since the stories about Saul and David, becomes more and more important.
At this moment (v. 20a), Bildad wants to end on a positive note, and with
vv. 21–22 he holds out to Job the prospect of salvation by God. The poem is
rounded off with ‘your mouth’, which connects the fifrst and the last strophes
as a frame. In v. 2 that mouth produced ‘idle chatter’; in v. 21a this becomes
‘laughter’—a rather phony contrast.
Job’s Second Answer, Chs. 9–10
In his previous speech Job fifrst concentrated on the friends’ failure (ch. 6);
next (in ch. 7) he expressed his pain and despair, but also was already turn-
ing critically to God himself, so that the second person singular appeared in
the verses. The double speech which Job now makes is even more personal
(about himself) and harsher (against God). There are no fewer than 34 + 22
verses.
Chapter 9
In my Introduction I have already shown what amazing numerical features
this poem shows in the original, on the levels of strophes, words and sylla-
bles. Its 256 words (the number 2 to the eighth power), neatly divided over
the two halves (so the measure of each half, 128 words, is 2 to the seventh
power) are in twelve units: four L-strophes are the broad centre and the
sides mirror each other, with their balanced LLLS … SLLL.
Job rightly thinks that for his great misfortune God is to blame, and now
he has a great problem with God: how can he get him to render an account
of his absurd cruelties? Already in the fifrst strophe, Job says twice that such a
thing is unfeasible for a mortal. He must even be careful: if one presses him
hard, one will not come off undamaged—I am repeating v. 4b in my own
words. Strophes (b) and (c) link up closely with it. With an imposing series
of actions they demonstrate how formidable the deity is. Again these are
no historical, incidental interventions, but supra-temporal actions, which
we must understand as qualities of God, this powerful creator and governor
of the universe. In short, these two strophes form the heart of the fifrst part
(stanza I, four strophes), and they consist of hymnic singing by Job. In this
he had been preceded by Eliphaz, in 5:9–15, and he knows it, for his own
verse 10 is practically identical to his friend’s 5:9.
Strophes (a) and (d) surround this heart of (almost intimidating) praise,
and they mention the main issue: give account please! As early as v. 3 we
fifnd literally ‘answer’, and this key word is brought to life by the rhetorical
questions with which units (a) and (d) end. It is not easy to say to God: hey
you, what do you think you are up to! In v. 11 Job remarks that God is elusive,
and what is our speaker actually: sad or angry? The graphic, almost physical
terms (‘gliding on’) are in an S-strophe which borders on the broad centre,
and … they return in the only other S-strophe, which lies against the other
side of the centre: in vv. 25–26 (= strophe i, the beginning of the third part).
Now it is my own life that slips from my hands, Job says. The ring around
the centre (strophes d and i) shows that Job has nothing more in his grip.
His bewilderment is complete.
The key word is present also in the second part (the two substanzas of
vv. 13–24): straightaway twice in the fifrst unit, strophe (e). It is striking how
it stands for dialogue: my answer to him (v. 14a) is ‘not answered’ by him
in v. 15a. Dialogue: that is what Job intensely longs for, but will not get. The
fifrst half-verse of strophe (f) again mentions a form of ‘answer’, v. 16a, but
painfully enough in the irrealis (note here ‘would’: it’s not going to happen).
So what is left for Job? That is spelled out in the last half-verse of these
strophes: ‘I can only appeal for mercy’ (v. 15b) and ‘am fiflled with bitterness’
(v. 18b).
The second half of the middle part, substanza IIb, now comes on in a
biting tone. God seems to love power more than justice, Job says. As early
as v. 4a he had called God ‘mighty in strength’. Now he repeats those terms
in v. 19a, in reversed order (thus forming a chiasm). And while in strophe
(a) justice stood fifrst, here in (g) it comes later, namely in vv. 19b and 20a:
again in chiastic order. Job’s standing justififed has lost all its force because
God himself does not care about it. Twice Job determines self-confifdently
that he is blameless, but that does not help him, because God prefers to see
‘perversion’. Blameless: we know that this is Job’s main attribute and that in
chapter 1 that quality was offifcially recognized by two high authorities: fifrst
by the author of the book (1:1) and then, through meticulous repetition, by
his character-in-the-story God (1:8).
Verse 21 is quite revealing about the state in which the hero fifnds himself:
a painful nadir. He has lost hold of his life completely, and what he says next
in 21b, would in street-language be: everything is a bloody mess, to hell with
it. So bitter Job has never been before. The beginning of this line literally
says: “I repudiate my life”, so he ‘rejects’ his life. The key word ‘reject’ has now
been used for the second time; it had already been present in 7:16, when Job
said ‘I pass’ and there, too, was talking about ‘life’. This ‘reject’ will return
at a crucial moment, and then it will not have a direct object: in the very
last poetic line of the book, in 42:6 (‘I am fed up with it’). There it is always
mistranslated, resulting in irreparable damage to the image of Job that the
author wants to present to us. In 42:6a it follows ‘therefore,’ and here in ch. 9
a comparable ‘therefore’ appears immediately after v. 21b, as the beginning
and sign of a new strophe (h).
The reverse of ‘rejection’ is ‘election,’ and as early as in 7:15 Job said that he
‘preferred strangling’ … In v. 24 Job actually becomes accusatory, describing
God as actively obstructing the administration of justice. In this strophe
(h) he renders God as a haphazard murderer who cares nothing for the
distinction between honest and criminal (vv. 22–23). God can put that in
his pipe and smoke it …
So far God had been ‘he’ and ‘him’ in the text: the third person, grammat-
ically speaking; Job spoke about him. Now things change. In the L-strophes
which are the heart of part III, the units (j) and (k), God is given the second
person. Job now addresses him, and that is highly personal.
I will now summarize this part of Job’s argumentation in my own words.
What he says comes down to this: no matter what I do, nothing helps against
you, you consider me guilty.—The pit into which Job thinks he is plunged
is an allusion to death. Verse 32 again has the characterizing concept of
this speech, ‘answer’, and formulates both Job’s longing for dialogue and
its impossibility: “He is not a man as I am, that I might answer him.” The
line that then follows, v. 32b, is a preparation for the fifnal strophe by way
of asking for a proper lawsuit. Not surprisingly, Job asks in the beginning of
strophe (l) for an arbitrator, and lines 33b + 34b show how that character
goes about his work. I can only be done justice to, Job says in the last verses,
if I can appear in a real court of justice. For that is a context which provides
safety, and when I act as plaintiff there, I need no longer be afraid of the
party that I bring charges against.
Chapter 10
This poem is of an exceptional intensity. This is clear at once from a simple
count, namely of the number of times that in the original text Job assigns
himself the fifrst person and God the second. God is denoted with ‘you’ and
‘your’ 43 times: Job gives himself as the speaker forms of ‘I / me / my’ 52 times.
These fifgures guarantee a fiferce speech and a particularly personal tone.
The content is really something: Job is going to demonstrate that God is
a prospective murderer, who—to make things worse—is also in conflfict
with himself in his capacity of creator. Of the reader who does not want
to abandon all empathy, a strong stomach is being required. Job scorns
the relative safety of talking about God in the third person; he deals with
him in a direct, second-person way. Job is making him responsible for his
behaviour.
Chapter 10 is a climax in the use of double perspective. Within the story,
God and his Prosecutor know that Job is the object of a radical experiment,
and thanks to the information that we got from the author, we as readers
have also become party to this superior perspective. Job, on the contrary,
has been unaware of the heavenly consultation; he does not know that he
is a guinea pig, and we know that he does not know. Therefore it is not
diffifcult for us to understand his limited perspective, to show sympathy for
him and to share in his sorrow, indignation and incomprehension. Taken
into confifdence by the author, we can operate and sympathize on two
levels.
The poem has one long stanza and three short ones. There are four long
strophes and fifve short ones, in the order L L / S L S / S S / S L, and altogether
they have 49 cola. We recognize the square of the holy number 7, and I recall
that chapter 7, also spoken by Job, contains the same number of cola. We
shall see that here, too, the centre of the odd series, half-verse number 25
(v. 12a), is of special value. This time the poet works with the number 7 in
yet another way. For here in chapter 10 he produces strophes of all sorts of
lengths (three of four cola, two of fifve, two of six and one of eight cola), but
as long as he can he avoids writing a strophe of seven cola; only when he
arrives at the end does he produce such a unit of seven lines, and this end,
the only strophe that has taken the square root of 49, is exceptional for more
than one reason: it is a climax.
The strophes may well vary continuously in length, but one level up they
must obey a tight plan. They are grouped in four stanzas which themselves
show an alternating pattern and the contents of which follow the scheme A
B//A’B’:
A You consider me guilty B my birth: You are my maker,

You bring charges against me but you hatch a plan against me
A’ You deny my innocence B’ my death: give me some respite,
You pursue me before I enter the pitch-dark
The pair A–A’, that is the fifrst and the third stanzas, speaks of the oppres-
sion and persecution which God has set in train against Job. It contains
24 cola in ten verses. The pair B–B’ (the second and the fourth stanzas)
looks at Job’s start as an embryo and his death. Here we fifnd 25 cola in
twelve verses. The half-verses 18a and 19b frame strophe (h) by mention-
ing the mother’s womb again and by ending with the grave. This forms
a good preparation for the end: strophe (i) is the end of the composition
and it is about ‘my’ end. The poem is building up to a maximal series
of synonyms for the darkness of the realm of death: no fewer than six
terms.
Some More Details

Now that the main line of the composition is clear, I can read back through
the text to fifnd details that deserve mention. Job’s fifrst verse links up with
‘the bitterness of my soul’, and the wish to air it links up closely with 7:11.
At once Job indicates with ‘my complaint’ what the genre of the poem as a
whole is. Now and then he oversteps the mark so far that we could also use
the word accusation. God’s creature, in v. 3b referred to as ‘the work of Your
hands’, is Job himself, who in one breath diagnoses how contradictorily God
is acting: so You reject your own piece of work, he says. In line with this, he
states in v. 6 that God lies in wait to catch Job out in sin.
Strophe (b) uses simple words to indicate how incompatible God and
man are. “Do You have eyes of flfesh?” God is transcendent, he is beyond our
understanding, and therefore Job thinks it absurd that God should want to
trap his own creature.
This strange mentality now becomes the framework of stanza II. The
outer half-verses form a chiasm for our duo. The order of “You should know
that I am not …” in v. 7a is reversed in 13b: “I know that this was Your
purpose.” This reversal becomes more subtle by the uncovering of an inner
contradiction on God’s part: although “I am not guilty”, You are still sneakily
“at things You did hide in Your heart”, namely at the endeavour to catch me.
The adjacent half-verses, 7b and 13a, are also a pair and they form an inner
ring. They are negative in their view of God’s role, and they correspond by
means of ‘thy hand’ and ‘thy heart’. The concentric design goes even further:
it also governs verses 8 and 12, around the broad middle of strophe (d). Both
v. 8 and v. 12 are about the creator who gave ‘me’ life, and state that now
he is getting himself involved in snooping and ambushing. That stands out
surprisingly and sadly against all God’s creative work, which fiflls the long
strophe (d), the centre of stanza II.
The middle line of the poem, the 25th, is v. 12a: “Life and loyalty Thou
hast done to me.” How that is meant in reality will become clear after a little
digression on word-pairs in biblical poetry. The content of the vast major-
ity of all verses is determined by various forms of parallelism. The main
pillar supporting such parallelism is that of the word-pair, and everyday
language shows a thousand and one examples of it, in Hebrew as well as
in English: father/mother, high/low, light/dark, big/small, et cetera. While
life and death form such a pair to the Israelite just as to us, the combina-
tion of life and loyalty does not occur in the Bible, except here. This pair is
clinched by alliteration (chayyim and chèsèd in the original) and consciously
deviates from the frequent combination ‘practise (literally: do) solidarity’.
What is more, the verb ‘guard’ in both v. 12b and v. 14a has assumed the less
positive meaning ‘watch/spy on’. That is why the pivot of the poem, v. 12a,
has become an expression of sarcasm. I have indicated that in my Dutch
translation by making a pun on ‘affected’. To Job, life has become an ‘affec-
tion’ (in the old medical sense), one might say, in line with these verses.
V. 12b is often treated wrongly by commentators who, lacking the requi-
site courage, reverse subject and object. They translate piously in the style
of: “your supervision preserves my spirit.” In reality, Job says here the same
thing as in v. 6. God is investigating him, full of suspicion though He has
‘hidden these things’ in his heart. Stanza III links up immediately with this,
and God keeps on sleuthing.
Strophe (f) discusses how God undermines morality, because his behav-
iour denies the difference between good and evil. Also “if I am righteous”,
thus Job argues, I am, through God’s agency, “fiflled with disgrace and im-
bued with my misery”. And the disappearance of the distinction between
good and evil now also sheds light on the beginning of strophe (g), which is
otherwise not immediately clear. ‘Proudly rising like a lion’ does not show
who is the subject. If it is Job, the strophe says: it does not help me, I am
driven with my back to the wall by God. But if ‘rising like a lion’ is meant to
be a characterization of God’s interference, Job is even more defifnitely the
prey.
With v. 18a (the womb), the last stanza connects well with the broad
middle of stanza II, when God carefully composed the foetus. However, the
fifrst line is, being a ‘why’ question, a vehicle of indignation and reproach.
Job uses the remaining three lines to kill this young life: he prefers the
grave to the womb. We now remember with how much verbal violence he
started his prologue and cursed the night of his conception and the day of
his birth.
In v. 18b we hear his wish that no eye had been able to see him. His longing
turns against the spying of which he has just complained, in vv. 12b, 14a and
16a. And it takes on a creative contrast with the eyes in verse 4. Verse 19,
fifnally, clearly calls to mind the pipe-dreams of the prologue, especially
verses 10, 11 and 16. The wished-for abortion of strophe (h) is now perfectly
fiftted in with a long strophe which anticipates death and gets all synonyms
for darkness into position for a massive fifnale. The sentence structure here
is staggering. Verse 20 still has short clauses with their own predicates,
but v. 21a couples this with a temporal subclause which soon ends in a
tremendous series of terms for ‘darkness’. It is a series which fiflls no fewer
than four lines and ends in a brilliant oxymoron: in a darkness that ‘shines
like pitch black’.4 This surprising fifgure of speech, already a climax by virtue
of its placement, becomes yet more powerful because it is connected with
the beginning of the poem (namely the last line of strophe a). There it is
God who shines (in the sense of: shedding his light approvingly) upon the
machinations of the wicked. Here it is the underworld that shines, in the
only strophe of this poem that comprises seven lines with its six terms for
dark chaos.
Job has completed this highly personal and fiferce poem by making a
frame for it. It is a compelling fifgure which raises the critical question: what
is worse, the meddlesomeness of a God who is a shady character, or the
deepest darkness of the realm of death?
The First Speech By Zophar, Ch. 11
Zophar’s fifrst speech is meticulously arranged. It begins with four long

strophes and continues with four short ones. They contain twofold verses
only, except for the last line; it is lengthened by a C-colon, which at the last
moment introduces the concept of ‘hope’ only to cross it out emphatically.
Verse 20c even becomes an iconic sign: the poem vaporizes in a sigh thanks
to the meaning of his very last words, which ‘dissolve in a sigh’.
The L-strophes which form the fifrst quartet show a tight AB / B’A’ arrange-
ment. While strophes (b) and (c) discuss God’s wisdom, the units around it,
strophes (a) and (d), are about man and his stupid or false talk. The fifrst
strophe concentrates on Job personally; the fourth refers to man in general.
In v. 4 Zophar makes a less than convincing attempt to understand Job.
He quotes his friend’s claim that he is morally pure, but immediately adds
strophe (b), in which he poses as an intimate authority on God’s wisdom
and intentions. Zophar is not weighed down with modesty, and in v. 6cd he
dangles the bait before Job: if only Job admits his guilt, God will forgive him.
In strophe (c) he creates an unbridgeable contrast between Job’s ignorance
and the deity’s immeasurable dimensions—see especially vv. 8–9. Strophe
(d) must strike Job as slightly intimidating, for here Zophar maintains that
God sees through the wicked. He nicely rounds off his L-strophes with a new
quotation: the fifnal line may be a proverb which through a comparison (12b)
‘proves’ that a perfifdious person will not see the light: a sly dig with which
he sidelines Job.
In vv. 13–20 follows the series of four short strophes, and now Zophar
decides to take more time to butter Job up. In v. 13 he calls on Job to pray,
and in strophes (f), (g) and (h) he suggests that Job will then be all right.
But the alert reader now makes a painful observation: nowhere in all these
half-verses (four times four, plus 20c) does Zophar make mention of the one
person who decides in matters of forgiveness: God. Ouch! Zophar now dares
not go so far as to guarantee Job God’s favours explicitly. He even seems to
be a bit frightened by all the self-assured command of the deity which he
showed in the fifrst series of strophes …
We can now survey the arrangement of the four short strophes. With
their contents they also show an A B–B’A’ balance. Strophes (e) and (h)
(which represent the A–A’ elements by virtue of their meaning) are directed
against badness. They are also complementary: in v. 14 it is the praying
Job who must remove evil from his life, whereas in v. 20 it is the evildoers
that go down. The two other elements of the symmetry, B–B’, are supplied
by the inner pair of strophes (f and g). They are positive, and in all their
half-verses their tone is one of hope: Job will experience a resurrection; he
will become safe and strong. So we can also construe the cohesion of the
four S-strophes as a minus/plus//plus/minus pattern. Anyone looking back
further will recognize the same variation in the symmetry of the four long
strophes.
Some More Details

Strophes (a) and (b) turn out to form a parallelism on the strophe level.
The ‘speaking’ that in v. 2a is accepted as negative and in 5a as positive,
comes from Job and God respectively, after which vv. 2b and 5b have the
element ‘lips’ in common. ‘Chatting’ is now placed opposite ‘secrets,’ and
the pretence of purity (v. 4) is unmasked in the bicolon 6cd.
Verse 10 now, with ‘gliding past’ and ‘who can hinder him’, calls to mind
a passage by Job: it is strophe (d) of ch. 9 with which Zophar now links
up. Zophar’s plea for a prayer by Job which will yield God’s blessing, cor-
responds with what Bildad said in ch. 8, in strophe (b) of that chapter.
The construction of v. 19ab (‘none’ + negatively valued action) agrees with
that of verse 3 and is its pendant. If we add to this the connection between
v. 2a (‘multitude of words’) and v. 19b (‘many’) and see how v. 4b and v. 20a
are contrasted via the element ‘eyes’ as plus and minus, it becomes clear
that the poem as a whole is well marked off by inclusio.
Finally, I shall give an impression of the numerical perfection which the
poet has here practised. Zophar speaks twelve plus eight verses, which
have been put into four long and four short strophes. This speech of eight
strophes is the eighth poem of the debate, and because its 41 cola contain
328 syllables in the original, the poem scores exactly eight syllables per
colon as an average. And because the 328 syllables are in eight strophes,
the average number of syllables per strophe is … again 41! The number of
words in Hebrew is also striking: there are 144, a prestigious square that
we will meet again a couple of times in well demarcated passages, but on

the level of syllables.5
Job’s Third Answer: Three Poems, Chs. 12–14
The fact that Job is going to answer his friend with three poems suggests
that we shall now be dealing with the climax of the fifrst round of the
debate. Where are we at this point? Job had started with one poem, the
prologue to ch. 3, in which he was thinking out loud; he spoke out for
himself without addressing anyone in particular. When Eliphaz and Bildad
had spoken, he answered both times with two poems. Chs. 4–5 are the only
time when a friend is allowed by the author to speak two poems; after that
the author always assigns them only one. Now that Zophar, the third friend,
has fifnished, Job speaks longer than before. The score so far shows clearly
how the measures expand, on four levels:
Chapter strophes verses cola words

3 7 24 52 192
6–7 21 53 109 389
9–10 21 56 118 425
12–14 27 74 158 560
I do not want to trouble my reader too much with fifgures, but I would do
him/her an injustice if I omitted mentioning here that the hero’s proper
name occurs exactly 56 times in the Bible book named after him. I read
that as the product of a multiplication: the holy number 7 times the central
standard number 8. This 56 we fifnd again in the number of verses in chs.
9–10, and its tenfold is the sum of the words in chs. 12–14, the climactic
speech with which Job fifnishes the fifrst (and longest) round of the debate.
This sum of 560 words is not at all a coincidence, for the middle of this round
number, the words indicated by numbers 280 and 281, is the pivot of both the
entire speech and the middle chapter, and this result is in turn supported
by the number of cola and even of syllables on both sides of the pivot.6 What
that pivot has to say will presently come up for discussion.
Chapter 12
In ch. 5, the friend who opened the debate, Eliphaz, spoke an ascending
series of strophes, 3+4+5, which gave stanzas I–III more and more body,
and the central piece consisted for the major part of a hymnic series of
verses. For fifnishing the fifrst round of the debate it is Job’s turn, and in ch. 12
he seems to be inspired by his friend’s example. This poem too has three
stanzas, which form an ascending series, of 2 + 3 + 4 strophes respectively,
and again there is a forceful series of hymnic verses, this time in the fifnal
part.
The size of the strophes also grows. In stanzas I and II we fifnd the
rhythmic pattern S L and S S L, altogether twelve verses. The three short
strophes (a, c, d) have as many verses as the two long strophes. The third
stanza, however, consists entirely of long strophes, L L L L, so that this series
on its own reaches the size of twelve verses. These measures suggest that we
may also see two equal halves in this composition.
That appears to work out as far as the fifrst dozen are concerned. They
are marked off by a frame, governed by the keyword ‘wisdom’ which occurs
in the fifrst and last lines (v. 2b and v. 13a). However, the author also makes
sure that his composition does not fall apart, and at once he puts in a link
between the halves. The last verse of strophe (e), which is also the end of the
fifrst half, strikes us because it sums up four characteristics of the deity, in the
form of nouns only: not a single action. Exactly the same thing happens in
strophe (f), which is the beginning of the second half: its end is v. 16, and this
poetic line, too, is taken up with characterizing the deity by means of four
nouns.
The framing of the fifrst half continues. First of all, the fifrst and last verses
(v. 2 and v. 13) form a sharp contrast as regards content. In v. 2 Job heavily
criticizes his friends; in v. 13 he honours God (so he would have us believe
for the time being). Within all this, a second ring is at work, which on the
contrary is based on similarity: in v. 3 Job asserts, put simply: I’m not crazy,
and in v. 12 he seems to admit the wisdom of the elderly.
Now reading strophe (c), we fifnd that on the stanza level, too, a ring
construction is functioning. The wisdom of the elderly is no different in
content than the message of all nature. The birds and the fifsh here are
pars pro toto; they represent all creation. Then what is the message of
their teaching? That is effectively and accurately stated in the middle of
the second stanza, so that the heart of the form contains the heart of
the content. Sturdily flfanked by units (c) and (e), strophe (d) proclaims
what Yahweh has to do with the world: “In his hand is the life of every
living thing/and the breath of all mankind.” Via the physical datum of
the breath, the poet arrives at the palate (v. 11b) a second later, and the
half-verse 9a is almost literally identical with the fifnal sentence of the very
fifrst strophe (v. 3b), so that the tight cohesion of the two stanzas has again
been secured.
The claim in strophe (a) sounds innocent: I am not mad, Job says. But his
anger in strophe (b) is ominous: relations have been overturned, the wicked
prosper, the blameless individual (he himself) is a laughing-stock. Strophes
(c) and (d), it is true, sound perfectly acceptable: is it not beautiful that every
living thing is in God’s hand? But it is not pious at all. Verse 13 (the twelfth
full poetic line, and the end of the fifrst half of the chapter) again seems
well-behaved, but—after reading the second half well—it turns out to be
the heading of a quasi-hymn, which might rather be called an anti-hymn:
God is the great destroyer, the one that turns things upside down, that
ridicules, that frustrates expectations, the one that brings down men in
power.
So that is the ‘might’ that in v. 13a seems to be mentioned so respectfully.
And the wisdom behind all this acting is something quite different from
the ‘wisdom’ (read: knowledge of life) which characterizes old people and
which is to their credit. That wisdom is neither to be fathomed nor to be
predicted by humans. The pivot of the second stanza, the short strophe
(d), gets its real potential unloosed in III, in a way that is no longer so
pleasant.
There, the thoroughgoing polemic which is packed into the hymnic form
is Job’s devastating answer to the pious praise by Eliphaz in 5:8–16. Notice
that Job begins like Bildad in 8:8 with the imperative ‘do ask,’ and that 5:14
strongly resembles Job’s verse 12:25. The reversals committed by God, which
Eliphaz was so triumphant about—but which served to do his friend Job
in—are here in ch. 12 redoubled by Job, and now they really start hurting:
only now does it become clear that they are driven by arbitrariness. The
nouns of v. 16 do not have the positive sound that the quartet of v. 13 clearly
does have. The terms ‘strength and wisdom’ mean success only; they do not
exclude violence, and the accompanying duo in v. 16b is ominous: “deceived
and deceiver”. Then follows the total overthrow, eighteen half-verses long,
of all that pretends to importance in the human world.
Chapter 13
The beginning of this poem sounds familiar. The fifrst verse is an application
of 12:11, and the two following half-verses say the same thing as the two that
occupy the same position in the beginning of ch. 12, 12:3ab. But now strophe
(a) gets one verse more, and that prepares us for the confrontation that Job
shortly (from the middle of this chapter) wants to enter into. Job ‘wants to
plead against El,’ and that is a terrible announcement which he will repeat
in v. 13.
This chapter is a long poem, with no fewer than ten strophes, which con-
tain 28 verses and which themselves are grouped in four stanzas: short-long
and long-short. If I write the levels above the verse as LL / LLS / SLL / LL, we
see at a single glance how symmetrical this design is.
The fifrst half, fifve strophes with binary verses exclusively, vv. 1–14, is
demarcated by an inclusio via physical terms. Job begins with his own
eye and ear in order to point out, in the style of 12:11, that his power of
discernment is quite all right, and he ends with his whole body: which he
now wants to risk by entering into the fifght with his real opponent: the
deadly God, of whom he has just demonstrated that he is able to throw
everything upside down (in stanza III of the previous poem: a hymn which
by its venom changes into the opposite).
What is the message within the framing? The body of the fifrst half (the
series of verses from v. 4 up to and including v. 12) forcefully turns against the
friends. This series too has a frame: the order to the friends to keep silent (v. 5
and v. 13). Why must they keep silent? Bit by bit Job has become furious with
their impertinence and clichés. He gives them a broadside and calls them
quacks and cheats. The word that indicates his target is ‘you’; in translation
it occurs at least sixteen times in a practically uninterrupted chain, and in
the original it occurs even more often. The second person plural will appear
just once, in v. 17, but then only to be silenced defifnitively. After that, this
party does not occur anywhere else in the long speech. So in a way, the fifrst
half of ch. 13 means that Job wants to settle with them before entering the
true confrontation: with God. And indeed, the second person singular (for
God) becomes frequent from v. 20 till the end of ch. 14: God as addressee
and as target.
What Job brings forward against the group in strophes (b) and (d) goes
without saying, but strophe (c) deserves extra attention. I note that this
unit is the centre of the fifrst half and indicates why Job gets so put out
with the friends’ arguing. A bit later, in v. 12, he gives his opinion graphi-
cally. He especially takes offence at their pretending to know God and at
their suggesting in the same breath that God could not do without their
arguments. That is deceit and a strange form of partiality, according to
Job.
Now the poem takes a new turn via the word-pair life / death. In the very
last line of the fifrst half (and of stanza II) Job says: “I risk my life.” How does
he mean this? It is that he is now entering into the fifght with God. In the
fifrst line of the second half (and of stanza III), death appears. “He is about
to kill me!” What could the mortal Job oppose to this? He simply will not
yield to the pressure and immediately he says, even in the same verse of
strophe (f): “I do not wait, but I want to defend my behaviour right in his
face.”
Verse 15 is of crucial importance. The fifrst half-verse is the exact middle of
Job’s long speech, and also of ch. 13 itself, as I happened to fifnd by counting
the cola, words, and syllables, and the one verb in the original that means “he
is about to kill me” is exactly the middlemost word of chapter 13.7 So strophe
(f) contains the pivot around which the entire speech in three poems turns.
“I want to defend my behaviour”, Job says; literally they are ‘my ways’, and
that calls to mind 4:6 (Eliphaz on the ‘integrity of your ways’). The poet has
opened a domain that we have quite unobtrusively entered: that of justice.
Job wants a decent trial, even if it should take place—if indeed it will ever go
through—after the sentence has already been passed and the punishment
meted out. In strophe (i) he demands inspection of the indictment: he wants
to know from the relentless judge what it is that he has done wrong. Both in
this speech and later, it is worth paying attention to the vocabulary of justice
and jurisdiction.
In 13:3b Job had already been clear about his own part: “I want to plead
against El.” In 13:6 he demands that his friends listen to his ‘plea’, to his
‘disputes’. There is no misunderstanding him in strophe (g):
18See now, I have prepared a lawsuit,
I know that I am in the right!
The fifrst line of this verse is completely clear about his intention, the second
about his position and his self-awareness. He rolls up his sleeves and strides
into the juridical arena.
The call to listen in v. 17 is the last signal of the plural form ‘you’, for it is
addressed to the friends. But the turnabout in the poem also means that use
of the plural form is now over; in strophe (f) God is still a ‘he’ for a short time,
but from strophe (h) on, he appears in the second person singular. Job has
pushed the friends aside and from v. 20 on, he addresses the deity himself
with You.8 Verse 22 reveals that he is asking for a real dialogue with him.
The two sides of such personal contact are both provided for by the
term ‘hide’. In v. 20b Job is talking about himself: “I need not hide myself
from You”; in v. 24a he is talking about the other party: “Why do You hide
Your face?” So it remains to be seen if the contact will be brought about!
Another problem is that Job senses how small he may seem to the powerful
God. In vv. 25 and 28 he characterizes his chances four times in expressive
language by calling himself, among other things, dry chaff and rotten wood.
These are descriptions which occupy fifnal-verse position in strophes (i) and
(j), thereby keeping the two units together as stanza IV. The ‘watching’ in
v. 27b is the same verb as in 10:12b and in 10:14a, where Job complained that
God was sleuthing for mistakes and sins on his part, and already earlier in
7:19–20.
Another sign of Job’s need for a meeting is the word ‘face’. In the pivot
(strophe f) it occurs twice, in such a way that verses 15 and 16 form a
parallelism, while at the same time they contain a contrast of good and evil.
Job (the blameless speaker) expects to be able to look at and address God,
but ‘the godless man’ (the same one that was translated as ‘the heathen’ in
8:13) is not given the chance to do so.
Chapter 14
Job’s main emotions in the speech of chs. 6–7 were anger (towards the
friends) and sadness (about his ruined life), leading to indignation (towards
God). We recognize this same order in his longest contribution to the debate
(the climax of the fifrst round of the debate, chs. 12–14): he angrily turns
against the friends (the frequent ‘you’); in 13:23 and subsequent verses he
already shows some indignation about God’s attitude, and in ch. 14 he
arrives at his sadness (stanza I) and despair (II).
This poem has four stanzas with two strophes each. So there are eight
strophes with the arrangement LL/LL//SL / LS. The text of the fifrst two
units reminds one strongly of the beginning of ch. 7, thanks to words like
day labourer, shade and the word-pair days / months, which mirrors the
months/nights of 7:3. In the short strophe (a) of ch. 7, Job talked about man,
and here in ch. 14 that generalizing mode of speaking has been extended to
two long strophes (= stanza I). But these units also include matter strictly
their own, because God appears in the text and is addressed elaborately.
He is oppressively present, so much so that Job begs for a time-out in v. 6.
The coherence of the two strophes is again ensured by parallel features. The
notion ‘of few days (of life)’ is present in v. 1b and v. 5a, and by means of
visual terms the fifnal verses make a contrast between reality (God ‘has his
eyes’ on Job) and ardent wish (‘look away from him’).
The 3+3 verses of stanza II (strophes c + d) work together on the basis of
the contrast life/death. The tree-stump has the prospect of a second life in
(c), but man dies irrevocably and Job’s words about this sound inexorable:
by way of illustration of the downfall, he has recourse to images of the sea
and heaven.
In his despair Job makes an unexpected turn: in strophe (e) he depicts
death as a hiding place where he is safe from God’s wrath. Verse 13b shows
a new application of the verb ‘hide’. In this surprising waiting room a spark
of hope does glimmer for Job, according to strophe (f). Imagine God giving
up his grim pursuit of the hero and ‘longing for the work of his hands’. The
thought is so bold that Job puts it in the irrealis: note the repetition of the
revealing word ‘would’. It is true that in v. 16a God keeps ‘numbering my
steps’ accurately, Job says, but at the same time he hopes that God does not
start taking concrete measures against him. In ch. 31 we shall see that the
numbering of Job’s steps is an expression of particular importance.
Stanza III employs very personal language, in nearly every line using
the fifnite form of the fifrst person. Job is speaking about himself. In stanza
IV, hope again eludes him and there is no more ‘I’ nor ‘me’ to be found.
Just as the poem began, with generalizing terms, so it ends. The images of
destruction in strophe (g) are depressing, and in v. 19c God becomes the
one that ‘destroyest the hope of man’. What remains are mourning and
pain, according to the short strophe that completes the big speech. With
those words, verse 22 is an intermediate stage on the long route which
connects two fifnal verses. In 2:13 the last sentence of the introductory prose
mentioned what the friends saw: “that the pain was very great”. And the
exemplary chapter 30 ends in v. 31 with mourning and tears.
THE SECOND ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 15–21
Chapter 15: Eliphaz’ Second Speech
Job himself has concluded the fifrst round of the debate with a speech of
560 words. Now Eliphaz opens the second round with a long speech of
560 syllables. They have been put in seventy cola, a nice number which,
moreover, corresponds with the number of stanzas: there are seven stanzas,
which contain two strophes each. The middle stanza turns out to act as the
hinge of the long argument.
Stanza IV (vv. 17–21) consists of a long and a short strophe. The L-strophe
(g) is an announcement: Eliphaz expresses his intention to hold up ancient
wisdom to Job. The S-strophe (h) is a summary-in-advance of the contents
of that lesson. It functions as a sort of title or heading for the second half
of the poem, stanzas V–VII. Stanzas I–III (strophes a-f), which precede the
hinge, are a bitter and massive attack by Eliphaz on his friend. At fifrst sight,
the design of chapter 15 looks pleasantly simple:
Part A you are foolish, guilty 6 strophes: SL/SS/LL 30 cola

et cetera
hinge: intention: teach a lesson; 10 cola
short contents of the lesson
Part B the ruin of the bad man 6 strophes: LL/SS/SS 30 cola
The participants in the debate are not averse to the ‘tu quoque’. Job has
already exposed his friends as quacks and frauds, and now Eliphaz yelps
back in similar terms. What Job has brought forward is but idle chatter,
according to strophe (a), and what Job said in 12:3 and in 13:2, “I am not
lagging behind you”, he now gets flfung back at him in 15:9. And just as Job
appealed to the innate wisdom of nature and animals, Eliphaz in vv. 10 and
18 appeals to the wisdom handed down by the fathers, which in Antiquity
enjoyed an inviolable prestige. The language of justice also returns here: in
vv. 3 and 6 Eliphaz assails his friend with juridical terms. He shows himself
particularly dismayed at the wrong relationship that Job has with God, in
his view—see vv. 4, 11 and 13.
The personal is again embedded in the general. The steady stream of
you-forms which governs the body of part A is framed by Eliphaz with the
234 the second round of the debate, chs. 15–21
generalizing speech and rhetorical questions of strophe (a) and their pen-
dant in strophe (f), a question which ends with an indignant exclamation.
We recognize the dispiriting projection which Eliphaz made as early as
5:17–19. God—as he understands it—does not even trust his own celestials,
not even to speak of mortals. It is true that verse 16 is in the third person
(in connection with its generalizing), but of course it is a vicious dig at Job.
Verse 14 is still about man in general, but just who might be that ‘disgusting
and dirty person that drinks injustice like water’? The good listener does not
long need to wonder.
The negative image of God that Eliphaz holds—this Lord poisoned with
an all-inclusive distrust—leads us to adjust our survey of the design of
the chapter. On either side of the hinge are fundamental pronouncements
about trust, and about anger and struggle. They supply good arguments for
a model based on a broad centre:
Stanzas I–II you: guilty and by no means wise

Stanzas III–V anger, distrust, disgusting (III)
lesson about the wicked man’s fate (IV)
distrust, anxiety, war (V)
Stanzas VI–VII he: destruction and infertility
Most of the verses spoken by Eliphaz need little comment. I limit myself to
mentioning brieflfy some details. The composition as a whole (and it is not
the fifrst) is framed by a precise inclusio. The fifrst verse (in the disguise of
the he-form) focuses on Job’s belly, supposedly full of air; the last verse (and
colon) goes a step further, while formally it is about bad men (again the third
person): “their bellies contain deceit.”
In vv. 4b and 8b Job is accused twice of ‘restriction’: he alone would be
wise (in his own eyes), and he chokes off his dialogue with God. The two
strophic units of II wield the element of time: verse 7a is so radical as to
look back at the beginning of the world, and v. 10b plays the game of ‘we are
better than you’ in terms of age. Its sequel is strophe (g), where Eliphaz acts
as the natural heir to ancient wisdom.
Strophe (e) points at Job’s anger and still speaks in the second person. But
that anger grows into the heat of the battlefifeld and the image of the warrior
in strophe (j), with its imposing array of physical terms.
Finally, some fifgures: the 560 syllables in seven stanzas yield an aver-
age of eighty syllables per stanza—ten times the central norm 8—and
for each of the fourteen strophes, fifve times 8. There are also two stan-
zas which themselves have eighty syllables, I and IV. Stanzas IV and V
the second round of the debate, chs. 15–21 235
add a little extra and have eleven and twelve times 8 syllables, respec-
tively.
With two somewhat shorter poems (22+16 verses), Job reacts to Eliphaz’
second speech. The hero, whose proper name, as we have seen, occurs 56
times (that is, seven times eight) in the book, answers Eliphaz’ poem of ten
times seven cola and 560 syllables with a speech of ten times eight cola.
In his fifrst poem, ch. 16, he occupies himself almost exclusively with his
own situation, and for that purpose he employs the fifrst person 56 (!) times:
I/me/my, in the original.
Chapter 16
This poem is very regular. There are eight (!) strophes in a symmetrical
series: SL/LL//LL/SL with four hundred syllables in all, so that each strophe
has an average of fiffty and has seven occurrences of the fifrst person. And
because the whole is grouped into four stanzas, the stanzas have exactly
one hundred syllables on average.
The arrangement of these four parts is mostly concentric. The sarcastic
exclamation in v. 20a, “What kind of advocates are my friends!”, might serve
as a label for the outer ring of I + IV, the only stanzas with short strophes.
Within (i.e. in II and III) there is war and destruction, so much so that
the distinction between these two parts is subtle. Nevertheless it is nicely
marked off by the appearance of tricola. They are in two pairs, strategically
placed in strophes (d) and (e), which are adjacent. This broadening of the
centre becomes clear when I list the numbers of cola in the eight strophes:
4 +6/6+8//8+6/4+6. Thus the shortness of the two strophes (with four
half-verses each) is compensated for by the extra length of the two strophes
in the middle, which have eight cola each. In brief overview:
I contra friends (“you”) II pain, menaced (A)

III pain, menaced (B) IV heavenly witness or arbitrator requested
The keyword of 2:11 for the visit by the friends, who intend to ‘comfort’
Job, returns in 16:2b, and can just as well be crossed out. What ‘miserable
comforters’ you are, the angry Job says; with that he also retorts to Eliphaz’
reproach that he, Job, is so arrogant as to disdain ‘El’s comforts’ (15:11a). And
his word ‘windy’ (v. 3a) slams back what he was accused of by Eliphaz in
15:2; Job, too, sometimes avails himself of the ‘tu quoque’. The word-pair
mouth/lips with which his fifrst stanza ends (16:5) is a precise follow-up to
the same pair in 15:6, at the end of Eliphaz’ fifrst stanza.
At the end of the poem, Job is looking for a substitute for the comfort that
is not forthcoming (according to the beginning). He longs for justice much
more than for the emotional satisfaction of comfort. In stanza IV he asks for
a witness in heaven who can plead his case, actually someone at the same
level as the Prosecutor. Because his friends have turned out to be hopeless
defenders of his case (according to the sarcasm of v. 20a), Job is dying for an
arbitrator between him and God. But as there is no other party conceivable
that stands above this pair in authority or style, this arbitrator, too, would
again have to be … God himself.
The middle of Job 16 consists of the two plus two long strophes which
occupy stanzas II–III. The buttressing of verses 9–10 and 12–13 with four
C-cola has been arranged symmetrically, for now the series of cola shows
the measures 6+8 and 8+6. So the broad middle itself has also got a centre:
the massive strophes (d) and (e) which are adjacent. What do we fifnd there?
A merciless series of war-verses with Job as a target. The language makes him
the direct object.
Ranged around this heavy centre are strophes (c) and (f). In (c) it strikes
us that in v. 7a God is for a short time ‘he’, but that all at once he gets second-
person status in the half-verses immediately following: Job addresses him
directly. That is a rare irregularity which shows how far the speech of a
shocked Job is approaching the abyss of disintegration. In v. 8 comes the
fifrst legal term. The physical deterioration which Job now experiences is
personififed by him (and so really by the author) and converted into a party
opposing him in the court of law: ‘my leanness’ Job says, is now going to pose
as proof of my guilt. That is why, when the battle has been portrayed elabo-
rately, he joins the witness of v. 8b and emphatically asks for a witness who
will be for him: strophe (g).
The block of stanzas II–III is marked by an inclusio in the fifrst person. In
v. 6 Job declares that his pain is beyond any conceivable comforting, but in
v. 17 he bounces back, fifrmly restating what his deeper, authentic quality is:
purity, innocence. That must be affifrmed and reaffifrmed at any price.
The last strophe but one (g) links up with this by introducing a scene we
know well from Genesis 4: the drastic story of fratricide. After Abel’s murder,
his blood cries out from the earth for justice (Gen. 4:10: “the voice of your
brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground”); the murderer must not get
off free. The poet has Job allude to that situation by putting the proper words
into his mouth, in v. 18. Actually, on second thought, the fifrst half-verse (18a)
means that Job already implies his own dying. I shall illuminate two aspects
of this. One is the precarious question: who has really caused this death,
or: shouldn’t the murderer stand trial? The undisclosed answer is of course:
God. The other aspect is that v. 18 now works together conjointly with the
verse that is explicit about death, verse 22; together they demarcate stanza
IV. Within this frame is Job’s last hope: an arbitrator who can turn his fate.
But thanks to the frame, the whole of stanza IV has become a speech given
by Job in the realm of death, which reaches the ears of his friends (and of
us) from that world of ghosts!
Verse 20a is a high point of ambiguity, for this line, in the original a
nominal clause, can be translated correctly in at least eight ways. For a
judge or a scholar, ambiguity may be totally unacceptable; for the poet, on
the contrary, it is a source of pleasure and richness of meaning. The word
that in v. 20 is used for an advocate is a homonym: it can just as well mean
‘mocker’. In an intriguing way, this would fift in with the fact that Job himself
here is sidelining his friends in a mocking tone, as worthless advocates.
So in 20a we may also read: “My friends have become my mockers!” Two
other options are: consider the line as (1) an interrogative sentence (are
my friends good advocates for me?) or (2) merely an exclamation (oh my
defenders, my friends!). It is not necessary (or even advisable) for us to make
a choice. Choosing would be restriction in this case. If a poet makes use of
ambiguity, it is exactly to stimulate us to accept and hold together different
interpretations.
The fifnal verse, 22, is an iconic sign, after the example of the fifnal strophe
of ch. 10: the end of the poem has been reserved for the end of ‘my’ life. To
that the symbolism of the number 22 is now added: it stands for the number
of letters (consonant signs) in the Hebrew alphabet. There are Psalms which
fifll the number 22 with the number of their cola, or verses, as the case may
be, or with the number of their strophes or stanzas, and which constantly
have these short or long units begin with the next following letter of the
alphabet; they are called alphabetical acrosticha.9 Thus the number 22 can
have the symbolic meaning of ‘complete’. For a poem of 22 verses like Job 16,
it means that the poet (or the speaker of the speech, here Job) suggests: I am
really treating my theme, the matter which I have brought up for discussion,
all the way from A to Z.
Chapter 17
This poem is rather short and has bicolic verses exclusively. It is one of the
most intimate peeps into Job’s psyche which we as readers are going to get.
Positively speaking, this is due to his straightforward expressions of sadness

and despair, and negatively to the minimal presence of other parties: hardly
a single verse is devoted to the friends, and the one strophe in which God
appears is short, placing him mainly in opposition to them.
This time verse 1 is of exceptional importance; it is not only a signpost of
structure for the poem as a whole, but it also brings in a trenchant metaphor,
which does not occur in the current Bible translations, and which remains
invisible for that reason. In versions like the NIV and the NRSV, we read
that the verse ends with empty information: the clause “the grave is ready
for me”. People have overlooked two things:
a) the structure of v. 1 is exactly the same as that of v. 11. Both passages
have, by way of exception, a very short A-colon (only two words in the
original), which is complemented by a much longer B-colon of 2 + 2 words;
b) accordingly, people have not understood that the last two words of v. 1,
‘graves for me’, have the same relationship to what precedes immediately
as the last two words of v. 11, ‘the desires of my heart,’ have to the preceding
‘plans’. The connection between vv. 1 and 11 has already been secured by the
repetition of the element ‘days’.
This observation about the pairs that conclude v. 1 and v. 11 teaches us
that ‘graves for me/of mine’ is an apposition as regards sentence structure
(point one), and in view of rhetoric or poetics a metaphor (point two): in
other words, fifgurative language that expressively explains how bad things
are with respect to ‘my extinguished days’. Normally days are time units of
a life, but for Job they are now the opposite: time units of death. So with
this bold metaphor, Job as the speaker places death in the midst of life! And
this almost nihilistic alchemy is precisely balanced with, and opposite to,
what every human being does who makes plans and has desires: ‘make night
into day’ in the words of verse 12. And another surprising reversal comes in
v. 2. Though he is already a dead man during these days, Job cannot ‘close
his eyes’, namely as a result of ‘their provocations’. Life has already been
taken away from me, he says, but even in death—already my reality here
and now—I am not given any rest!
In v. 3 Job asks God to vouch for him, and he does so in order to resist the
pressure by his friends: verse 4 shows as much by saying that the men lack
understanding.
The two long strophes of stanza II both quote sayings drawn from the
treasury of received wisdom: verse 5 about betrayed friendship, a line which
is also a dig at Job’s buddies, and verse 9, which expresses the naive belief
of good people (from v. 8). In v. 10, too, Job fails to detect wisdom in his
friends. Because of its position as the end of the second part, this verse
chimes with the end of part I as to content: an epiphor, as we call it, on the
stanza level, a sort of parallelism. But Job here addresses the men directly: he
uses the second person plural ‘you’, and he begs them to adopt an essentially
different attitude.
A form of repetition which keeps the various strophes well under poetic
control, is the line that begins with ‘an eye’ in v. 2b and ‘eyes’ in v. 5b,
then extends to ‘my eye’ in 7a and concludes, via the ‘light’ in 12b, with the
failure to ‘perceive it’ in 15b. In the meantime we have arrived at stanza III,
with its three short strophes. Here again and again it is about darkness and
the realm of death. Each of these synonyms is there twice, and they are
also called ‘the pit’ and ‘the dust’. With that, the composition is given an
ending which chimes with that of chs. 10 and 14, and also with 16:22. The
end of these poems always speaks—here in a strophe, there in a stanza—of
the end of ‘my’ life, so that its placement constitutes an iconic sign. The
repetition of the element ‘hope’ confifrms this: Job had introduced the end of
his long speech in chs. 12–14 with a meditation on the hope of the tree-stump
(14:7–9), but now he continues with an allusion about the realm of death as a
shelter for himself (strophe f), and he concludes with images of destruction
which betray his total despair.
As if all this were not enough, the poet has also framed chapter 17: the
hope in strophe (g) and verse 15 is the lost strength of mind in verse 1a, and
‘the quarters of Sheol’ in v. 16 coincide with the ‘graves’ (also plural) in v. 1b.
The compelling character of the argument is supported by many forms
of numerical perfection. There are seven strophes, which in the original
contain 112 words. The average number of words per strophe is sixteen, and
all that in a poem of but sixteen verses. So, the average number of words per
verse is exactly seven. The fifve S-strophes together comprise seventy words:
an average of fourteen words per strophe. The two L-strophes have 42 words,
averaging 21 per strophe. In these fifgures we recognize the doubling and
tripling of the number 7.
Job 17 shows a close interrelation with chapter 23. That poem, too, has
32 cola. So the chs. 17 and 23 together have 64 cola (read: the square of the
norm number 8, or 2 to the sixth power), and in them there are 252 + 260
syllables. Their total is 512, that is, 2 to the ninth power.
Bildad’s Second Speech and Job’s Answer,

Chs. 18–19
Chapter 18
Bildad is always harping on the same string. He stoutly maintains his con-
viction that the evildoer will come to grief, and in ch. 18, that is what we hear
during eight of the nine strophes which make up his speech. As readers we
can fifnd some comfort in all this monotony—by now only too familiar—
by shifting our attention to the art of poetic variation. Bildad amplififes his
theme with some colourful images.
His poem consists of bicolic verses except for one, the third poetic line
(v. 4 in the usual numbering), which is a tricolon. He begins in the same way
as the preceding speakers, by rejecting the others, and especially by treating
Job shabbily. His fifrst strophe examines the quality of the meeting and the
debate, and he passes a negative judgment on it. With that, this long unit is
distinct from the rest, so that by way of exception it counts as a stanza as
well.
The second stanza consists of three short strophes. In strophe (b) Bildad
devotes four lines to the lamp that goes out. The next two strophes belong
closely together, for each of their lines examines what in the theory of
bioenergetics is called grounding: Bildad looks down at the evildoer’s feet,
and shows how tangled up he is.
Stanza III links up well with this, speaking of ‘feet’ and ‘stumbling’ in
vv. 11b and 12b and following the evildoer’s steps (‘marching’) in v. 14b. But
these two strophes (e and f) are determined more by the key word ‘panic’,
which appears up front in the long strophe (in v. 11a) and is repeated in the
short strophe (in v. 14b). The ‘it’ with which v. 15 begins still refers to the
panic.
The disaster by which the bad man perishes is given two honorififc titles:
it is the ‘fifrst-born of Death’ and ‘the king of panic’. In my translation I have
used a capital letter for death, since in the region (Palestine, Phoenicia,
Syria) it (called Mot) enjoyed the status of a deity for many centuries—
compare 28:22.
Stanza IV also begins with a look downward. But the ‘roots’ of v. 16a form a
pair with ‘its branch’ in the second half-verse, and such a pair expresses com-
pleteness. In English we use the same fifgure when we talk about ‘destroy-
ing root and branch’. Strophes (g) and (h) are directed against surviving,
remaining present. For that purpose they bring in the concept ‘out’ sev-
eral times, thereby wiping the bad man off the boards. Strophe (i) looks
back by assuming the point of view of spectators (who are nicely covered
by the word-pair later people/former people) and by formulating a kind of
postscript or conclusion in v. 21.
In the preceding poem Job had spoken 32 cola, with sixteen words per
strophe. Here Bildad speaks 320 syllables in twenty verses, so that with him
the poetic line has exactly sixteen syllables on average. I remind the reader
that the number 32 (the quadruple of the norm 8) is the standard number
for the regular S-strophe with its quartet of cola. The poet allows Bildad to
play with it by giving his fifnal series of three short strophes the measures
31–32–33.
Chapter 19: Job Answers

This contribution by Job is long, with 28 verses in fifve stanzas, and most
particular. The broad centre and the climax which is brought about by
the last stanza make this poem a high point in the long section from the
prologue to the outcome in chs. 38–42.
The centre (the suffocating loneliness of stanza III; eight verses, all of
them bicolic, in a strophic series SLL) is surrounded by two flfanks. Flank
A consists of a series SL/SSS and is demarcated by the lengthening of v. 12
with a C-colon. So the end of the series is marked by a threefold verse. After
the centre we fifnd another two such poetic lines. Each of these tricola marks
the end of a strophe: v. 27c completes strophe (k), and v. 29c is both the end
of strophe (l) and of the poem as a whole. Together the two strophes form
the climax of the composition, stanza V. Together with the two strophes of
stanza IV they form flfank B, the series SS/LS.
Head and tail of the poem mirror each other, SL … LS. No wonder, for both
are concerned with ‘knowing’, both of ‘you’ and of ‘me’. As a contribution to
the debate, this speech by Job is concerned with the conflfict between two
positions:
a) Job’s position as put into words in v. 6, which I now render freely as:
“then know that it is all God’s fault”, as opposed to:
b) The friends’ position: no, it is his fault (Job’s), as perfectly expressed in
v. 28b, which is given the status of a quotation, by Job, in his fifnal strophe.
Strophe (a) already betrays what Job thinks about the quality of such an
argument: indignity and torment ….
The fifrst stanza, 2+3 verses, again looks to the quality of the interface and
the debate, as was the case with the opening of chs. 12, 15, 16, and 18. With his
very fifrst words, ‘how long’, Job even parrots exactly 8:2a, Bildad’s beginning
words. In strophe (a) Job complains about the indignity and humiliation
that their meddling means for him. In strophe (b), however, he comes up
with something new, which at the same time prepares us for the body of
the argument: you’re acting tough and you dish out heavy criticism, but your
contribution is not relevant at all, since it is actually ‘God who pulls the plug
on me’. The pain you cause me pales before the pain his attacks cause me,
according to Job. In the fifnal line (v. 6b) he calls that action by God ‘his siege’.
Now looking at the fifnal line of strophe 11, we fifnd a parallel (a rhyme of
meaning) on the stanza level: ‘his troops’ which attack me besiege my tent,
Job says in v. 12c. One level down, the same thing happens: both the fifrst and
the second strophes end in an attack—a similarity which enables us to put
these units together in one stanza.
The beginning of stanza II is particularly telling. Both the juridical and
the emotional sides of Job’s critical situation are perfectly rendered by the
whole of v. 7. The words ‘violence’ and ‘cry’ (in distress and for help) are
intended to remind us of 16:17–18, exactly on the boundary between stanzas
III and IV. There Job declared with a cry: I have not committed violence, and
here he states the complementary: on the contrary, I am a victim of violence.
But my complaint meets with a wall of silence, and that means: I am without
rights. So in v. 8 he employs images of ‘getting stuck in blockades’, and that
is in line with his complaint in the prologue, in 3:23 (also compare v. 10 of the
same). The cohesion of strophes (c), (d), and (e) is guaranteed by a linguistic
device as simple as it is forceful: God rules over almost all the sentences as
their subject.
One would think that Job, at the time the speaker of ch. 14, was jealous of
the tree he was talking about in the last part of his long speech in chs. 12–14.
He explained (ch. 14, stanza II) how the trunk of a pulled-down tree can
come to life again straightaway, and observed bitterly that the mortal will
never be given such a chance. ‘Hope’ was the key word. Here he reverses the
relationship, in v. 10. Strophe (e) continues with images of warfare which
are familiar to us after strophes (d) and (e) of ch. 16.
The overwhelming centre (stanza III, 3 strophes) is a summing up of all
the parties with which Job has had to deal in his everyday life: his wife, ser-
vants, relatives, friends and acquaintances, fellow-citizens: all have turned
away from him. Job has become the object of desertion, rejection, dis-
dain, expulsion. For a person who always functioned excellently in various
dimensions, the result of all this ignoring and rejecting is an incredible
loneliness. The poet employs many physical terms to impress this upon
us.
Let us turn to the middle of the middle: verse 16, the axis of the strophe
which is the middle of stanza III. In this speech we fifnd an attempt at
dialogue that failed. When Job calls, he receives no reply, not even from his
servant! And the humiliation goes so far that Job feels obliged to ‘ask for
pity’. What a low he has reached! And things are not over yet, for this axis
gets a forceful continuation on the threshold of the next stanza. Verse 21,
with which stanza IV begins, again contains interactive speaking, redoubles
the plea for pity, even putting it in the imperative mood, in the plural, and
redoubles the address in the vocative: ‘you, friends of mine’—words that
might also be rendered “you are my friends, are you not?” The begging is all
the more painful in that it is contrasted with 16:20a: “what advocates, those
friends of mine”.
Now that Job is really broken, he can no longer bring himself to be
sarcastic, but must beg for pity. The connection with ch. 16 is wider yet.
In strophe (g) of that poem, Job asked for a witness in heaven; a moment
later (strophe h) his question was a longing for an arbitrator and fifnally he
discovered that there is only one arbitrator, above all parties, and that is
(illogically enough) God. This ‘eagerly looking forward to’, we are now about
to fifnd out, anticipates the passage which is the climax of ch. 19, and which
dares to look ahead to a (new and saving) intervention by God.
The short strophes (i) and (l) surround the text of vv. 23–27. They form a
pair thanks to two characteristics: both units address ‘you’—which supplies
an inclusio that rounds off the poem as a whole, for verses 2–6, too, directly
apply to the friends—and the men’s behaviour is called ‘pursuing’ in both
v. 22 and v. 28.
The appeal for pity (v. 21a) is explained in v. 21b: “It is the hand of God that
has touched me.” This line at the beginning of flfank B links up perfectly with
v. 6a (“know then that it is God who …”), the verse that completed stanza I
(and that got a parallel in v. 12). It means that the flfanks which surround the
broad middle themselves are connected by rings. The double ‘besiege’ has
been succeeded by a double ‘pursue’.
What then is the position of strophe (j)? What does ‘an iron and leaden
stylus’ have to do with the supplications in the immediately preceding unit?
The answer, I think, lies in the wall of silence that Job has run up against. His
own argument is threatening to get lost completely. That is got fifrmly into
our heads by the motif of ‘no reply’ from v. 7, which is repeated in the centre
of the centre (v. 16a). This hard prospect is unbearable to Job, and it awakens
in him the longing for his argument to be set down in writing. Compare our
word ‘immortalize’, which we sometimes apply to family portraits. Job here
wants his pain, his complaint and his indignation over the injustice done to
him, to be recorded with means that are able to stand up to the ravages of
time: an inscription chiselled in a rock!
The reader may now be thinking: but surely mere things don’t last? But
watch out: what we are looking at (in the original) is after all a scroll on
which ‘they were inscribed’ most precisely and elaborately. Who exactly
are ‘they’? In the fifrst place ‘my words’, but in the second place—and now
things are getting very hard on God—it is all about what ‘my words’ refer
to: the horrible attacks on Job that God has launched, his misdeeds which
are not to be defended and impossible to be accounted for … notice that
these verses 23–24 refer in an inner and subtle way to the whole of Job’s
testimony. Or in the opposite direction, outward and toward envisioned
readers, and for the time being leaving aside the outcome which this great
test will get: the Book of Job as a whole is a record of critical response, of
protest, of a cry for justice—the registration that is explicitly asked for in
strophe (j).
It is striking how the longing for fifxation in writing and for indestructibil-
ity borders on the precious passage of vv. 25–27. This strophe is not about
a life after death, as the main body of christendom has thought for ages.
Thanks to Georg Friedrich Handel we are familiar with the words ‘I know
that my Redeemer liveth’. The Hebrew here has the word goʾel. The specififc
and juridical qualities of that term must not be abandoned in the explana-
tion. In the fifrst instance this word means a relative of mine who ransoms
me from a slavery in which I have landed through war or a serious eco-
nomic disaster. Two important translations out of the ten in English which
I take a look at now and then, say: ‘my champion’ (which has the connota-
tion of ‘my favourite patron’) and ‘my Vindicator’.10 What the English verb
‘to vindicate’ expresses (rightful or lawful justififcation) is exactly what Job
is on the hunt for more and more—and he will get it. But we do not know
that yet …
Further on in the Book of Job there is a passage which can serve excel-
lently as an explanation of the word ‘redeemer’, which we are no longer
familiar with. It is 33:23–24, a strophe from the contribution by the fourth
friend, Elihu. There, too, it is about an advocate, who stands up for the sin-
cerity of a human being and actually gets God to ensure that his client is
rescued from death. In 33:28 it is called ‘be redeemed’, in 33:24c it is about
a ransom. What is important is that this advocate in v. 23a is also called ‘a
messenger’. That is exactly the Hebrew word which we often have to render
as ‘angel’. So Elihu also speaks of an intervention in a heavenly court.
Back to ch. 19. The climax of the speech is stanza V, with one long and
one short strophe. The stanza has been framed with the word ‘know’. It is
both the fifrst and the last verb of the unit: up front in v. 25 and central in the
concluding C-colon of v. 29. This inclusio contains a contrast, between ‘my
factual knowledge and insight’ as regards being redeemed by God himself,

and the knowledge which I ‘unfortunately fail to detect in you’, but which
you really ought to have: “that there is a judgment”. This is an unmistakable
warning of Job’s to his friends, in a verse which twice completes a colon with
the threatening of ‘the sword’. Verse 29b has a nice ambiguity in it. The word
chemá is actually a conflfuence of two words by homonymity; one means
‘anger’ and the other ‘poison’, and in order to keep this double meaning I
am obliged to make the best of two wor(l)ds in my translation: “poisonous
anger is a sin [destined] for the sword.”
Back to the main thing, and that is the well-known text of strophe (k). It
has two cores: the person that will ransom Job, and ‘my flfesh’, that is to say:
‘my life’. The Defender on whom Job depends coincides with “the witness
in heaven” in 16:19a. In the fifrst instance one might think of a high offifcial
from the heavenly council, of the calibre of the Prosecutor who was allowed
to make havoc in chs. 1–2. But the sequel in vv. 26–27 creates a second
reading: probably the defender is God himself as ch. 16, too, ends with the
true arbitrator: the deity, in the strophe after the ‘witness’.
What Job now says about the liberator/defender is that eventually he
will certainly intervene. The words ‘eventually’ and ‘after’ in the translation
(vv. 25b and 26a) are practically identical in the original; its stem means
‘last’. Its repetition is as it were positioned on a diagonal and therewith
crosses the repetition of the crucial verb ‘to see’. I will set out the relevant
elements so that the seven lines form a solid weaving of chiasms:
I know: my Liberator at last … dust

after my skin I shall … behold God
it is I that will behold it is my eyes that see
my kidneys are aching
It is striking how strongly the speaker emphasizes ‘me personally’ in vv. 26b
and 27a (here foregrounded in italics) and how prominent the physical
terms are. Also, in three cola in a row we see ‘behold’ (twice) plus its more
common synonym ‘see’, a verb which pre-eminently expresses immediacy
of observation. All this ensures that there is no way of getting around
it: Job enounces a rock-solid confifdence that he will meet God himself.
The strophe is framed by two aspects of his attitude in this matter: a fifrm
knowledge in 25a (with again the emphasis on the fifrst person) and a
consuming longing in the fifnal line 27c. The kidneys are the organ which
symbolizes purity. By introducing the term ‘my body’ Job is saying: even
within this lifetime I shall see God.
The word ‘behold’ indicates more intensive contact and much more pen-
etrating knowledge than ‘on hearsay’. Job himself will explain that to us in
ch. 42. The great importance of the strophe about the Defender and meet-
ing him is that here we get to know the summit of Job’s relationship to
God and of his faith: a fifrm confifdence in a personal dialogue. But because
God is transcendent and thus nearly always the Unseen, it is still legiti-
mate to ask at this moment: why should we believe this man more than his
friends, who have no less deep-rooted convictions and who consequently
are sure that Job’s suffering is a punishment which certainly is God’s answer
to Job’s guilt? This critical question remains for the time being, but the
poet keeps fifrmly in mind that he must come up with a defifnite explana-
tion.
Chapter 19 has exactly fifve hundred syllables in the original. I note two more
details of numerical precision. The long strophe (b) has 15–17–19 syllables in
its three lines; in the long strophe (g) it is the reverse: 19–17–15 syllables. We
fifnd the same measures in the bicola of vv. 11–14. The last stanza of chapter 19
has the same measures as the fifnal stanza of both ch. 17 and ch. 18: all three
have twelve cola and 96 syllables. Their total is 12 × 8. Thus the central norm
number manifests itself again, and I take this as a prosodic hint that these
three poems are fifrmly connected.
Zophar’s Second Speech and Job’s Answer, Chs. 20–21
Chapter 20
Gradually, almost imperceptibly, we have run into a rhetorical battle among
the gentlemen. That becomes visible when we see the measures of chap-
ter 20, which are exactly the same as those of Job’s poem in chapter 19 on
fifve levels.
This piece by Zophar has, just like the preceding speech by Job, twelve
strophes with 28 verses and 59 cola; there are again three tricola and the
relation short/long in the strophes is also unchanged: there are four L-
strophes and eight S-strophes. The elaborate combination of these mea-
sures does not occur elsewhere in the book—an indication that Zophar
wants to forge precise links with Job’s argument in ch. 19, at least prosod-
ically.
Zophar’s twelve strophes are evenly divided over six stanzas of two stro-
phes each: SL+LS/LS+SL/SS+SS. Stanzas I–IV always have ten cola in fifve
bipartite verses, rhythmically analyzable as 2 + 3 / 3 + 2 / 3 + 2 / 2 + 3. Stanza V
also has ten cola, but it divides them evenly over two S-strophes (thus 2 + 2
verses) because each strophe has a tricolon. The 2 + 2 verses of stanza VI have
5 +4 cola, so that the poem has a truncated ending.
Zophar’s contribution is, like Bildad’s in ch. 18, a case of someone harping
on the same string. Zophar, too, only mentions that evildoers will come to
grief, and the reader in turn can only enjoy the variations with which the
poet wards off the threat of monotony.
The contents of the three parts are as follows:
I + II the bad man’s fortune will not continue; he is a dead man

III + IV his stomach: food changes into poison
V + VI war (God’s wrath) will kill him
Stanzas I through V all have ten cola, as we have seen; the sixth stanza has
one less. The fourteen verses which form the fifrst half of the composition
are all bicolic, so that they contain 28 half-verses (cola). But the second
half, also fourteen verses, has 31 cola owing to the presence of three tricola.
To this inequality the poet has an admirable answer: he smoothes out the
difference on the level of words and syllables: there the division is 102 + 102
words and 232+232 syllables. Because all three tricola are in the second half,
the poet reaches this remarkable balance in numbers of words and syllables
by making his cola in the second half somewhat shorter.
The boundary between vv. 2–15 and vv. 16–29 is important as regards
content. The pivot of the composition shows how the bad man’s fate is
reversed. He must vomit (v. 15) as a result of his food changing into adder’s
venom (v. 14): this fatal stuff means his death in v. 16. These images form the
core of Zophar’s whole argument.
Most strophes speak for themselves, so that here little explanation is
needed. In (a) Zophar, following customary practice, examines the contac-
tual situation. He feels insulted and announces his theme in strophe (b).
With it he skilfully links up with Job’s key word ‘know’. The three verses of
strophe (c) all are variants of ‘gone’.
The centre, stanzas III–IV with strophes e-f-g-h, works brilliantly with the
contrast between sweet (in v. 12a, then in 17b) and poison. In the scoundrel’s
stomach there is a struggle between holding and letting loose, and the result
is a fatal vomiting (see especially vv. 15 and 18). The fifnal verse again says
‘gone’.
Stanzas V–VI let God’s wrath rage, as witness verses 23b and 28b. This
leads to images of war. The fifnal destruction is executed by water as well
as by fifre. With the datum of God’s wrath, Zophar forges a neat connection
using a strophe by Job from the previous poem, and he (or the poet) under-
lines this with a jewel of startling numerical precision:
‘he flfew into wrath’ ‘flfown wrath’

ch. 19 strophe (e) ch. 20 strophe (i)
38 syllables 38 syllables
namely:
6+9 = 15 7+8 = 15
7+8+8 = 23 6+8+9 = 23
We see that the fifgures on either side are exactly equal. While the com-
ponents of the addition change position, the poet has achieved this in
such a way that the totals for the verses remain unchanged. And as if
all this were not enough, in strophe (k) the poet again brings together a
tricolon and a bicolon, with measures that neatly mirror (i): 23 + 15 sylla-
bles.
Chapter 21, Job’s Answer (and the End of the Second Round of Debate)
The poet fifnishes the second round of the debate by calling on Job to speak.
Whereas in both chs. 19 and 20 we have found a series of twelve strophes,
the speech that Job will now speak in ch. 21 contains 12 + 2 strophes. 12 + 2?
I note it down in this curious way to indicate the structure of the poem,
which again shows a centre and two flfanks. A simple diagram now makes
clear how the units of strophes and stanzas have been arranged11 in neat
parallel around the middle unit:
LS LSSS
LL
LS LSSS
In the centre (vv. 16–21) we read once more the familiar jingle that the
bad man will come to grief—and that from Job’s mouth. All clauses in
these verses are in the indicative and proclaim the untimely destruction of
evil. If these words were really to represent Job’s point of view, his entire
argument would collapse like a house of cards and the reader would fall prey
to massive confusion, the more so as in the flfanks (stanzas I–II and IV–V)
we hear how the scoundrel enjoys life!
Confusion is not necessary when we understand that the words in the
middle, those of stanza III, voice the opponents’ point of view. They have
the status and the effect of a quotation. On either side of the middle Job
himself states the opposite. Now the elegantly simple structure of the poem
becomes crystal clear:
Flank A the scoundrel’s happy life 2+4 strophes

Centre ‘he goes down’ 2 L-strophes
Flank B the scoundrel’s happy life 2+4 strophes
Put differently, we see here a simple movement from reality to ideology

and back to reality. Job unmasks the friends’ arguments as illusion, mere
ideological nonsense, and he wraps up their naive vision with images which
present the empirical truth. He points to the harsh reality which present-day
man sees in today’s news: that quite a few evildoers lead long and carefree
lives and that they are not obstructed in any way.
The beginning of the speech is the usual: focusing on the I-you contact.
Strophe (a) puts ‘you’ as listeners opposite ‘my speaking,’ and strophe (b)
connects both parties in an original way by announcing that they both
will be shocked by what is to come. All the following strophes concern the
evildoer’s life and fate. The very fifrst line (v. 7a) says it bluntly, “Why do
scoundrels stay alive?”—a rhetorical question which ventilates indignation
and which is characteristic of the whole.
Three strophes sketch the health and zest for life of the evildoers and
their livestock. Then Job fifnishes the second stanza with a linguistic gesture:
he allows them to speak for the length of an entire strophe (f)—a long
quotation, so that the bad men are given an opportunity to characterize
themselves. They radically reject God: he is no concern of theirs. In v. 15 they
ask the stark question what religion is good for. Thus the whole of stanza II
is demarcated by a frame of rhetorical questions.
Now Job follows the quotation of the evildoers (one strophic unit) with
a much longer quotation. Stanza II, the central duo of long strophes, repro-
duces the words of his opponents in the debate: of the friends, who persist
in their conviction that chickens come home to roost. The words in v. 17
(putting out the lamp) clearly remind us of Bildad’s argument in ch. 18 (stro-
phe b of that chapter). And ‘Shaddai’s wrath’ (v. 20b) uses the same word
which rendered the friends’ ‘poisonous anger’ in the fifnal verse of ch. 19, to
answer it. It is synonymous with the deity’s anger which linked 19:11 with
20:23.
In stanza IV, Job considers the bitter reality. He opposes happiness and
misfortune by spreading them over strophes (i) and (j), but he also con-
nects them by showing in v. 26 that both parties equally meet with death.
That common end makes the distinction between well-being and adversity
unimportant. However, there are two details left which set us to thinking.
Job spends three entire verses on happiness but only one on adversity—a
division which in itself fifts in with the whole of the speech. But this time
he does not call the people in vv. 23–24 and v. 25 the scoundrel and the
honest man. He only indicates them with the quasi-neutral words ‘one’ and
‘another’. This choice of words is also a way to indicate how good and evil are
put into perspective by death’s break-in. (Compare the words by the conge-
nial spirit Ecclesiastes in his book, in ch. 3:19–21, or in 7:15–16, 8:6–8.)
In stanza V, Job calls on his friends to look around with an open mind:
take the signals from reality to heart, v. 29. The problem with the bad men
is that it is very hard to call them to account (strophe l). And what is still
harder to bear: to see how the bastard is carried off to his grave with pomp
and circumstance, strophe (m).
Stanza V is demarcated by a ring which partly also applies to the com-
position as a whole. In the fifrst and last verses Job uses two massive words
in the plural, which constitute an inclusio, and such a word also occurs in
v. 27a. The ring for the whole becomes doubly strong because the half-verses
of v. 2 are mirrored in those of v. 34:
v. 2 my word your comfort

v. 34 how you comfort your answers
Verse 2b is very ironic and speaks of ‘comforts-of-yours’, in one long Hebrew

word. Its content coincides with ‘answers-by-you’ in v. 34b, again a massive
plural. But now there is also v. 27, the beginning line of stanza V, and
the massive plural there actually refers again to the friends’ contributions:
‘calculations of yours’. We now understand that ‘how you comfort me’ (34a)
is identical to the ‘tactics with which you damage me’ in v. 27b.
THE THIRD ROUND OF THE DEBATE, CHS. 22–28
Chapter 22: Eliphaz’ Third Speech
For the fifrst time since the short poem of ch. 17, we have here an entirely
bicolic poem: there are bipartite verses only. Again there is a centre with
on either side two stanzas, each of which holds together a short and a
long strophe: LS LS/LLL/SL LS. Their symmetry has been worked out in
detail:
part A part B part C

stanza no. I + II III IV + V
verses 3+2/3+2 3+3+3 2+3/3+2
cola 20 18 20
syllables 158 144 158
In the middle, we recognize the total number of syllables as the square of

the prestigious number 12. Later it will also be used, among other things,
in the centre of ch. 28. The number 144 comes about as the sum of the
strophe measures: 48–47–49. These fifgures of the long strophes clearly have
48 as their norm, and that corresponds perfectly with the length of the
standard-L-strophe: six cola, with the norm number 8 (syllables) as the
length of the colon.12
The symmetry on either side of the middle part is no coincidence. The
158 of part A is the sum of 83+75 (syllables in two stanzas of fifve verses), and
that total is also exactly the measure of the stanzas I + IV of the preceding
three poems in a row, chapters 19, 20, and 21. So the poet quietly takes care of
continuity—in numbers. Meanwhile, he has also kept in mind that Eliphaz
remains true to his own rhythms. When Eliphaz appeared in the beginning
of the debate proper, in ch. 4, he chose the proportions and the symmetry
of 3+2 and 2+3 verses; those measures there apply to all four stanzas. And
in ch. 15, too, his stanzas I and IV still show the alternation of three and two
verses.
Such forms of prosodic precision are especially signififcant if there is a
connection with the argument and its content. That is the case here. A
major characteristic that parts A and C have in common is the use of the
second person for Job. In A, Eliphaz attacks his friend directly, personally
252 the third round of the debate, chs. 22–28
and crassly by pronouncing horrible accusations, although they are based

on his own ideology exclusively: ‘now that Job has been struck so severely by
God’s hand, he must have made terrible mistakes’—and so Eliphaz allows
himself to dream up all kinds of crimes. Part C is the pendant of A. Here
Eliphaz does try to make Job ‘see the error of his ways,’ and he holds out a
reward to him.
Then there is the middle section, with its three long strophes. Here
Eliphaz reflfects on evil, using generalising terms. A main characteristic
which keeps these 6+6+6 half-verses together is Eliphaz quoting a different
party in each strophe. In strophe (e) he quotes Job (falsely) who maintains
(according to Eliphaz) that God does not see what happens here on earth
anyway. In strophe (f) he quotes the criminals who cynically say that surely
God can’t do anything to them, and in strophe (g) he puts words of Schaden-
freude into the mouths of innocent spectators.
Through the form of this construction, Job’s words become parallel to
those of the riff-raff. Thus Eliphaz insinuates that his friend himself is un-
doubtedly a criminal. And with the quotation at the end of (strophe g and)
part B, jeering at the demise of the wicked, he seeks to intimidate him
again. The poet in turn suggests, with the square of the number 12, that this
speaker’s reflfections are pretentious. Mr. Eliphaz again tries for revelation
and holiness (think of ch. 4).
In the successive poems, the threefold quotation by Eliphaz in the centre
of his speech is the pendant of what happened in ch. 21: there Job had
spoken two long strophes which are entirely quotations and which occupy
the centre of that composition. The considerations which he quoted in
21:16–21 represent the friends’ point of view regarding the evildoer’s fate.
There are two undeniable signals that we readers must place the middle
of ch. 21 next to (and opposite) that of ch. 22: in the fifrst place, 21:16b is
literally the same as 22:18b, and in the second place the gesture of rejection
‘go away from us’ in 22:17a, which is directed against God, is the same as in
21:14a.
Now it is clear that the beginning of the third round of the debate is
closely attuned to the ending of the second round by virtue of all these
linguistic and numerical devices. The gentlemen remain engaged in a fiferce
competition in rhetoric.
In the fifrst strophe, Eliphaz gives evidence of understanding that God and
human beings cannot be measured by the same measure. From the general,
v. 2, he arrives at the particular, in v. 4, and he hits a sensitive nerve in Job
with the question: “Does he summon you because of your fear of God?” After
the third round of the debate, chs. 22–28 253
that, Eliphaz takes off his mask; he pours out a stream of nasty accusations
upon Job in units (b) and (c), ending with strophe (d), which describes Job’s
situation: that of anxiety, panic.
The end of part A is connected by a hook-like construction with the fifrst
strophe of part B, the centre (= stanza III). The datum of v. 11 that ‘you can-
not see’ because of darkness, gets a provoking parallel at the end of the
next strophe: in v. 14 Eliphaz puts into his friend’s mouth the statement
that God himself ‘sees nothing’ from ‘behind thick clouds’. With this das-
tardly quotation-and-fabrication (vv. 13–14), Eliphaz tries to ally Job with
the group of criminals, and so it is not surprising that he (Eliphaz) immedi-
ately thereafter also quotes them: in strophe (f), in words clearly inspired by
the passage in ch. 21, where Job himself quoted the evildoers—also, let us
note, in one strophe (f). By parroting him in this manner, Eliphaz intends to
disable his friend’s argument.
Reading on, we fifnd that of the three strophes which occupy the centre,
each contains a quotation. The heated competition of our debaters takes
place not only in the sphere of arguments and prosody or proportions, but
also by the manipulation of quotations. Eliphaz now trumps his friend (he
thinks) by quoting a third party in strophe (g), the group to which he no
doubt reckons himself: the righteous. In v. 20 he has them announcing the
ruin of the wicked. He himself deems it a fifne climax to round off the middle
part of his speech with a ‘positive’ quotation or message which surpasses or
annuls utterances by two wrong parties.
The two units of stanza IV are simple as regards content: be good now
(strophe h), then you will be all right (strophe i). Thus the way is freed for a
cheerful fifnal stanza about hearing, light, and purity—also in two strophic
units.
Job Answers in Two Parts, Chs. 23–24
Chapter 23
“I wish I knew how to fifnd him.” That is Job’s great longing, on which
the greater part (stanzas I–II) of his short speech in ch. 23 turns. But oh,
dear—what if it really came true? “When I see him, I am scared of him.”
This line is typical of the third stanza.
Job is working for a lawsuit; he wants a fair trial in which he can put
his innocence opposite God’s unreasonableness. That is expressed in a
chiasm which holds together the body of the fifrst stanza, strophes (b) and
(c):
v. 4 a lawsuit / arguments of a plea

v. 7 a plea / my judge
“I want to know the words with which he will answer me”, Job says in v. 5a
of the fifrst stanza, and he goes in search of them. In the short second stanza
(strophes d and e) it is really visible in each line how Job is out looking for a
meeting with God. The terms forward/backward and left/right which depict
this in strophe (d) are also used in Hebrew for the four directions.13 This
means that the quartet of cola in this unit includes in its sweep the entire
compass.
The verses of strophes (b) and (d) are tightly organized thanks to a
reversal of the direction of speech or motion. In strophe (b) we see the
relationship I → him (in v. 4) twice; it gets a complement twice via the he
→ me contact in v. 5. Strophe (d) is a clear parallel to this. First of all, it is
about the movement of searching: fifrst two instances of I → him: in v. 8 and
next in v. 9, and then twice the reverse: he → I. But now also the result is
added: each of the four half-verses has the negation; the search is in vain.
Strophe (d) has a predecessor which is much like it: strophe (d) of ch. 9,
also of four lines. Moreover, the unit about the idle search for God is of great
importance intertextually. The poet strikingly alludes to Psalm 139, and he
presumes that we know that song. In strophes 2 up to and including 4 of the
psalm (vv. 4–10), the poet is primarily moving along an east-west line. In v. 8
he crosses that direction with the vertical dimension. I will quote here some
half-verses from the RSV. “Thou dost beset me, behind and before, / and
layest thy hand upon me”, according to v. 5, and compare verse 9; verse 8: “If I
ascend to heaven, thou art there!/If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!”
But the Psalm writer’s sole aim is exactly the opposite of what Job wants: he
is trying to escape from the deity’s uncomfortable presence—everywhere
by way of thought-experiment—and the result of this endeavour is also
contrary to Job’s endeavour: he (the ‘I’ of Ps. 139) does not succeed. In
the second half of his song the poet of the psalm admits defeat: “Probe
me, o God, and know my heart,/try me and know what torments me.”
This movement towards God does result in some resemblance to Job’s
striving, namely that God appears and weighs both his suffering and his
innocence in the balance in order to reach a fifnal judgment which can
only be acquittal.—Just as the poet of the Book of Job in strophe (d) of
ch. 23 makes superb application of the psalm verses to put a new and
different usage into the mouth of his hero, he has done so before in ch. 7, in
strophe (i), where he gave a creatively negative twist to verses 4–5 of Psalm
8.
Strophe (e) joins up well with the compass imagery, in each verse exam-
ining Job’s footwork. However, it also has a theme of its own, mentioning
that Job has always perfectly kept to his God’s commandments. This point
is the fundament of the compelling argument that Job will bring forward if
the trial ever does come off.
By repeating the word ‘term’ the poet again forms a coupling (in technical
jargon a ‘concatenation’) to link the beginning of stanza III to the end of
the preceding unit; the word concludes v. 12 and appears again in v. 14a.
Probably it signififes ‘my daily portion of obligations’ at the end of v. 12 and
in v. 14a is a none too cheerful metonym for ‘my whole life’.14
After the longings, the facts follow in stanza III: there is no correcting God
(strophe f), and Job admits to being in panic (strophe g). Seeing God leads
(in v. 15) to anxiety, and in v. 17 this is made identical to ‘seeing darkness’.
We remember the series of synonyms for the pitch darkness which governed
the massive end of ch. 10.
However, there was another end that spoke of (the darkness of) death: the
last stanza of chapter 17. This takes us to the unique prosody of chapter 23.
This poem has virtually all its proportions in common with ch. 17. The fifgures
for stanzas, strophes, verses, and cola are exactly the same.15 The number of
their syllables differs a bit, 252 as against 260, but that difference loses its
signififcance when we add up these totals. Together the two poems have
512 syllables (the number 2 to the ninth power, and also the normative
number 8 to the third power) in 64 half-verses (the square of 8), and that
yields an exact 8 as the average number of syllables per half-verse.
The numerical data I see as a hint by the poet to read the poems of
ch. 17 and ch. 23 as pendants of each other. Both are short, but on the
other hand they are flfanked by a long poem, which completes the respective
speeches: ch. 16 which precedes its partner and ch. 24 which follows its
partner. Obeying the poet, I read the short speeches side by side. One might
say that Job is searching for God with a heavy heart (ch. 23) and that ch. 17
aptly voices what the heaviness is. The fifrst and the last verses of the two
poems are well comparable in speaking about pain and death respectively,
and approximately in the middle, 17:9 corresponds with 23:10–11.
There is yet another numerical connection, namely with the last poem.
Chapters 22 and 23 have 460 and 260 syllables respectively in 58 + 32 cola.
This yields a division with surprising results: altogether they comprise 720
syllables divided over 90 half-verses, and that gives exactly the norm 8 as the
average per colon.
Chapter 24
Job’s speeches are much more varied than those of his friends as regards
content. Chapter 24 brings a new surprise: fiferce social criticism which is
even sharper than the prophets’ indignant outbursts about social injustice
and exploitation. The text and its unit as a poem are marked by a unique
frame: each of the fifrst and last strophes consists of only one verse. If for the
time being we bracket off v. 25 with its language about language (there Job
confifrms his view of facts), the four stanzas of this long speech have three
strophes each. A main feature of the whole is that this time not one form of
the fifrst person (I/me/my) occurs in it.
This chapter is the only one in which an accident happened in the place-
ment of a verse. More than two-thirds of the poem are about crime, and
looking at the contents we readily discover how stanzas I–III take turns. The
short stanza I and the intermediate stanza III focus on the criminal, who
incessantly is the subject of the clauses. They are placed around the long
stanza II, which on the contrary is consistently concerned with the oppo-
sition between the victims and their cruel fate. Thanks to this crystal-clear
alternation between fifelds of attention, the correct assessment of v. 9 poses
no diffifculty: at some time or other, this verse was literally misplaced; it does
not belong in II (for example, as in existing versions, at the end of strophe
e). On the other hand, it fifts excellently into strophe (c), just before v. 4.
Most lines of stanzas I–II go without saying. Strophes (b) and (c) are fiflled
with images of robbery. Their pendant, stanza II, is organised concentrically.
Its middle unit, strophe (e), strictly limits itself to the misery in which the
victims end up. Around it, once again we get the cause: strophe (d) and
verses 10–11 are fiflled with forms of exploitation. They are so strictly focused
that in all these verses not a single word for the bosses can be identififed. The
identical beginning of vv. 7 and 10, the word ‘naked’ as an anaphora, makes
it easy for us to discern the three-part articulation of the stanza.
Verse 12 is not just accidentally the fifrst tricolon of the speech. It shows
the fifnal and fatal result of the exploitation and in its extension, the C-colon,
it introduces a special character whom we were in danger of forgetting
after verse 1. The whole passage of vv. 1–12 turns out to be enclosed by
mentionings of God, and the inclusio is not in the least to his advantage.
Only after and thanks to v. 12c do we understand what kind of expression
v. 1 actually is. It is a complaint by Job. Tormentedly he observes that any
intervention or relief action by God is not predictable by those who love
him; worse yet (he now adds in 12c), crime does not seem to interest God at
all—the selfsame God that he had just called ‘my judge’, in 23:7.
The three strophes that make up stanza III form a spectacular climax
of the argument about the corrupt existing order of society: they all are
elaborations of the same light/darkness motif—a word-pair which comes
in handy for the poet by having its lines run parallel at the same time
that they clash as regards meaning. The three are framed by the key word
‘(ac)know(ledge)’. The scoundrels are familiar with the dark, “they know
(its) terrors”, the fifnal line 17b says, and the flfip side is also put into words:
in v. 13b and in v. 16c they refuse ‘to (ac)know(ledge) the light’.
Job explains that crime amounts to turning the world upside down. In
v. 17a we hear how cleverly the scoundrel exploits the darkness, by changing
it into its opposite as it were, and all of strophe (h) illuminates this with
concrete images. Promptly, in verse 13, light turns out to be much more
than physical light: in Job’s eyes it also stands for morality. Consequently
he speaks of ways and paths, and an expression like ‘know the light’ refers
directly to the correct way of life. Apart from that, strophe (g) covers the
full 24 hours of the day by giving nasty reversals to both its halves. The
scoundrel’s insolence is such that by day he commits a murder, and in order
not to waste time he goes out stealing by night. The murder in v. 14b is the
exact central point of this poem as regards the number of words.16 This is no
coincidence: the verb for murdering was also the pivot of Job’s long speech
in chs. 12–14, with as the victim … the ‘I’ himself!
Stanza IV marks its boundaries by beginning and ending with a threefold
verse. The stanza forms an ascending series of 5 + 6 + 7 lines. Its contents
seem to report the evildoer’s untimely ruin. But for the fifrst time this passage
poses us the question as to whether we actually understand what we are
reading. The stream of indicative clauses of which it consists suggests in the
fifrst instance that Job himself believes in that untimely ruin. However, that
is in contradiction with his sarcastic declaration in ch. 21 that the scoundrel
enjoys a long life and that he gets an honourable funeral, and it fifts in only
too well with the friends’ doctrine that the bad man is soon done for. Until
recently Job also believed that, but he has had to take leave of that idea. Can
we read stanza IV as a part of Job’s new, bitter position?
Verse 18ab applies a play on words. The stem of ‘cursing’ is the same as
that of the fifrst word (‘swift, light’). The evildoers dash away like insects
over the surface of water, trying to remain elusive. The announcement that
their heritage is or has been cursed gives us the option of interpreting the
stanza differently. This second reading—which I prefer—is that the entire
stanza is a curse which Job pronounces upon the criminals. He wants to add
force to that curse by putting its details (= the clauses) in the indicative. The
evildoers’ ruin becomes here what Job wishes and hopes for.17
The ‘worm’ in v. 20b is no different from the ‘worms’ in 17:14; it is about

worms in a dead body. If we realize that, we discover that the lines run-
ning parallel, 20a and 20b, contain an encompassing fifgure which seems to
unite death’s realm with a mother’s womb. This again reminds us of the pro-
logue: the poem which began with tremendous curses and which, in forms
expressing wishes, made a connection between womb and grave. In v. 21 the
criminal compounds the misfortune of women with his evil. Finally, God
turns up again, in the middle of the last strophe. He is the one that has given
the bad man a certain respite, but who then, at the bottom, is responsible
for the rightful punishment—Job does not have him intervene explicitly
in this ending. The bad man’s life cannot be safe; those words remind us
of verses to that effect which Eliphaz spoke one round earlier, in 15:22 and
31.
The long poem of ch. 24 has a content which differs very much from that
of the shorter ch. 23. It is therefore relevant that the poet has seen to making
an ingenious connection. The end (v. 17) of ch. 23 spoke of the frightening
‘sight of darkness’ and a ‘face … covered with thick gloom’. Chapter 24,
which as early as v. 15 spoke of ‘eyes’ and of ‘cover on his face’, climaxes
its third stanza (that of light and dark) with (see also v. 17) ‘the terrors of the
dark’.
A Resumé En Route
Reading through the Book of Job is a long trajectory. Now we are about
halfway through the expositions of four speakers. As they all struggle with
immense problems, it will be appropriate for us to insert a moment of
reflfection and to wonder: what is at stake, and how far have we come, as
regards content?
Beginning with the last passage of chapter 24, verses 18–24, my suggestion
to read this fourth stanza as a curse is perfectly plausible, but not the only
alternative. The tension between this part and the recognition of the crime
is great. In I–III (Job complains), God shows an appalling lack of interest,
while Job hopes and/or asserts, in stanza IV, that God will intervene and
bring the evildoers to an untimely end. Can we make any sense of such an
internal contradiction, and is this contradiction acceptable?
The doctrine which Job’s friends keep clinging to, that of symmetri-
cal retaliation, has actually long since been abandoned, in two ways: by
their confrontation with innocent suffering and by the hard facts of reality,
among other things the festering of social injustice. It is a view of God, man,
and world which we are thoroughly familiar with. Who, as a toddler, has
not sung, in the month of December: whoever is sweet, will receive sweets,
whoever is naughty will receive the birch (= punishment)?
What is at stake in the discussion are a correct image of God and a correct
image of reality, with evil as a prominent part of it. The friends have already
failed the exam. True, they are all in favor of ‘doing good’, but this is based
on cold calculation: one good turn deserves another, and now God cannot
but reward us. And the reverse: we will keep believing in You, God, as long
as You reward us for our good behaviour. And behind it all is probably sheer
unexamined fear.
While the friends stick to the naive doctrine of retaliation, Job realizes
that it is completely in shatters. He has abandoned this position out of sheer
necessity, but now he is in a great dilemma: how am I to reconcile innocent
suffering with my belief in God? Job feels forced to recalibrate his image
of God drastically, and not only as a result of the unintelligible catastrophe
which has happened to him, but also because he recognizes the reality of
widespread social injustice.
Debating and duelling with the outdated concepts, Job is looking for new,
more deeply founded truths about God, man, and world. That is a Sisyphean
task which takes its toll of him. His belief and his world view are unsettled,
and the sea-changes which have become inevitable are attended by great
pain.
At this point I switch to another level: that of the poet and his creation.
Making this great work of poetry provides the poet with an opportunity to
explore diverse positions through the speakers. Through all the debating,
fault-fiflled as it is, he too is on his way toward truth, or rather, to new, deeper
truths about God, man, and world. The poet does not go this long distance
alone. He goes through it together with his readers. It is our duty to think
along with him stage after stage, speech after speech, and to accept that
exploring half-baked, superfifcial or wrong convictions is all in the game.
Then we can even allow the hero to carry out contradictory explorations
like those in ch. 24. If there is anyone that we loyal readers would gladly
make these allowances for, it is Job.
The Last Exchange, Chs. 25–27
Eliphaz and Job have begun the third round of the debate with substantial
speeches. But the intensity of the confrontation will now diminish. Bildad
has little ammunition left and Zophar has shot his bolt. Job, on the contrary,
is given more and more speaking time by the author. He will round off the
debate in the fifrst instance with a long speech which is still a part of the
debate (chs. 26–27), and next he will look back by formulating a sort of
conclusion about wisdom and Wisdom in ch. 28. But that is not all. He will
deliver a climax by giving a systematic view of his position in three poems
which are fifnely attuned to each other, chs. 29–31.
Chapter 25, Bildad’s Third Speech

Bildad’s little poem consists of one short and one long strophe, which
together form a stanza. Strophe (a) limits itself to speaking about the deity.
In the original the four half-verses rhyme, for they all end in ‘him’ or ‘his’.
What is Bildad’s aim with these lines? A speaker who begins talking about
‘dominion and fear’ cannot avoid the suspicion that he wants to intimidate
the person he is speaking to.
Strophe (b), on the contrary, sets out to pronounce upon man’s being, but
it ends in a negative result by a fatal comparison with the deity. Bildad has
listened well to Eliphaz’s contributions, and now he can think of nothing
better to do than aping him. We recognize the image of a God who has
become afflficted with mistrust, for the contents of 25:4–6 are identical to
those of the strophes by Eliphaz in 4:17–21 and 15:14–16. This sad image must
be a projection of Bildad’s own dismal attitude towards his fellow beings. He
himself has nothing new to report, nothing more to say. The very shortness
of his third speech is an ironic device in the hands of the poet.
Job Answers in Two Parts, Chs. 26–27

Chapter 26
Bildad has gone far out of line, acting big by singing with quasi-superiority
about the stars, God’s armies on high and the like. I can do that just as well,
Job says. But whereas Bildad joins his attempt to sound spectacular with the
very negative conclusion that man is a contemptible being, a dirty worm,
Job’s riposte in ch. 26 comes to a totally different verdict.
The poem 26:2–14 has bicola only, in six strophic units. They are grouped
in an original way. The centre is characterized by hymnic language and con-
sists of short strophes which are closely connected as a stanza. They are
vv. 5–10, which form a quartet of cola three times: twelve lines in all. How-
ever, around this are two long units which together also contain twelve lines.
Moreover, they conform exactly to the standard number for the L-strophe:
they have 48 syllables each, together 96, and I read this as twelve times the
central standard number 8.
I keep these long strophes together as a stanza by giving them the labels
I-A and I-B, on grounds of the fact that they are attuned to each other—
owing to their position on both sides of vv. 5–10, which I call stanza II. They
have the motif of ‘strength’ in common; at the same time they are comple-
mentary by implying a minus and a plus. In strophe (a) Job jeers at his friend
Bildad for being a wimp, tearing down his help and advice: they are ‘with-
out strength’. Opposite this negative point is the positive thrust of strophe
(e), which celebrates the Creator’s superior power with a lot of action and
hymnic sounds. So stanza I has been split up by the poet, and the parts have
been placed around the three S-strophes as an envelope. Such a division is
rare, but it also occurs occasionally in the Book of Psalms, on both strophe
and stanza levels. In the original text the cohesion of strophes (a) and (e) is
still stronger thanks to elements of style and sound.
Stanza II, the centre, is a piece of praise. In the original, the verbs for God’s
acting and creating are mainly participles, implying that his actions are not
simple (confifned to one time only): they stress supra-temporal (actually
eternal) qualities of the creator’s activity.
If we pay attention to space, we notice at once how the strophes here
have been connected. In (b) Job looks down; in (d) he looks up and toward
the horizon, whereas (c), the middle one of the three, views the earth in
an in-between position. The physical beginning, with vv. 5–6 (‘tremble’ and
‘naked’) is immediately expressive, with images of the realm of death and
its inhabitants. The underworld is even personififed, so that the words take
on the function of proper names and are not translated in my version: Sheol
(the realm of death) and Abaddon (a noun with the stem ‘perishing’). Later
Job will allow them to speak, in 28:22.
In the world-view of classical Israel the chaotic power of water is to be
found both above and under the earth, and water occurs in each of these
three strophes. Strophe (c) considers creation; (d) looks up and into the
distance. Via words like ‘sight’ and ‘covered’ and the presence of God’s
throne, we get a play of light and darkness. The poet needs this word-pair in
order to deal with the question of God’s being in a suffifciently subtle way.
Can man see God? This question deserves an intertextual answer.
When the sun shines bright in the sky, we know better than to look at
it directly. When the chosen people under Moses’ leadership went through
the desert on their way to the promised land, there was—according to the
Books of Exodus and Numbers—by night a pillar of light which accompa-
nied them and showed them the way, while by day there was a pillar of
smoke which guided the people and hid them from the view of their ene-
mies. The pillars were a direct sign of God’s presence. Their difference and
their polarity are the least thing necessary to symbolize the deity. A still
more striking commentary on vv. 9–10 emerges when we turn to the great
song of thanks by the established king David, Psalm 18 (a variant of II Samuel
22). In verses 8–16, the poet reports how God intervenes to save him, David,
in the struggle. This passage, a long stanza, is the description of a theo-
phany (an ‘appearance by God’): fifve short strophes full of cosmic unrest
and action, except in the centre. There, the poet tries to catch God’s being
or way of existence in words, and he only succeeds in the sense of express-
ing that seeing God is so much more than a man can bear, that all his light is
surrounded and screened off by … darkness. The same dialectic of light and
darkness we now fifnd in v. 9.
Strophe (e) does not inform us of supra-temporal actions, but reports
the beginning of the world. Creation is here mainly described as a powerful
intervention by God: he subdues and defeats the counter-forces of chaos.
They are such formidable monsters that the poet grants both of them a
name—roughly the same as what he did with death in v. 6.
The end of ch. 26 asks for extra attention by its form and prosody. By way
of exception, it is a strophe of only one verse and this poetic line, moreover,
is the only tricolon in the poem. These qualities are a hint that strophe (f)
is separate. And it is: its content makes this strophe not one link of a chain,
but a unit which refers to the argument as a whole and which ends it as
a conclusion. We now come back to the problem of whether the difference
between God and man must be valued negatively, as Bildad just did, or quite
differently.
The relation between chs. 25 and 26 is a subtle one, and it is rarely seen
correctly. In 25, Bildad makes use of God’s transcendence or superior power
as lord of creation to cut Job down to size. In 26, Job also gets started using
terms of creation and transcendence, but for him they lead to the con-
clusion that they surpass the understanding of us humans, and that this
applies even more to God himself. Both speakers have their speech end with
smallness, but whereas Bildad is hostile and furious, being small as a char-
acteristic of all people is to Job, on the contrary, a hint to be modest and to
remain awestruck. Implicitly, he therewith undermines Bildad’s argument
and shows the man his place.
Modesty and awe for the creator are the fruits of this argument. They
anticipate the important conclusions which Job will draw when concluding
the debate proper, in ch. 28. It is a matter of analogy: just as v. 14 is a
conclusion which relates to the whole of ch. 26 and determines its correct
meaning, so ch. 28 will relate to the great whole of the debate, and in
concluding will register its value and validity.
What would Job think of theology? Does he consider himself a theolo-

gian? All over the world thousands of books have been written which seek
to present an image of God, and the authors of which scrutinize each other
at length. What Job says in v. 14 is critical as regards all these efforts:
How small is the word that we hear about him!
A living faith is quite different from reflfection on its content; it is on another

level than theology, the (more or less) scholarly discipline which is an
offifcial subject at institutes of higher education. Job’s verse in 26:14 is of
strategic importance, worth keeping in mind and worth bringing to the fore
twice: after reading chapter 28, and especially when we arrive at ch. 42,
where the poet gives his hero the last word (of poetry).
Chapter 27
This poem is strictly speaking the last speech in the debate, so it is actually
also the end of the third round. (Chapter 28, which contains no more
addresses, reviews the whole debate.) The poet puts in a turnabout which
also determined the construction in ch. 15 (beginning of the second round,
Eliphaz’ speech). The middle stanza flfips the argument over.
In chapter 27 there are fifve stanzas with two strophes each. The poem is
again entirely bicolic, like chs. 22, 23, and 25. Most strophes are short, but
the fifrst and sixth are long, so that both halves of the poem have an LSSSS
sequence. The poet underlines this balance by making the two series exactly
equal by the fifnest measure: 181//181 syllables. Moreover, the fiffth and the
tenth strophes are exactly of the same length.18
The whole has 22 verses—as many as the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
And because the poem is bicolic, there is also a balance of 22 // 22 cola. In the
second half, the forms ‘I, me, my’ used by the speaker Job no longer occur,
but in the fifrst half there are all the more forms of the fifrst person: exactly
22. This poem is the last one in which Job relates directly to his friends. In
ch. 28 there will be no more ‘you’ forms.
The flfipover of the argument takes place in stanza III. It has a short and
a long strophe. In the short one Job expresses his intention to give another
little lesson about ‘God’s hand’, and the long one summarizes as a sort of
leader what is to follow, with words like ‘the criminal’s fate’.
Stanza I is outstanding and passionate. Its two strophes constitute a positive

plus a negative oath, and taking an oath is the most obligating form of
language. Job’s language here is formal and eminently serious. Strophe (a):
what irony! to accuse God of injustice at the very beginning of an oath that
is all about honesty and justice! After the offifcial formula ‘as God lives,’ v. 2
is full of adjectival clauses which characterize God as unreliable, followed
by a temporal clause (v. 3) and the main clause of v. 4. All of that in one
breath—a formidable sentence structure!
Strophe (b) is its opposite pole, and also begins with an offifcial formula:
‘Far from me …’ These are the formal opening words of the negative oath.
Job swears one element positively (hold to my justice = innocence) and four
elements negatively. He refuses flfatly ‘to agree with you’, ‘to push away my
integrity’ or ‘to abandon’ his innocence, and he ends with v. 6b: “My heart
does not reproach me for any of my days.” Well, that’s that!
I have written out these words by Job once more because their meanings
are absolutely crucial to him. That is also what the double oath guarantees.
Job may be weakened physically, but he does not bend. The positive oath
carries the negative content: that Job is against injustice; the negative oath
brings the positive content: that Job will never give up his integrity. That
is a smack in the eye for God! This is one of the most incisive passages in
the book. It is also a textual hub, for nearly all the lines have identififable
precedents: they are echoes of earlier pronouncements.19
Stanza II is to I as minus is to plus. Verses 2–6 stood up for the hero’s
integrity: verses 7–10 (again two strophes) are directed against the criminal.
The whole content of this passage is still Job’s, for the wish-form in strophe
(c) is decisive. Stanza II, however, also anticipates the second half, especially
IV–V, where we arrive via the third stanza, already discussed, which serves
as a bridge.
The scholarly literature, however, raises a problem regarding the second
half. Until recently it was the done thing to ascribe this part of the text
to Zophar, both because it mentions the evildoer’s ruin and because the
interpreters could hardly bear the idea that the poet should not still have
granted the third friend a third speech. However, there is not a shred of
evidence that vv. 13–23 have ever been in a different place or had the
heading ‘Zophar took the flfoor’. And the ultimate decision as to the nature
or origin of the passage depends entirely on the way in which we read
it.
For a moment it almost seems that Job has gone back to subscribing to
the outdated doctrine of retaliation. But strictly speaking, he refers only to
one element of that doctrine. It is not about his own suffering, and even less
about the notion that that signififes punishment by God and the suspicion,
inferred from it, that he is guilty. In vv. 13–23 Job limits himself to the
evildoer’s fate which ends badly. The verses, their images and meanings are
familiar to us and no longer need much explanation.
Job seems to trust that God will get even with the evildoers. However,
he expresses this in ‘Zophar-like’ language, for there are many verses and
images which ch. 27 has in common with Zophar’s speech in ch. 20. Would
Job really mean what he says here? It is well possible to read this passage as
ironic. In strophe (e) Job mentions his audience once more explicitly, with
a threefold ‘you’, and his announcement ‘I shall teach you’ guarantees that
strophe (f), with its function of summary-in-advance, still belongs in stanza
III. The result of this connection is that we can regard vv. 13–23 as irony: as a
portrait of the evildoer in which the friends may recognize themselves. Job
is serving them with a warning. His threat in v. 14a, ‘for the sword’, follows
naturally from 19:29 in which the friends are openly threatened; it is the
verse that exactly borders on Zophar’s speech in ch. 20.
However this may be, we can also read this series of strophes as a thought-
experiment. Going back a step, we recall that ultimately it is the poet who
has produced this text. Apparently he wants to keep all the various options
about God, man, and the world on the table. He knows what we do not yet
know: that in ch. 28 Job will speak his true mind on wisdom and Wisdom,
and that the hero will extricate himself from the tangles of the debate by
means of a superb fifnale, the three poems of chapters 29–31.
Some More Details

Verse 10a, about Shaddai’s favour, has the same words as 22:26a, and the con-
tents of the second half-verse (call God at all times) are synonymous with
the content of 22:26b (and lift up your face to see God). By this repetition Job
rejects Eliphaz’ reasoning (in 22:21ff.). Notice that this connection of ch. 27
with Eliphaz’ speech is like a cord which circumscribes the third round. The
fourth and fiffth stanzas both end with the motif ‘gone’. This reminds us of
the repetitions in ch. 20, Zophar’s speech, of 7:8,10 (Job’s speech) and of Bil-
dad’s lines in 8:18–22.
Conclusion after Debate, Ch. 28
Chapter 28 is a profound exercise in epistemology (theory of knowledge),

which belongs in the Top Ten of biblical versififcation. It is one thing to
form a well-thought-out and realistic opinion on the range and the mutual
relations of observation, knowledge and wisdom. But it is something quite
different to catch all that in a brilliant, poetical composition with a com-
pelling structure. The author of the Book of Job has achieved this and put
his text in his hero’s mouth.
Job 28 has been called by many scholars ‘a hymn to wisdom’: a bafflfing

sign of bad reading. In the fifrst place, it is not a hymn at all, considering
that there is not a single clause to be found in which people praise or cheer.
The words about God in strophes (j) and (k) come near, but they remain
observational and descriptive, and we shall see that their function differs
essentially from praise. The same holds good for the positive words that
Job devotes in stanza II to the value of wisdom. They are in the service of a
critical argument making the negative point that wisdom cannot be bought.
In the second place, the epithet ‘hymn to wisdom’ is refuted by the main
theme of the poem itself. It says literally in v. 13: wisdom “is not to be found
in the land of the living”.
This poem has two lines—strophe (b)—which are tricolic, but all the
other verses are bicolic. The composition consists of three parts, thanks
to the key position of a refrain which opens II and III and which inquires
after the place of wisdom: where can it be found? Each of the three parts
is a stanza. Accompanying the poet and his speaker, we fifrst take a tour of
the mining industry, next we enter the market, and fifnally we think about
creation and its maker, God. In this argument in philosophical style, there
is not a single form of the fifrst or of the second person to be found: no ‘I’ or
‘me’ and no ‘you’.
It is striking that the fifrst stanza is exceptionally long, with eleven verses
in no fewer than fifve strophes. Is it really a stanza? It is, for this series
of strophes has a tightly cohesive structure, of the pattern ABXB’A’. The
word ‘place’ in both vv. 1b and 6a, but especially the repetition of the root
‘going out, emerging,’ makes stanza I a ring composition. That root is to
be found both in the middle section, in v. 5a, and on the edges of the
circle, in vv. 1a and 11b, in other words, both in the fifrst and in the last
half-verses. The appearance of gold underlines this: it is mentioned in v. 1b
and also v. 6, and by way of association the light fifts in well as its successor,
being precisely the last word of the stanza. The word ‘place’ turns out to
be a keyword: it returns, working together with the word ‘where?’, in the
important refrain in verses 12 and 20. In v. 23 it is once more in a strategic
place.
A main feature of the fifrst part is that it is determined by a spectacular
ellipsis (omission). Man is present everywhere as an indefatigable miner,
but in vv. 1–11 he is nowhere mentioned literally. Several times we hear
about a ‘he’, but not until strophe (e) do we get a more concrete trace of
him, when ‘his hand’ and ‘his eye’ come into the picture. Our miner remains
rather anonymous. It is true that in the distance a group is present, but it is
thrice governed by the preposition ‘far away from’: in the tricolon verse 4 it
is represented by (literally) inhabitant—foot—man, but at the same time

it is kept behind the horizon.
What does the scheme ABXB’A’ tell us? In the strophes labeled A and X,
man—always in his capacity as homo faber—is entirely absent in the text.
Element A (the fifrst strophe) is focused on the mineral: four valuable metals;
X (strophe c) partly shares that focus, and in addition it gives new attention
to the idea ‘place where something is found’ by inserting a good picture of
the rooting up of mother earth by the miner. The rooting up stands once
more under A’, where any literal mention of man is ingeniously avoided, but
where this homo faber and his energetic quest are nonetheless defifnitely
the subject, grammatically and otherwise. Standing opposed to man, who
gets to see the minerals under B, are the animals in B’ which have much
sharper sight, but no knowledge and no ambition. They are represented by
prominent animals: the hawk and the lion. This unit (a quartet of cola) is
governed by a fourfold ‘not’. The motif ‘see’ is made explicit in B’ and A’ and
becomes a part of the difference between man and animal; we fifnd ‘eye’ and
‘see’ in vv. 7b contra 10b.
The ring composition is additionally supported by the portrait of man
that is drawn in the beginning (v. 3) and the end (v. 11b). Man is an explorer
‘to the farthest bound’, who puts ‘an end to darkness’. Such a choice of words
invites us to a symbolic or fifgurative reading: knowledge brings illumina-
tion. And behold: v. 11b says little else.
How far do the pretensions of the indefatigable explorers extend? Stanza
II gives a fifrst and ‘commercial’ answer to that question. Man has dug up
treasures and now comes to the market with gold and precious stones. He
has a look round everywhere, in order to buy an ounce of wisdom, but he
meets with a rebuff. In strophes (g) and (h) the negation does destructive
work. Actually, his endeavours to fifnd wisdom are frustrated in advance:
the poet has put strophe (f) in as the fifrst of stanza II, and there speaks
about man and wisdom in general. Worse yet: there already, the search for
wisdom is made more or less ridiculous by the testimony of two formidable
characters. The primeval flfood and the sea must confess: “In me wisdom is
not to be found!” With that, they are giving quite a peep at themselves.
We now arrive at stanza III and see at once that its fifrst unit, strophe
(i), being strictly parallel to the fifrst strophe of stanza II, must make the
same mention of absence. In v. 22 there are again two authorities (originally
regarded as divine) that must admit their ignorance shamefacedly.
The three long strophes that fifll stanza III show a precise arrangement in
their verses: they are governed by the scheme abc / a’b’c’ / c”b”a”. I note the
decisive points of agreement which produce this arrangement:
v. 20 wisdom//insight, place, double question out of ignorance a

v. 21 hidden from the eyes of all (bis) b
v. 22 ‘hear’: the powers of death have no fifrst-hand knowledge c
v. 23 it (= wisdom), place, know a’
v. 24 look everywhere, see b’
v. 25 wind and water, God ‘makes’ c’
v. 26 rain and thunder, God ‘made’ c”
v. 27 look, see through b”
v. 28 wisdom, insight (quotation > defifnition) a”
Thus this poem has become a staggering meditation on the validity of

good observation by animals and humans, and what is more, a brilliantly
designed reflfection on the value of knowledge (and possibly wisdom) which
men and God possess. Here is the underlying diagram of this philosophical
poetry:
animals people God

observation + + +
knowledge – + +
wisdom – – +
Minus here means ‘absent’ and plus means ‘present’ in the party concerned.
We now recognize in the positive points a one-two-three as we ascend from
animals through humans to God. But there is also a critical side. The upshot
of this epistemological exercise is: a) there is no flfuent or self-evident transi-
tion from observation to knowledge, and b) there is no flfuent or self-evident
transition from knowledge to wisdom—at least not in the sublunar world.
The diagram with the plus and minus signs, horizontally threefold as
regards the parties concerned and vertically threefold as to the qualities of
hearing and seeing, knowledge and wisdom, results from the poem’s own
compelling division into three parts.
Part III supplies an alternative to the disappointment of the window-
shopping human in II. The fifnal verse becomes the punch line and the
conclusion of the argument, and so a practical answer becomes available
after all to the nearly desperate question, asked four times, in v. 12 and v. 20!
God is put on the stage speaking. He instructs man in two half-verses which
run entirely parallel, are synonymous in content, and explain each other. In
present-day language God says simply: be a decent human being. And he
sees that as the practical realization of ‘awe of Yahweh’.
Here, poetics has been put in the service of an unsparing realism. The
speaker, the hero himself, derives great intellectual power from a radical
denial which he has deployed. In the text we can trace this by examining
the negations; they occur no fewer than fiffteen times explicitly, as well as
several times implicitly. We now understand the function of the extremely
positive valuation which wisdom has been given in strophes (g) and (h): its
enormous value (indicated by the words: it is priceless) makes its unattain-
ability all the more deplorable. Stanza III indicates that wisdom is only to
be found in God and that it was applied by him in the creation. It would fift
Job to quote Psalm 131, that poetic jewel which rejects all metaphysics and
bombastic theology with the words: “Yahweh, my heart is not lifted up, (…)
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me.”
In stanza III the contrast between creature and creator has become
unbridgeable. The impasse regarding wisdom now seems total. But then, at
the last moment, a glimmer of hope appears: speaking about the practical,
factual life of men, God offers a way out with v. 28.
Through its fifnal line and choice of words, v. 28 takes on strategic impor-
tance. This meditation on wisdom and knowledge is the conclusion of the
debate proper. The phrases ‘awe of Yahweh’ (or in older language the ‘fear of
the Lord’) and ‘turning away from evil’ designate precisely the hero’s quali-
ties which we had been told of in the fifrst chapter. There, the hero was said to
be fearing God and shunning evil, and these words by the author were soon
underscored by an important character: God himself. Now they are given
double effifcacy as here in 28:28 they are passed on by Job, in other words: by
the man who knows full well what it is to be fearing God and turning away
from evil. His own record lends him a natural and absolute authority. And
the ordeals to which he has been cruelly subjected have not succeeded in
getting him off the track, so that this quotation becomes quadruply rather
than doubly important.
The importance of chapter 28 is evident in two more ways. First, we
can see that it is a stopping-point or junction in a long section: that of
the intrigue which gets under way starting from chapter 1: the test which
remains unknown to Job. In the middle of the book Job, guinea pig or
no guinea pig, rejects speculative thinking; he professes fifdelity both to
practical life and to his principles and their origin. Secondly, the Song about
or against Wisdom forms a special frame together with ch. 3. Just as in the
prologue, here in ch. 28 Job speaks to no one in particular. What he does is
more or less to think aloud. His words can resound on all sides, and since
they include no formal address, the addressee is anyone who is willing to
listen.
Beyond or behind all this, there is still our poet. Do we still need to waste
time on the possibility that he does not agree with his hero? What our
author/poet has performed is an exceptional exercise. He has dismantled

wisdom using the techniques of the wisdom genre, namely with his poetic
art: a dialectic achievement. With Job as his mouthpiece, he has shown
that the wisdoms of tradition can be torn down, that even for the tireless
researcher there is no way to Wisdom and that the true Researcher assists
man by showing him the way in a moral life without high pretensions.
Numerically
Chapter 28 has 28 verses and there are 448 syllables in the original. In this
poem, which is prominent as a conclusion about wisdom and Wisdom, I
read that as seven times the square of eight. 7 × 64 syllables = 448, spoken by
the hero whose proper name, Job, occurs 7×8 times. The average number of
syllables per verse is 448:28 = 16, the double of 8.
The three L-strophes, e-f-g, form an ascending series of 46 + 48 + 50 syl-
lables and so make up exactly the prestigious square 144, so that their cola
(three times six) score the central normative number 8 as their average. The
measure of eight syllables for a half-verse occurs in eighteen cola of this
poem, again yielding a total of 144. Yet another glimpse of numerical pre-
cision: the fifrst eleven verses (that is, all of stanza I) contain 172 syllables,
and that again is exactly as many as the last eleven verses (= strophes h-i-j-
k).
Some More Details

It is striking how anonymous the subject is with whom both strophe (b)
and strophe (e) begin: this ‘he’ is man, homo faber, miner. I maintain this
anonymity instead of taking things too easy and fiflling in ‘man’ in vv. 3a and
9a.
Regarding the clause ‘bring forth to light’ in v. 11, I might add the following:
this ‘bring’ is literally ‘make go out’ = bring out. That, together with the
‘precious thing’ in v. 10b, forms an inclusio which connects A and A’ on the
strophe level, not least of all because the word ‘origin’ in v. 1a is literally
‘outlet’. This homo faber is not just anybody! What he does in 3a, ‘set
a boundary to the darkness’, really is something only God can do. This
suggestion in v. 3a turns out to be real thanks to v. 3b. There, man is
the indefatigable researcher who ‘searches to the farthest bound’. But this
extreme ambition, already badly put to shame in the market-place (stanza
II), gets its opposite pole in v. 27b, where we fifnd the only researcher who
really does succeed. The keyword ‘search out’ and this contrast between God
and man have been placed in the beginning of the poem (v. 3b) and in the
last verse but one (v. 27b): a fifne inclusio. The connection goes a step further:
opposite the ‘fifrm founding’ of wisdom in 27b now stands the precarious
hanging of the miners on ropes in v. 4bc.
Verse 19a uses the same words as verse 17a. Verse 19b has the same verb
as 16a, and these two half-verses show a chiasm of subject and predicate in
the original, hence also in my rendering. Moreover, the verbs of 19a and 19b
follow chiastically those of 16a and 17a. For that matter, (the root of) ‘value’
appears in each of the three strophic units of stanza II. All such connections
help us to fifnd the correct demarcation of the strophes.
In v. 21 ‘it’ is wisdom. Notice how synonymous the endings of strophes (f)
and (i) are, about the total ignorance of former gods, and that these verses 14
and 22 take up the same places in the structure: they are the fifnal lines of
the fifrst strophes of II and III. Verse 22 brings in two mythical celebrities.
Abaddon = ruin we met as far back as 26:6, and Death (that is to say the
proper name Mot) had the status of a deity in Canaan before and during the
existence of biblical Israel. So also Yam, which we now fifnd in 28:14b: that
is the deity Sea (a power of chaos), in addition to the ‘primeval flfood’ which
in Mesopotamia was called Tiamat.
‘It’ in v. 27a again clearly means wisdom. The word ‘searched out’ (in
my translation ‘gauged’, in v. 27b) is the literal rendering which remains
necessary because it corresponds with v. 3b. Verse 27b, ‘established it’, can
also be translated as ‘founded it fifrmly’ or ‘gave it direction’.
Notice how strophe (j) presents a non-stop present, after which the word
‘make’ (in v. 25a) returns in strophe (k) and there is in the service of a ‘report’
on the founding past: the event of creation.
FIRST CLIMAX AFTER DEBATE: SURVEY IN THREE POEMS
Introduction
The poet has just proved that creative writing and systematic thinking need
not be each other’s enemies; ch. 28 even showed the opposite: that they can
strengthen each other. It now seems as if the author thought: what I have
achieved on the level of a long poem, I could carry out once again on a higher
level of the text. And that is how things have happened; in chs. 29–31 are
three poems fifnely attuned to each other and showing a unique cohesion.
However curious it may sound, this trio obeys Hegelian dialectics.
Now that the debate is over and Job has got even with both the friends’
dogmatism and the pretensions of wisdom, he feels a need to lay down
his position defifnitively in a way which pleases himself alone, without
needing to take into account other people’s incorrect conceptions. Job no
longer sees the point of fifghting; he now concentrates on his own life and
experiences. He no longer wants to formulate generalisations about the
criminal and the just man; he wants to maintain empirical veracity by
putting into words strictly personal feelings, memories, experiences and
principles. He no longer says ‘you’ at all, and in chs 29–31 he addresses no
one in particular.20 He is thinking aloud as it were, just as in the prologue,
so that his words can project to all sides, ready to be picked up by anyone
willing to listen.
The three poems are a kind of compendium, in which Job tries to give the
decisive version of his life, his present condition, and his principles:
29 30 31
subject fortune misfortune basic values
time past present lasting
phase or aspect thesis antithesis synthesis
i.e. being destruction becoming
relations conjunctions disjunctions disjunctions crossed out
attitudes love, care, contempt respect, care
respect, praise scorn
direction for me and for me from me
of mine
justice maintained injustice re-established,
by me towards me absolute
274 first climax after debate: survey in three poems
Most of these characteristics will naturally come up for discussion when

we go through the poems. However, some of them deserve some explana-
tion at the outset. The thesis—antithesis—synthesis trio is here followed
by the terms ‘being’, ‘destruction’ and ‘becoming’. In ch. 29 Job describes
his life, fortunate until recently. It had its own naturalness, that of func-
tioning well in the community, protecting and applying justice, receiving
praise and attention. Job could not but think: look, that’s me. Such a life
is a way of being in which there is no more thought of change, let alone
of calamity. It becomes static. In ch. 30 the break-in of negativity follows.
Thus a frontal and colossal clash of yes and no comes into being. It is not
pleasant, but highly dynamic. How does a human being manage that? In
ch. 31 Job has been forced to invent himself again. Incited by all his pain
and all his intelligence, he formulates what remains absolutely valid for
him.
The conjunctions—disjunctions pair also asks for an explanation. When
we read a story or a poem attentively or want to explain it, it is nearly
always productive to wonder: what belongs to what, who to whom? Which
elements match well and which have been or are separated? The poem of
ch. 29 is a paradise of conjunctions; it describes many forms of harmony
with the community as horizon. Chapter 30 tears nearly all of them in
shreds and depicts a hell of disjunctions. We can assign them the common
denominator of rejection, refusal. For ch. 31, the question then becomes
what Job can do with the situation as it has come about. Does he still have
the strength to give new meaning to things? And if so, from where does he
get his strength? The alternative would be that he is driven permanently out
of his right mind by the catastrophe (read: by the person who is ultimately
responsible: God).
Chapter 29
Most basically, the three poems form a tight series, the fifrst climax of the
book, thanks to their contents, the remarkable dialectics. But they are also
marked by formal means. The fifrst verse of ch. 29 is the formula of quotation
with which the narrator introduces the whole. With that, Job takes up his
discourse.
Immediately we hear a tone of immense longing and the pain of fare-
well—leave-taking from the good life. And the fifrst stanza is devoted to
the conjunction which may be called number one by the speaker: the bond
between God and Job. Both strophes end in well-chosen metaphors. God’s
first climax after debate: survey in three poems 275
lamp keeps away the darkness in v. 3, and Job’s happiness is indicated

lusciously and hyperbolically with the cream and streams of oil in v. 6.
These images, which belong to his home and family, are a suitable begin-
ning. But with v. 7 we enter an entourage which remains the unchange-
able context of the speaker till the end of the poem, eight strophes later:
the community which listens to him, consults him, looks up to him, and
admires him. Job is so prominent there that ‘sovereigns’ fall silent and
at last only the word ‘king’ (v. 25) suffifces to do justice to him and his
charisma.
The two strophes of stanza II and the two strophes (i) and (j) of stanza IV
correspond with each other by describing the attention and awe with which
the community honours Job. These units surround stanza III, suggesting the
presence of a ring composition. And indeed, what they enclose, the third
stanza (vv. 11–17), continues the circle with its three strophic units, so that
we end up with strophe (f) being the pivot. Let us look at III more closely.
Its circular arrangement can be indicated or recognized in more than one
way.
I will begin from the outside, noting that all three strophes speak concrete
language grounded in physical terms: the parts of the body which form
word-pairs in vv. 11, 15, and 17, and by doing so they provide a solid basis
for synonymy and parallelism. But what is much more important is their
subject. Job has obtained so much prestige (in II and IV), because he used
to uphold justice, especially standing up for those unable to exact their own
justice: the weakest. We fifnd no fewer than eight terms for the underdog (in
vv. 12–13 and in vv. 15–16). The nature of Job’s interventions and their results
are neatly placed at the ends: in v. 17 he applies violence where necessary; in
v. 11 he earns applause. This striking reversal in the order of time is ultimately
the author’s own, and it provides contrast. Stanza II ended with a faltering
voice and a sticking tongue, after which III, as a contrast, begins with a long
strophe which is concerned with oral activity in almost every half-verse. And
that in turn is especially effective in view of the evildoer’s crushed jaw, with
which the stanza ends.
The circular movement reaches a climax in the exact middle of the poem.
There are 49 cola, the square of the number 7, just as in ch. 10; again
the middle colon, the 25th, is of particular importance. It is verse 14a, a
half-verse which is striking in itself and demands attention for the entire
line. Verse 14a contains the concise description of the essential conjunction
between Job and justice. My rendering of it remains a little clumsy, because
I want to preserve the nature of the original. In Hebrew the verb ‘dress’
works two ways: it can be reflfexive (‘one dresses oneself’) but also transitive.
The striking repetition of this verb within one and the same half-verse
is, moreover, linked by the poet with a characteristic of v. 14b. There he
chooses, as a contrast, two nouns as predicates.
The most usual distribution of predicative units (that is, clauses) between
verses is that each half-verse has one, and the centre of the sentence is a
verb. Here in v. 14, there are two plus two predicates, so that the intensity
is doubled, and they are nicely divided as two verbs in the A-colon and two
nouns in the B-colon:
I dressed in righteousness and it dressed me,
my justice was my robe and turban.
A striking balance, which shows up well if we understand its sense. The

form makes the content compelling. With this fourfold choice of words Job
expresses that between him and justice there is not the slightest chink. He
is completely one with justice and concrete judicial procedure. Justice, we
might say, fifts him like a glove. And lo and behold, this is the middle of
the middle. It has been placed there to indicate what moves Job in his very
depths and what occupies him. Surrounding it are three plus three verses
mentioning the recipients of favor or of punishment: vv. 11–13 and 15–17.
And in view of the number 49, it can hardly be called a coincidence that
this central passage is a stanza of seven verses.
Strophe (h) has the remarkable form of a self-quotation. In six lines,
Job reveals here what his idea of life was like in the years of welfare and
happiness, and especially what he expected of his future. This unit will get
its full effect when we experience the centre of ch. 30, and reading on, arrive
at the end of ch. 31. The water and the dew in v. 19 receive a prolongation
in the strophe which follows: there are three lines which honour Job’s
authoritative speaking in the meeting with the metaphor of a delightful
spring shower, vv. 22b and 23ab.
Coming to the last strophe we fifnd again evidence of concentric compo-
sition. Just as God’s guidance was called a lamp for Job (fifrst strophe), Job’s
guidance of the community is called light. This analogy could easily lead on
to the thought that Job is equal to a god.
The end of the composition is indicated by the appearance of a tricolon:
v. 25 is the only tripartite poetic line in the chapter. The fifnal strophe is
demarcated by the contrast of laughing and mourning people (see its edges:
v. 24a versus v. 25c). The laughing man is Job; the mourning people are his
fellow citizens, who take comfort from Job’s appearance. This contrast is
now repeated, put upside down, and spread over an entire poem in ch. 30.
The text of the catastrophe begins with laughing at (by the fellow-citizens,
with Job as the target) and ends in v. 31 with mourning and weeping by
Job himself. This is an effective inclusio on the basis of a contrast, and an
element which fifts well into the thesis-antithesis relationship which is an
element connecting the chapters. Meanwhile, a rhyme has been created on
the level of entire poems: both ch. 29 and ch. 30 end in mourning, giving a
parallelism on a high text level.
A glimpse of numerical perfection by way of conclusion: the stanzas
show the same measures in alternating pairs, on three levels: stanzas I
and III together have three short and two long strophes, twelve verses
and 204 syllables, and those fifgures are exactly the same for II and IV.
Something comparable will emerge in the four stanzas of the following
poem.21
Chapter 30
In the middle poem of the trio Job indicates how he himself looks at and
experiences the catastrophe—apart from the futile squabbling with the
friends. He seizes the opportunity to formulate the essence. There are as
yet 33 verses, and the majority are bipartite. Only the lines which complete
strophes (a) and (f) are tricola. The delineation in stanzas is suggested by
the positioning of the turnabout ‘but now’ in strategic positions: in vv. 1, 9,
and 16: the beginning of stanzas I, II, and III.
Verse 15 is a fifnal line which demarcates the fifrst part of the poem,
amounting to about half of it. Its six strophes, nearly all of them long ones,
refer to ‘them’, to the rejected of the earth. In v. 1cd there is every appearance
that Job looks down on them and that his contempt extends as far as v. 8, the
end of stanza I. But then follows the only S-strophe of the fifrst half, the unit
which opens stanza II, and it makes clear the real function of all that has
been rejected. The portrait of their miserable fate, expressively portrayed
in strophes (b) and (c), serves as a springboard, as a running start to the
following reasoning: the hunger and hardship of these rejected people are
not the lowest stage of existence, for even they still have someone to look
down on (strophe d!), and that is me.
In short, I have become even less than trash, Job argues. And as soon
as this has been determined, he points to the person he holds responsible
for the turn of his fate, in v. 11a. This ‘He’ soon receives assistance in his
destructiveness; already in v. 11b he is ‘widened’, or increased to a ‘they’: God
has deployed nothing less than shock troops against Job to bring about his
ruin: strophes (e) and (f).
The second (and somewhat longer) half of the poem consists of the two
massive stanzas III and IV, both of which contain eight verses. The measures
of their strophes are SSSS and LSL respectively. Job’s attention shifts and is
entirely directed at the pain and his relationship with the great tormentor,
God. In stanza III there is one strophe which points to the bodily pain:
right at the beginning, strophe (g). Stanza IV has two such units containing
physical terms, and they, as a contrast, form the end: strophes (l) and (m).
What now asks for our attention is God’s position. In strophe (h) he
appears again; in v. 18a and 19a he is still in the third person, for the time
being. But then he is ‘promoted’ to the second person by Job, and he gets a
terrififc broadside from a tormented and perplexed man. The direct address-
ing of God makes the pair of strophes (i) + (j) a spearhead of passion. The fifrst
line of this escalation to an I-and-You level of contact is itself a low point of
disjunction: “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me.” The terms
for this rupture we know well from ch. 9, strophe (f), or the irrealis of 14:15,
the despair of 19:7 and strophe (b) of ch. 23.
The beginning of stanza IV is ambiguous: the miserable man calling for
help is Job himself, but God has the nerve to raise his hand against him,
unexpectedly and shamefully. Yet this is not the primary meaning of v. 24;
that does not appear until we get it in context, especially in v. 25. The
one who did not attack, but on the contrary extended a helping hand was
Job, whenever and wherever he came upon urgent needs in society. And
now in v. 26 Job admits that in those days he had the same expectations
as his friends: the expectation (the implicit demand) which is such an
embarrassing characteristic of the theodicy: do ut des (I give in order that
you shall give), but my doing good has not been answered by reward. It
now seems symbolic that the person of God no longer occurs throughout
the rest of stanza IV. Who are there? Jackals and ostriches, fifgures that fift
perfectly with the desolate idea of nature and privation which we were given
in 24:4–12 and more recently in 30:3–8.
Strophe (k) ends in v. 26b with light and dark, which are images for good
and evil (in 26a). The contrast returns one strophe further down, in v. 28a:
black versus sun. Verse 28b reverses the image we saw several times in ch. 29:
in those days Job heard the cry for help of the rejected people, and swung
into action; the community praised him for it. Now it is his turn to cry
in the meeting—but he fifnds himself abandoned by all. The vocal aspect
gets a pendant, again a strophe further, when the sound of lyre and flfute is
transposed into condolence: verse 31. The loud crying which came from the
other people in the fifnal line of the previous poem has now become that of
Job himself.
Two glimpses of numerical perfection deserve mentioning. Just as in

ch. 29, the four stanzas aim at balance. This time it is circular. Stanzas II
and III have 260 syllables, and that is also the sum of the surrounding units
I and IV. In addition, the prosody of ch. 30 is closely related to the measures
of ch. 23. The two poems are intended to complete each other:
Number of strophes verses cola syllables
Job 23 7 16 32 260
Job 30 13 33 68 540
added up: 20 49 100 800
These are striking numbers, especially since ch. 23 performs this function of
perfect completion with respect to a few other poems as well. One of them
was ch. 17 (see above). The match of chs. 23 and 30 is a hint to divide the
round number of their syllables by the round number of the cola; this yields
the central normative fifgure of poetry, 8. This number will at once be given
a major role in the prosody of chapter 31, which is the pinnacle of the poet’s
numerical perfection.
Chapter 31
Besides the holy numbers 7 and 12, the Bible also attaches prestige to the
number 40. In the Book of Job there is occasionally a poem of more than
thirty verses, but there is only one poem which numbers exactly forty verses.
The poet has put that poem into the mouth of none other than Job himself,
in chapter 31 which is the climax of ‘Climax I’. We shall soon see what this
means.
Seven times twelve makes 84, and that is exactly the number of cola
which we fifnd here. And eight times 84, the poet knows, is 672, that being
exactly the total number of syllables in the original of Job 31. The result, to
put it differently, is that the average number of syllables per line (= colon)
is exactly eight.
Two text levels above the colon is the strophe. In Job 31 there are eight
short strophes and eight long ones. The eight S-strophes comprise 280
syllables in 35 cola, so that as a group they score exactly 8 as the average for
the single colon. The eight L-strophes have 392 syllables in 49 cola so that
this group, too, has exactly 8 as the average colon length. Now the question
arises as to what all this counting means.
Chapter 31 is a formidable poem as regards form and content, yet it is
simple to explain its main characteristics. The backbone of the piece is a
series of so-called oaths of clearance. The whole can be characterized as a

colossal litotes. A litotes is a fifgure of speech intended to make something
come out extra positively via an understatement. One tastes a delicious dish
and expresses one’s appreciation by saying ‘not bad!’ In the case of Job 31,
the litotes means an application of the formula ‘minus times minus makes
plus’. The hero speaks continually, with all sorts of variations, about crime
and injustice; he disclaims the idea that he has done any negative thing,
and for this he uses strong language several times. Via the negation of the
negative he wants to prove that he was, is, and will remain blameless.
The Hebrew conjunction for ‘if’ is particularly versatile, and that fact is
creatively exploited here.22 In addition to meaning ‘if,’ it can also be the
marker of a question (an ‘interrogative particle,’ the grammarian calls it),
and sometimes it signals negation: a substitute for the word ‘not’. These
three possibilities are distributed by the poet with virtuosity in this poem,
so that monotony is avoided. The original meaning ‘if’ is in force, and easy
to recognize, in the strophes which formally speaking have remained real
vows, in the negative form of an offifcial self-curse. We fifnd it in strophes (c)
and (d), because they still begin with ‘if’, with a conditional clause which
mentions a crime, and which have a main clause in which the appropriate
punishment is mentioned. So also strophe (i). Captivating variations occur
in strophe (f), where the punishment has been replaced by vexed rhetorical
questions (in vv. 14–15), and in strophe (h), where v. 20 makes an irrealis
of the crime (which threatens in the background of v. 19). In strophe (p),
however, Job reverts formally to the offifcial [see above] construction of the
self-curse, a telling decision for that textual location because it is the fifnal
strophe.
The other possibility, that of the negation, has been applied by the poet
(and by Job) in strophe (g), which adds a fifne explanation of motive in v. 18
(why I have never committed this crime); in strophe (j) against materialism,
in strophe (l) contra malicious pleasure and hatred, and in strophe (n)
against pious hypocrisy.
Strophe (m) applies the third form in v. 31: a question. Finally, there
is a nice variant in strophe (k). True, it begins with the conditional ‘if’,
but this condemnation of idolatry (vv. 26–27) is answered in v. 28 with a
religious judgement which changes the case into a hypothetical case, a kind
of irrealis.
There is yet another form of repetition which helps us determine the
main lines. We notice that the terms used in 28a (‘a criminal offense’) are
the structural pendant of v. 11b. These two judging verses, with God as their
ultimate standard, not only conclude stanzas II and V respectively, but
also conclude sections: a still higher text level. That is why we can divide
the poem into three parts: the middle and broad section is vv. 13–28 (six
strophes, sixteen verses), while the flfanks consist of section A = vv. 1–12 (fifve
strophes, twelve verses) and section C = vv. 29–40 (again fifve strophes and
twelve verses):
Section A section B section C
verses 12 16 12
stanzas I–II III–V VI–VII
strophes 2+3 2+2+2 3+2
cola 26 32 26
Many of the crimes which Job touches on in his argument are dealt with in
a single strophe, but one form of misbehaviour is so serious that no fewer
than fifve strophes are devoted to it. Moreover, that misbehaviour is the
fifrst subject, and it takes up the whole of section A. It involves a case of
conjunction in the world of man that is so important that it takes place
with no holds barred, and which often takes the form of a disjunction: the
man-woman relationship, or put differently the war of the sexes.
In his very fifrst verse, Job refuses to be a slave to lust; in strophes (c) and
(d) he describes adultery plastically, and he fifnishes (the two stanzas of)
section A with a climax: the short strophe (e), which strikes us as a very
heavy condemnation, with a fiferce term in really each line.23 The Ruin of
v. 12a is Abaddon, the half-divine person we met as far back as 28:22 as a
sidekick of Death, or Death itself.
Job also makes the importance of this subject ‘lechery, debauchery’ stand
out by employing the complete formula of self-curse against it. Strophes
(c) and (d) both begin with conditional clauses (and the conjunction ‘if’ in
the position of anaphora) describing the misbehaviour, to end in the main
clause which passes the sentence: a punishment the sexual nature of which
(my wife someone else’s prey) mirrors the crime. Verse 7 analyses the origin
of the misfortune: obeying your eyes instead of using your reason—the text
here has: ‘heart’: for the Hebrews, the seat of intelligence. The conflfict had
already been expressed beautifully in the story of the idle King David, who
sees the beauty of the bathing Batsheba from the roof of his palace and
comes to commit two capital offences as a slave of his lust: 2 Samuel 11.
The cohesion of stanza II is made even stronger by a rhyme that makes
its fifrst and last strophes parallel. It is the repetition of ‘uprooting’—in itself
already a revealing word for the subject—from v. 8b in v. 12b. The cohe-
sion of the fifrst section is a product of both coupling and distinction. The
coupling (concatenation) comes about because the series ‘weigh—steps—
foot’ in strophe (b) is picked up at the beginning of stanza II with words like
‘paces’ and ‘the way’ (v. 7a). However, there is also a clear distinction. The
terms and images of stanza II are quite concrete and physical, for they are
in the service of desire. Stanza I is very different owing to two factors. First,
God, the ultimate criterion and judge, is active in fifve out of the six verses,
and secondly, it strikes us that many abstract nouns are used here: fate and
misfortune, treacherousness and deceit, blamelessness. In strophe (a) God
is the guarantor of appropriate punishment, but only generally speaking.
Strophe (b), on the contrary, becomes specififc, by pointing God, with his
scales, toward Job only. For the speaker, its last word is the decisive polestar:
‘my blamelessness’. We now remember his vow at the beginning of ch. 27
(his last contribution to the debate proper): how he swore that he would
stick to his blamelessness.—Later we will discuss how the second strophe
of ch. 31 has extra weight, thanks to the design of the whole.
The broad middle part B (three stanzas with two strophes each) begins
with a thesis which will not make the true slave-owner happy. Strophe (f)
has a revolutionary thrust. In v. 15 Job admits that his slave is a creature of
God just as much as he himself is, and he makes that consideration the basis
on which he treats his servants humanely. Ouch! straightaway the moral
justififcation of the institution of slavery (which the U.S.A. did not abolish
until the nineteenth century …) has been entirely undermined. Moreover,
verse 14 brings in God—for he is the creator of both boss and servant—as
an active agency that will demand accounting if the master misbehaves.
How the gentleman farmer thinks things through to the end is expressed
in the fifnal line of strophe (f) by physical terms associated with birth: the
womb. And that takes us to v. 18, the fifnal line of the next strophe. There
it says ‘my birth’ as a form of meaning-rhyme. In this unit Job has widened
his horizon to the weakest people in general. Here and often elsewhere in
poetry, they are represented by ‘widow and orphan’, a formal word-pair.
And just as strophe (f) ended with the motherly element, strophe (g) now
ends with ‘my’ role as a father vis-à-vis the orphan.
Strophe (h) is about dressing the miserable man and reminds us of the
images of exploitation in ch. 24—see especially strophes (e) and (f) in that
chapter, with ‘naked’ as an anaphora. Strophe (i) presents a scene from the
gate. Traditionally that is the place where the community’s jurisprudence is
administered. Therefore it is fiftting that this time Job hauls out the complete
formula of the self-curse. In v. 23 God is again present as the patron saint of
justice and punishment—a good ending for stanza IV, the unit which itself
is the middle of all (seven!) stanzas. The word ‘catastrophe’ in v. 23a is a good
echo of v. 3a in the fifrst strophe.
The contrast between eyes (in the service of desire) and heart (= reason)
returns in strophe (k), where Job draws a bead on the worship of heavenly
bodies. This case is set largely in the sphere of the irrealis, in view of the
crucial ‘would’ of v. 28a (the main clause!). Sun and moon were deities in the
impressive Mesopotamian cultural environment which was heavily present
on the horizon of biblical Israel for such a long time. Verse 27a presumably
refers to a ritual which expressed loyalty (to the wrong gods). It would
disturb the relationship with the true God (El in v. 28) fatally. Verse 28 marks
the end of section B, and as we have seen, it is the strategic pendant of v. 11
at the end of section A.
The third section is formed by vv. 29–40. The sixth stanza consists of
three short strophes which still belong to the series of oaths of clearance:
formally distancing oneself from misdeeds (because one never committed
them). Strophe (l) is directed against hatred and malicious pleasure: here
apparently inferior emotions—something that not every Psalmist would
subscribe to. In strophe (m) the verses are divided effectively between inside
and outside. In v. 31, with the help of a rhetorical question, Job’s fellow
tribesmen rave about how excellent a dinner at Job’s used to be. In v. 32
this hospitality turns out not to exclude the stranger. That is in the spirit of
ancient legislation. In Exodus 23:9 we read: “You shall not oppress a stranger;
you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
The original is a bit more lively, with “you know the ‘soul’ (meaning the
essence) of the stranger.” Strophe (n) is of the ‘wear your heart on your
sleeve’ type. Here Job turns against hypocrisy, and especially against anxiety
as a reason for shirking.
We are now at the threshold of the seventh (!) stanza. This one has a lot in
common with stanza 1, so that we can speak of a framing. First of all, these
concluding sections both consist of two long strophes: six verses. Secondly,
Job here has a continuous relationship with the deity, and the other side
of this coin (my third point) is that the strophic units of I and VII remain
separate from the uninterrupted chain of oaths which forms the body of the
chapter, thanks to the contribution of strophes (b) and (o). Head and tail
have the same spearhead: Job challenges God to declare himself in favour
of Job at last.
In v. 6a with its encouraging mood, it was Job’s demand that God should
weigh him honestly; according to Job, that would inevitably lead to a pos-
itive judgment, v. 6b. In 6:2 he had already introduced the scales, hoping
that people would be impressed with the weight of his suffering! It was
his very fifrst verse in the debate. Now he puts something more fundamen-
tal on the scales: his conduct of life and his integrity. This fifts in with the
synthesis (ch. 31) with which he tries to rise above the clash of past happi-
ness and present suffering.
The counterpart of the second strophe is the last-but-one. Job imagines
that his whole way of life has been noted down in a document by God-the-
pursuer, and he feels so certain of his record of service that he boasts in v. 36:
I will walk around with it proudly, I feel like a prince at the moment when I
confront God with my blameless curriculum vitae.
Here the poet has made a surprising move, which both adorns the unity
of his composition and forms a bridge to the numerical perfection of the
synthesis. He enables us to go back across that bridge with the hard fifgures
of prosodic refifnement to realise still better what is really at stake in this
fifnale to the debate. The surprising move consists of an ingenious chiasm
which connects v. 4b and v. 37a. These lines are both in the eighth position
counting from the ends:
colon 8 from the beginning all my steps … (it is he who) counts them
colon 8 from the end the number of … my steps I will tell him
In all our labour, all this counting of lines, strophes, and stanzas, all the
comparing of those precisely counted measures, we have been preceded
by the hero of the piece. Essentially Job did this himself on three lev-
els:
– with 31:4 he brings charges against God for being a spy, who was always
out to catch him at errors and sins and who, therefore, followed him
(‘counted his steps’, the verse says), a charge which clearly follows
naturally from ch. 10;
– in strophe (o) he reveals that he himself has already subjected his
whole record of service to counting and measuring and that the result
will adorn him like a laurel wreath;
– by the numerical perfection of the synthesis reached in ch. 31, Job
suggests that this poem, being a series accurately calculated from
beginning to end, itself must count as the decisive written certififcate
of his complete innocence.
With that, we have now encountered the deeper sense of the poem. The fifg-
ures are much more than a decoration or outward appearance. The numer-
ical perfection of the climactic chapter 31 is the iconic sign of the moral perfec-
tion of the man Job.
When Job talks about his ‘signature’ in v. 35b, he means this entire speech
in its role of defifnitive proof, provided with the accurate proportions re-
quired. A salient characteristic of strophe (o), from the viewpoint of the

contactual situation, is that here Job holds up a strong challenge to his Lord.
‘You have always wanted to catch me in errors and to count my steps, but
You might as well stop that, for I have already done all the counting for You!
Will You kindly take a look?’ The motif of ‘counting steps’ is not new; it was
used as far back as 13:27, and especially 14:16a; compare also 7:17–21 or 10:5
and 10:14–17.
The director or producer of all this is the creator of the character Job: the
poet. This author has had the nerve to use the verb ‘count’ eight times in his
poetic work, and the noun of the same stem, ‘number’, twelve times.
Numerically speaking
The number 7 gives us the number of the stanzas. The seventh stanza
contains 49 words, a number which we recognize as a square. The fifgure 49
also indicates how many cola there are in the L-strophes. (In the S-strophes
there are fifve times seven.)
In Job 31 the fifgure 8, the central norm of Hebrew prosody, constitutes the
exact average number of syllables per colon. It indicates both the number
of short and the number of long strophes, so that its double 16 may also
be called relevant. Eight is also the exact fifgure for the average number of
syllables per colon, for both the S-group and the L-group. The quintuple of
8, itself a prestigious number, is the sum of the verses of the longest poem,
that being this ch. 31. There are twenty cola which have the exact number
of eight syllables; so altogether they contain 160, ten times the number that
indicates the strophes here. Let us also recall that the hero’s proper name
occurs 56 times in the book: seven times eight.
The number 12 indicates how many strophes have the word ‘if’ (or ‘not’) as
an anaphora, so that it functions as a strophe index. Twelve is the average
number of cola per stanza. It is also the number of verses in both section
A and section C. If we multiply the average number of cola per stanza
(twelve) by the average number of syllables per colon (the normative 8),
we get 96 for the average number of syllables per stanza. If we multiply
twelve by the fifgure 7, the product is 84, and that is the number of cola in
ch. 31.
As we have seen, the total number of syllables in the poem is 672. This
sum is the product of three factors: seven, eight, and twelve.
In biblical poetry it is very common to fifnd three or four words in a colon.
But the following constellation remains remarkable for Job 31. Of the total
number of words, more than three-fourths are involved in producing ten
times 12, via a surprising symmetry:
– there are forty three-word cola: 40×3 = 120 words

– there are thirty four-word cola: 30×4 = 120 words.
Speaking of perfection: in Job’s speech we fifnd a sentence which is no

longer a part of his poem: “Here the words of Job are ended.” It is another
voice, apparently the author’s. He makes a dry, quasi-statistical statement,
seemingly posing for a moment as a dutiful drylick. However, appearances
are deceptive. Literally, the original says: “Complete are the words of Job.”
But this little sentence can also be rendered in such a way that Job’s words
are ‘perfect’. (In the original language the verb támmu is used, having the
stem t-m-m, ‘intact’.) What takes place here, in reality, is a word-play by
the author, an exploitation of ambiguity. Thus the hero’s blamelessness or
perfection is recognized, and in two respects: poetically and morally. The
words of ch. 31 are a perfect poem, and what they indicate time and again
is that the hero’s morals are blameless. Thus the author reminds us of the
hero’s main quality, which back in ch. 1 he enunciated in no uncertain terms:
Job’s undisputed integrity.
Evaluation: A Growth Process
In chapter 29, Job gave the personal and defifnitive account of his former
life: it was the thesis in a dialectic process. He did the right things, and he
was well off. The temptation underlying this is the doctrine which tries to
establish a causal connection: I am well off because I do the right things. This
reasoning is an essential part of the theodicy. The happiness in the past was
a static and naïve ‘being’ which Job regarded as his identity.
But then there is chapter 30, the personal and defifnitive account of the
catastrophe. The void breaks in; unbroken happiness is an illusion, and
the initial idea of identity is in shatters. The harmonious ‘being’ fails, and
appears to have had only a fragmentary validity. It becomes necessary
to search for a higher and complete truth of or about oneself. The func-
tion of the antithesis is to get a growth process going. That is painful, but
dynamic.
Job is now obliged to invent himself all over again. Chapter 31 is the per-
sonal account of his search for a new, non-naive life which can produce
a synthesis out of the clash of past happiness and present suffering. The
human spirit cannot simply exist, not ‘immediately’, as Hegel would say. It
can only exist by conquering its opposite, by the negation of that negativ-
ity.24
Job is on his way to a much greater self-knowledge, and he tries to

overcome the clash of thesis and antithesis by ‘removing’ their contrast.
The famous term Aufhebung of the philosopher Hegel refers to a process of
dialectic overcoming and it implies three things: the removal, in the sense of
cancelling, of what was fragmentary or one-sided and can no longer be the
truth (think of ch. 29); the preservation of what is essential or universal in
thesis and antithesis—in Job’s case, those elements in chs. 29 and 30 which
give glimpses of truth and reality; and thirdly ‘removal’ means bringing onto
a higher level, sublimation. That is what the tremendous series of oaths of
clearance does: Job climbs up to a higher level of life, of self-knowledge and
of action.
In chapter 31 Job lets himself be inspired by the power of negativity which
back in ch. 30 had struck him like a bolt of lightning. Now he employs
the negation as a method to fifnd and formulate his ultimate stronghold. By
means of the formula ‘minus times minus makes plus’ and by the paradox-
ical effect of the litotes, long sustained, he reaches a new identity, matured
much more fully. Its foundation is again … justice. We discover that, in all
those oaths of clearance with their variants, Job has been busy saying a pas-
sionate and glowing ‘yes’ to what had been given the pivotal position in the
thesis by him:
I put on righteousness as a robe, and it clothed me;
Justice was my cloak and my turban.
This time I have slightly varied my rendering of 29:14, which used the sim-
ple repetition of ‘dress’, but the message remains the same. Keeping up
righteousness—that is the cloak which ‘fifts me like a glove’, Job says. His
identififcation with justice was total. The axis of the thesis has indicated
faultlessly what a sound society pivots on, and now it turns out that Job’s
synthesis dovetails with it. Job reconfifrms the fundamental position of jus-
tice and he proves, strophe after strophe, that justice was and will remain
the foundation of his life, his behaviour and his ethics. In ch. 31 the highly
personal and the fully social have been brilliantly merged.
With its many forms of prosodic perfection and with its long chain of
strophic units which consistently detect injustice and then eloquently de-
molish it, the fifnal poem points to completeness. God no longer needs to
count, but only to accept this document. Will he be happy with it? Is there
any other option left to him but to recognize wholeheartedly the blameless
morals of his guinea pig?
Chapter 31 is a surprising speech because of its tone. Job has climbed up
from a pit of dirt and ashes and he sounds self-assured, proud and vital. And
with this same speech, he has answered in detail the question as to where,
for heaven’s sake, he got that strength, in a broken body. His integrity and
justice in the service of solidarity have entered into a pact not to be broken.
What does this mean for the long course of the test? The happiness
and the good life of the fifrst phase (that of the thesis) were subjected
to a litmus-paper test as far back as chapter 1. It was formulated by the
Prosecutor, when he asked his master the sceptical question in the heavenly
council: “Is it for nothing that Job fears God? Have not You Yourself offered
protection, to him, to his house and to everything around that is his?” With
that he suggested a direct connection between being well off and doing
good, with the possible motive: I do good because I am counting on a reward.
That connection has been ruled out now by phase two, the antithesis, the
catastrophe. And in phase three, Job ignores the attractive possibility, held
up to him by his better half, to curse God. Without knowing that he is ‘only’
a guinea pig, he persists in the belief that justice must triumph. But what is
now also beyond doubt is that Job does not pursue the good in order to be
rewarded. He does not have a secret agenda and he is not a shrewd operator.
The question whether “it is for nothing that Job fears God” (read: shuns evil)
has got a defifnite answer in ch. 31: yes, it is for nothing.
ELIHU, A YOUNGER FRIEND, CONTRIBUTES, CHS. 32–37
Introduction, the Appearance of a Fourth Friend
The debate proper has been rounded off by Job with six speeches. In chs.
26 and 27 he was still addressing the three friends, nearly all of whom were
given three speeches by the author. In ch. 28 Job drew his conclusions about
wisdom and its pretensions. After that came the climax: three poems which
relate to each other as thesis (his former happiness and regard), antithesis
(his present misfortune and suffering) and synthesis (Job’s stronghold posi-
tion, in which he keeps his head up).
In chapters 32–37 a surprise follows. The writer takes a step back and
changes his costume. For one paragraph he is no longer a poet, but a
narrator, and he writes prose to introduce a fourth friend. Next, this Elihu is
given a lot of space by the author. Its measures are striking. As the longest
poem of all (forty verses in sixteen strophes), chapter 31 was the fifnale
of a speech which contained no fewer than 160 verses in 26 stanzas, in
chapters 26–31. Shouldn’t we read that number 160 as exactly twenty times
the normative 8? This surmise appears to be confifrmed by what follows.
Elihu’s contribution also consists of six poems, and these too have 160 verses
in 26 stanzas. This remarkable similarity suggests that Elihu’s contribution
must be understood as a case of tit for tat, an attempt to weaken Job’s
penetrating conclusions and ideas or throw them out of consideration.
There is another similarity between Elihu’s contribution and Job’s series.
Elihu’s six poems can be seen as two trios on the basis of their size, for both
halves constitute short—long—long series. Job’s six poems (chs. 26–31) are
also articulated as two trios, and his conclusion of the debate proper in chs.
26–28 is also a short—long—long series.25
Chapter 32
The author gives the fourth friend a separate paragraph, to introduce him.
There are about ten clauses, framed by Elihu’s burning anger. As a not-yet-
elderly man he has politely waited his turn, but apparently he has been
following the debate with rising irritation. Now he takes up a conspicuous
position, exactly in the middle between both parties. However, this also
290 elihu, a younger friend, contributes, chs. 32–37
means that he resists both parties. First of all Job himself, and this is marked
by repetition of the keyword ‘be in the right’—n.b. in opposition to God!
Secondly, and even more so, Elihu rejects the friends, who in his eyes
have failed their friend Job entirely. This is expressed by a second framing
element, ‘no answer’.
Elihu’s fifrst poem is relatively short, and it serves mainly as a prologue
to the chapters that follow. It is text about text, and it announces that it
will supersede the powerless and invalid talk of the trio with a new and
acute argument. The design of this literary unit is an ingenious network of
repeated keywords, for the purposes of a fundamental exploration of the
relation between insight (knowledge, wisdom) and speaking (answering Job
and reprimanding him).
There are three stanzas, which comprise six verses each.26 In stanza I,
the elder friends’ wisdom is given priority by Elihu, but in II he states that
superior insight is not guaranteed by age, considering that the three elders
have failed, after which he announces in III that he himself wants to make
a contribution.
Elihu begins with two long strophes: twice six cola (stanza I). The third
strophe has six cola, too, but it consists of two tricolic lines. Then fifve
S-strophes follow, which always circle about the norm of 32 syllables. As
quadruple of 8, the fifgure 32 corresponds well with a quartet of half-verses,
and each of these fifve strophes is such a quartet. They vary the norm in such
a way that the variations compensate each other, with the result that their
total is exactly 160 syllables—again twenty times 8!
The word-group ‘declare knowledge’ already occurs in the fifrst poetic line
(at the end of v. 6): it is also the end of strophe (b), and also appears in
the beginning of stanza III, when Elihu announces his alternative. A second
series consists of the repetition of the word ‘answer’: you do not have a good
answer but I do. The middle stanza is framed by the word ‘wait’ (in vv. 11a
and 16a).
What then are Elihu’s pretensions? In v. 18b he says literally ‘the spirit
within me’, and its root, ruach, which means wind, spirit and breath, returns
in v. 20a with the effect of ‘relief’, in a strophe which begins by pointing
at his stomach. But Elihu had incorporated a hint in his argument much
earlier, showing that he is the man of superior insight. Already in the second
strophe it becomes clear that not age but spirit is the decisive element in
such excellence, and actually the second half-verse of v. 8 suggests already
that he, Elihu, is on a par with the holy spirit itself. In his second poem,
that truth will eventually surface, and in 33:4 we see that Elihu is not exactly
weighed down with modesty …
elihu, a younger friend, contributes, chs. 32–37 291
Chapter 33
Elihu begins his argument with a long poem, of 33 verses. There are six
stanzas, with the rhythm of 3+2, 3+2, and 3+2 strophic units. Five verses are
tricolic. The chapter is marked as a unity and kept together by a framework:
the fifrst stanza and the last strophe examine the contactual situation and
contain a summons to Job to listen; compare especially v. 5 with vv. 32–33,
which neatly divide speaking, being silent, and listening over the two parties
to the discussion. The point of this frame is indeed that Elihu challenges his
friend to hold his own.
Looking at the length of the strophes, we fifnd a beautiful symmetry which
also has to do with the framework. There are twelve short strophes and
three long ones. The positioning of the L-strophes is strategic: they form
the fifrst, the middle and the last units; moreover, the head and tail both
have exactly fiffty syllables. By this positioning, the short strophes have also
been arranged as two series of six strophes, on either side of the eighth (and
middle) strophe.
We notice that the opening of ch. 33 runs parallel to that of the prologue.
In 32:8 (the fourth line), Elihu pointed out that God gave man the breath
of life, and that spirit, not age, is decisive for the presence of insight. In the
fourth poetic line of ch. 33 he uses the same word-pair, and again the name
of Shaddai, in order to switch from the general to the particular: to himself.
Not being hindered by modesty, he sings the praises of his own knowledge
in v. 3. And in the third strophe (the end of stanza I) he acts didactically, and
contactually speaking, most cleverly. He tries to put Job at his ease, a gesture
which the three friends had not thought of. His verse about the spirit and the
breath follows naturally from Job’s line 27:3 (part of his momentous oath).
In the short stanza II, Elihu starts in on the content. This unit is devoted
to Job’s point of view, so much so that three verses in a row are a formal
quotation from Job, about his innocence. Zophar had already done some-
thing similar, with identical words about being pure, in 11:4. And the words
of v. 11 (feet in the stocks, watching in the sense of spying) remind us of Job’s
complaint in 13:27.
Stanza II is a stepping stone to the sequel: Elihu wants to contradict Job
flfatly; he does so at once in the fifrst unit (strophe f) of stanza III. Strophe
(g) seems to be inspired by Eliphaz (in ch. 4), who reported in strophe
(e) of his fifrst speech a nocturnal revelation he had received from God.
Not until strophe (h) does Elihu’s own more or less original idea appear:
that suffering is a means God uses to discipline man. He advertises it as
life-saving.
Here, too, we encounter a formidable binding element as to style and

structure. Stanzas III, IV, and V all end with a word which is both a metaphor
of death and a metonym for the grave: the Pit. It is also to be found in the
beginnings of V and VI, in v. 24b and v. 30a. Moreover, the word acts in con-
junction with the word-pair life/person four times, so that verses 18–22–28
function as a sort of refrain in the second half of the composition, with v. 30
as an echo.
Suffering by way of instruction—that is one variant of the theodicy which
had hardly come up for consideration yet. The short stanza IV is about it
entirely, using strongly physical terms. The life-saving aspect is assigned
to stanza V. The word ‘messenger’ is also the word for ‘angel’, because in
many texts an angel is occupied with a task as an emissary of God; v. 23b
echoes this by mentioning a specififc task: being a mortal’s advocate with
God. Vv. 24–28, which speak of being pardoned and redeemed, are in a
major key. The image of intercession reminds one strongly of Job’s dearest
wish, at the end of ch. 19, for a witness and/or defender of his case in heaven.
The words ‘one … out of a thousand’ in v. 23b are a reply to 9:3, where Job’s
complaint was that the man who takes legal action is never answered by
God. Strophe (m) lets the redeemed sinner speak, and as a formal quotation
it is the pendant of strophe (e). The short stanza VI is a good ending, for
strophe (n) looks back in a sort of summary, and that fifts well with the
end-strophe (o), whose framing function I have already pointed out. Elihu
is of a mind to end on a cheerful note. Therefore he puts ‘seeing His face’
and ‘enjoying the light (of life)’ in strategic positions, so that three strophes
in a row end in parallel (see vv. 26b, 28b, and 30b).
Chapter 34
This poem with its 36 verses is the longest poem but one in the whole book.27
The verses are in fiffteen strophes, the same number as in the previous
chapter, and here too, the middle unit (the eighth, strophe h) stands out
against its surroundings, this time because it is entirely tricolic. As the
stanzas consist of three strophes each, there are fifve of them, all of them long
ones. The nine S-strophes have eighteen verses, exactly half of the total, and
the other half is in six L-strophes.
Chapter 34 is a most complicated poem. Two ways of entering into it are
following the word repetitions and following the polarities. A characteristic
word-pair from the literature of wisdom is that of the tzaddik opposite the
rashaʿ: the contrast between the righteous, blameless man and his antipole,
who used to be rendered unfortunately as ‘the godless man’. This word is too
near to ‘atheist’ and thereby stirs up misunderstandings. In reality the word
rashaʿ indicates the despicable or obnoxious person with his destructive
behaviour, so that translations like cad, scoundrel, or criminal come nearer.
The word tzaddik fifts Job well, for its root invites translations like ‘righteous,
innocent, be in the right, be in his right’ and such.
In Job 34 the word ‘scoundrel’ is to be found in vv. 8, 10, 12, 17, 26, and
also in v. 29 (‘guilty’). According to Elihu, Job hangs around with evildoers
(v. 8), and he even considers God a scoundrel (see vv. 10, 12, and 17), whereas
the reality is quite the reverse: God strikes down the scoundrels (v. 26);
cannot, of course, be declared ‘guilty’ (v. 29a); and as the creator and highest
supervisor (compare strophes e-f) he is not partial, but also not predictable
in the wielding of his power.
Elihu reserves a broad central section of his poem for the several aspects
of God’s justice and action: this includes nearly all the strophes of stanzas
II, III, and IV. Consequently, the name and person of Job do not occur in
this section.28 On the other hand, on the flfanks Elihu takes a very fifrm line
with his friend: in strophes (b) and (c) of the fifrst stanza and the three
strophes of the last one. In (m) he asks a sneaky question, which consists for
the greater part of a false quotation: as if Job, repenting, is addressing God
for ‘instruction’ and promises to be good in future. In the unit that follows,
strophe (n), Elihu escalates by addressing his friend: here he uses the second
person, and he does so nowhere else, except in v. 17b. He introduces the
important word-pair choose/reject. In v. 33a, in a threatening way, he says
something like: You do not think, do you, that God chooses the punishment
for you which suits you best? I reply to your rejection of God (v. 33b) by
demanding a choice (a decision) from you; it is not I who am at stake but
you, with your life. After which Elihu returns quickly to the third person and
trashes Job’s excellence in v. 35. The fifnal strophe justififes that once again
with terms like sin and rebellion.
Elihu had also started out that way. Now, just as he did in ch. 33 (in vv. 9–11
of that chapter), he begins his argumentation by quoting Job in strophe (b)
and v. 9. But the show of obligingness has quite disappeared, and the quo-
tation only serves as a lead-up to branding Job as a mocker and a criminal
immediately thereafter (in strophe c). On the rebound, strophe (d), the unit
which opens the body of the argument, takes on an absurd cast: in these
two verses (and also in v. 12) Elihu sounds more or less like God’s patron;
how moving of him, to maintain that God is not a scoundrel! … In v. 11 the
core of the theodicy recurs: God shows balance and logic in his treatment
of humans: strict repayment, both for the better and for the worse.
The articulation of all these strophes into higher units, the stanzas, re-
mains clear.29 Units I–II–III are marked by their beginnings: each time, Elihu
begins with a summons to listen. In vv. 2 and 10 he addresses the group,
wanting to organize allies. In v. 16 he uses the singular, so that here Job
himself is addressed (as the somewhat isolated second person of v. 17b also
makes clear), but now the tone is sarcastic; “if there is any notion” sounds
vicious. In the four lines of vv. 17–18 Job is portrayed as a rebel who turns
established values upside down.
The higher units II–III–IV (together forming the body of the argument)
are also marked by their endings. They all end in forms of attention that God
pays. Without his keeping watch, creation would expire at once (strophe f).
In the strophe (i) which completes III, Elihu links up with Job’s vocabulary
in 13:27 and 14:16, but especially with the strategic verses about ‘counting
steps’ in ch. 31. God’s eyes (v. 21a) are parallel with ‘watching’ in v. 30a.
There are some more lines which reveal that Elihu has listened well while
the debate was going on. Thus v. 9 (about ‘not profift’) links up well with
Eliphaz’ reproaches in 15:3 and 22:2. In strophe (b), he inserts a quotation
from Job. The line about El ‘who put aside my justice’ is an echo of Job’s
furious oath in 27:2, and the ‘arrow’ (in v. 6) reminds us of 6:4. Elihu’s verse 3,
with the word-pair ear/palate, is practically identical to Job’s words in 12:11.
With the line that “Shaddai does not pervert justice” (v. 12b), he backs up
Bildad’s phrase in 8:3. And I read verse 23 as the reverse of Job’s complaint
in 24:1.
Elihu always pays attention to ‘justice’, a word which in the original also
means ‘judgement’. The term is in the middle of I and III (see vv. 5b and 12b),
and then in the beginning sections [or: openings] of III and IV (see v. 17a and
‘judgement’ in 23b). As a concept, justice hinges on the distinction between
good and evil (compare v. 4b). Here, this distinction has been put into
words with a term which determines the framing of the whole composition:
‘testing’. In strophe (a) Elihu proposes that ‘we’ undertake such a test, and
the poet makes it physical by means of the word-pair ear / palate. Thus we
arrive at ‘a correct judgement’. Those ‘who know’ (as Elihu called ‘us’ in
v. 2) return in v. 34 as ‘men of understanding,’ and they are quoted by Elihu
with their judgement on Job: verse 35. Then the poem is rounded off with
the passive voice of ‘testing’ and Job as the try-your-strength machine. This
strophe (o) betrays Elihu’s great irritation with his friend’s obstinacy.
Chapter 35
This poem is the beginning of another short—long—long series. It has

fewer verses than ch. 32: fiffteen, and they can be divided as 7 + 8. The fifrst
stanza consists of two short strophes and a long one; the second stanza has
two long strophes and fifnally a short one.
Stanza I shows two main characteristics, which make the whole an inge-
nious mix of direct and indirect discourse. This part is very direct in the
sense that Elihu is addressing his friend. Job is in the second person and he
is the subject of nearly all the lines. But at the same time, the text is indirect
in the sense that Elihu has structured many of his sentences as rhetorical
questions involving a ‘what.’ We might summarize all these interrogative
sentences as: do you really think that God will show any interest in you?
For a closer look at the scornful attitude appearing from this, I look at
strophe (b), which is the axis around which the whole stanza turns. In it,
Elihu fifrst points to himself; in v. 4 he is the man who knows how it is. In v. 5
he invites Job to look up. This look at the immeasurable fifrmament must
make it clear that its maker and master, God, is beyond comprehension and
that his reality is not compatible with that of mortals. The result is that the
God whom Elihu here sketches remains unmoved, not to say indifferent.
With his fifrst verse, Elihu uses a precise, tight chiasm to chime in with the
terms for right and justice which he himself had just put into Job’s mouth in
34:5. Job’s right (in 34:5a) is now called ‘be in the right,’ and the justice which
he himself had just put into Job’s mouth in 34:5. Job’s right (in 34:5a) is now
called ‘be in the right,’ and the right in 34:5b has become ‘my judgement’
in translation. Elihu’s second verse (here in v. 3) is a sneaky distortion,
which makes Job a calculating citizen: does doing good bring one profift?
Job himself had detected such an attitude in the evildoer, in the middle of
ch. 21 (v. 15), and of course he had dismissed it.
Strophe (c) works with minus and plus, fifrst brieflfy and then more exten-
sively. First, Elihu inquires into Job’s being evil or good in the framework
of the man-God relationship. He spends two verses on it, which cover the
entire spectrum by being complementary. Next he puts the same relation
of minus and plus into two half-verses, but this time in the framework of
the relationship of man to man (v. 8, Job versus his fellow men). Categories
like evil and righteousness are only meaningful in the sublunary world, he
argues, but they do not apply in the ‘vertical world’, with respect to tran-
scendence.
Stanza II continues with the unmoved God and ends with the accusation
that Job is talking rubbish and that he can only do so because God never
pays attention: strophe (f) as upshot. Strophes (d) and (e) have been built
in parallel. Their fifrst verses are synonymous (v. 9 and v. 12), and are followed
by the element of a lack of attention. In vv. 10–11 this concerns people who
do not turn to God for help; in the next strophe it is God who does not let
himself be inflfuenced by expectations (Job’s in v. 14), and certainly not by
hypocrisy (v. 13).
Chapter 36
Apparently Elihu himself is also frightened by the image of a rather indiffer-

ent God which he has just evoked, and he decides to set things amply right in
the two long poems that now follow. Whereas the end, ch. 37 is outright cos-
mological, and full of hymnic language, in ch. 36 he gives an elaborate sketch
of God’s good offifces in the world. Verse 3b says: I will prove my Maker to
be in the right. That means actually: “I support his rightness, I call Him just.”
(In a lawsuit the words of the original mean ‘declare someone innocent’.)
And in the fifrst half-verse Elihu says: ‘my opinion is from far away.’ This
is meant in a temporal sense: it is knowledge that is age-old, the author-
ity of which has become unassailable. Thus, indeed, people in the Near East
regarded their collections of wisdom. As usual, the fifrst strophe is a form
of self-introduction soliciting attention for what is to follow. There is also
a fanfare: I am ‘someone of perfect knowledge’, Elihu says. Wow, we think
… and that of course is the reaction the poet counts on. Things start to get
painful when we see in 37:16b that the same epithet is also due to God …
Chapter 36 consists of six stanzas with 32 verses. In I and II there are
fifve strophes, all of which consist of six lines (cola) (b has an extra line).
There follow no fewer than nine short strophes, which fifll stanzas II up
to and including VI. Job’s person (apart from one half-verse, v. 24a, with a
you-form) is only given attention in III. There, ten times he is in the second
person: as the one addressed directly, but mostly he is not the grammatical
subject. He is rather God’s target or the one favoured by God, in riches and
suchlike (see vv. 16c, 18 and 19). Except in this stanza, Job and his situation
is not the main thing here.
The main theme is clearly stated in the fifrst line after the introduction:
“El is mighty”. Directly after stanza III (the turnabout concerning Job) it
is picked up again: literally “El is exalted in his power”, according to v. 22,
which therefore can stand as a caption for the section IV–VI. The theme
is demonstrated with the help of God’s doings in the world of man. The
original has a word which functions as a signal, ‘pay attention now’, and
which is rendered in my translation as ‘look’. It has become an important

index of structure, for it marks all three stanzas of vv. 22–23 by standing up
front.
In the previous poem we encountered the technique of plus-and-minus
on two text-levels. The same thing happens here too, keeping together the
desired thing and the unwanted thing and making them clash, fifrst in the
half-verses 6a and 6b, as regards God’s portion, and next in strophe (d) for
the duration of entire lines (vv. 11–12), about the attitude of men: what are
the consequences of being or not being obedient.
In strophe (b) God’s power is brought into action for people who need
it, and there is a flfuent transition from poor people to just people. They
get respect and acquire a position as of a king. As a motif we are well
familiar with this from the Song of Hannah, the prophet Samuel’s mother,
in ISamuel 2, and from Psalm 113.
Stanza II is demarcated by a stylistic means which also contributes to
making this stanza and the next one run parallel. It is about the keyword
‘misery’. As an inclusio it occurs in v. 8b and v. 15a to indicate the boundaries
of II, but next it is repeated in the fifnal line of III: in v. 21b. Moreover, the
beginning of II corresponds with the beginning of III: the image of being
chained and in dire straits gives v. 8 and v. 16ab parallel starts. The ends of
the stanzas also contribute to their clear articulation. In v. 15 misery means
pressure, in v. 21 there is the choice ‘to avoid misery’. How tightly the two
stanzas cooperate appears from a repetition in their endings. The ends of
their fifrst and last strophes advocate refusal of injustice by means of a verb
of movement: v. 10b and v. 21b.
Stanzas II and III also owe their right to exist to their mutual difference,
which consists in the contrast between general and particular. In II it is
about ‘them’: people in need, plural; but in III the speaker becomes spe-
cififc for the benefift of an individual, Job himself, singular. Elihu’s ideological
point is again that suffering and misery are used by God as means of disci-
pline and instruction. God ‘opens their ears’, Elihu says, words that again are
placed strategically (v. 10a = 15b) at the ends of the strophes (c) and (e) and
which thus make those units end in parallel. We notice that these long stro-
phes (each with three bicola) have been placed around a centre: the short
strophe (d) which presents a binary situation of obeying or not obeying, and
reflfects it in its form: two verses (tricola).
Now Elihu quits the theme of God’s benefifcent concern with need, pov-
erty and injustice. The change of subject brings with it a change of form, and
vice versa. What remains in vv. 22–33 are three short stanzas, each of two
short strophes. So each strophe is a quartet of verses, and together these
units IV and VI have twelve poetic lines, a number that fifts well with the
subject: God as the ruler in the heavenly dome. The change of form goes
further, for also the tone and the genre are new. Elihu speaks in an admir-
ing and impressed way, and with these strophes he enters a domain which
he will traverse still more in his fifnal poem (ch. 37): the domain of the hymn.
The fifrst line of this section (IV–VI) picks up the thread of v. 5a again,
and indicates the theme: El’s power. Men cannot criticize it, but they can
acclaim it (v. 23 versus vv. 24–25). The verses of strophes (k) and (l) (= stanza
V) are a quartet arranged in the pattern ab–b’a’. In the outermost verses it
is admitted that our understanding fails; the inner verses are closely linked
by referring to the rain in every line.
God controls the weather, we now know, and the last stanza, again a
quartet of verses, indicates that that is not just an idle exercise. He is also the
master of the thunderstorm, and its meaning does touch the world of man.
Thunder and lightning stand for God’s judgement on the peoples, according
to v. 31a, and a part of it is his ‘anger about evil’. Here, this factor gets the last
word. But the thunder of v. 33b follows naturally from v. 29b. There, nobody
understood what thunder meant; here in the fifnal line it has been explained.
The parallel endings of stanzas V and VI connect these two quartets as a
pair. The reverse side is that stanza IV is separate, and that is confifrmed
by a look back: now the different tone there strikes us, thanks to the three
questions of strophe (i) plus the imperative mood which governs strophe
(j); all of these are signs of the smallness of creatures and of the speaker’s
admiration.
Stanza VI also has a tight pattern for its quartet of verses. This time the
parallelism of ab—a’b’ has been chosen. In vv. 30 and 32 it is about light, in
vv. 31 and 33 about the judgement that takes the form of thunder, and the
meaning of anger.
Chapter 37
Elihu’s sixth and last poem consists of three long stanzas and one short one.
After correct analysis of v. 12, the rhythm of the eleven strophic units is L S
S/S L L/S L S/S S. A series of questions to Job, mainly in vv. 14–18, divides the
composition into two parts. The fifrst half is again concerned with images of
God, who controls and apportions weather and thunderstorms.
The fifrst strophe again has an introductory function. This time Elihu
begins in a most personal manner, with his heart, and only here (in v. 2) does
he address the group once more, with a last ‘you’. A thunderstorm offers
the poet the opportunity to speak in visual and auditory terms alternately,
and so it is also for his character Elihu, who speaks strophe (a): thunder
and lightning. Strophe (b) continues that variation. In lines 5a and 6a of
strophe (c) people are still listening, after which the stanza ends with lines
about precipitation. All three strophes talk about ‘his voice’. The totality
that they form, the fifrst stanza, closely links up with ch. 36 as to its subject
(thunderstorm).
Man and beast draw their conclusions in strophe (d), a striking beginning
for stanza II. Strophe (e) is full of meteorological phenomena sent by God:
wind, ice, and rain. Strophe (f) primarily follows the master’s movements,
and in v. 13 gives the stanza a binary ending which reminds us of the
judgement: weather is a punishment or a blessing for the land.
In stanza III Elihu fifres a series of questions at Job. They are characterized
by the words with which vv. 15–16 and v. 18 begin: do you know …? Can you
…? They are rhetorical questions, which any mortal can only answer with an
intimidated ‘no!’ This questioning in just one stanza is remarkable inasmuch
as it anticipates a colossal barrage of questions in the next chapters: an
interrogation of Job by God himself.
The three forms of the imperative mood in v. 14 mark the beginning of
the second half of the poem and of stanza III. The combination of ‘miracles’
and ‘know’ reaches past stanza II back to v. 5. And the keyword ‘know’ keeps
all three strophes together well; we fifnd it in vv. 15a, 16a, and 19a.
Stanza IV, back in strophe (j) still shining with light, manages to forge an
ingenious connection between admiration and a series of negative clauses.
The fifrst ‘not’ of v. 21a seems innocent enough, but in the fifnal strophe the
negation occurs not less than three times. Thus Elihu makes his audience
understand very well that awe of God—what used to be called the ‘fear of
the Lord’—has another side to it: our great powerlessness. We do not fifnd
him and we do not see him. God is so far beyond human comprehension
that even the person ‘with a wise heart’ fails completely.
The original language has a pun here, for the words for ‘fearing’ and ‘see-
ing’ strongly resemble each other thanks to the alliteration of two conso-
nants. That is why the content of the very last line works together with the
fifrst line of stanza IV, and a fiftting (that is to say modest-making) frame
develops for the splendour of God’s appearance and his care for justice.
Moreover, the connection of lines 21a and 24a is part of a chiasm which
keeps together the last two strophes and which consists of ‘seeing’ and ‘awe’:
‘not seeing’ in vv. 21a and 24b, inside ‘standing in awe’ (in its participle form
‘feared’ = awe-inspiring) in v. 22b, which becomes an active verb again in
v. 24a. Again the poet is playing with yes and no.
The keywords ‘power’ and ‘justice’ of the hymnic line 23b conclude
well and fifttingly the composition which emphatically began about El’s
strength/power (36:5 and 22) and the function of the thunder. On a high
text level the poems of chs. 36 and 37 have one more subtle form of cohe-
sion. Strikingly enough it is a so-called zero phenomenon: namely a case of
leaving out. Both in 36:5a and in 37:23c we read an ellipsis:
El is powerful and does not reject (36:5)
Shaddai, the master of justice, does not oppress (37:23)
In both lines an important verb is to be found with God as the subject, but
where is the direct object? Now that the poet has left out the direct object,
the negative action is not limited by being directed at one person or party.
In a certain respect it radiates to all sides. In a case like this, the grammarian
speaks of ‘absolute use of the verb’.
Apparently the direct object is not relevant, and the result is that the
action can function as an unlimited qualififcation or characteristic of God
(the grammatical subject). It is good for us to know this, for the word-pair
choosing/rejecting is an important one—see for example 7:15, 8:20, 9:14,
29:25, and 34:33 for ‘choosing’ and 7:16, 9:21, 10:3, and 34:33 (again) for ‘reject-
ing’—and especially because the very last poetic line of the Book of Job,
spoken by the hero himself, also contains an ellipsis involving ‘rejecting’.
That happens in 42:6, and therefore I must return to it at the appropriate
time.
CLIMAX II:
GOD’S ANSWER FROM THE STORM
AND JOB’S FINAL WORDS
Introduction
Elihu’s speeches are an intermezzo which is no longer followed by a reac-

tion. The author is getting ready to complete his book, and in a certain
respect he composes a threefold fifnale. In chapters 38–41 he gives God
(almost) the last word, and He brings in two plus two speeches round brack-
eting a very short conversation with Job. Job is given the (really) last word
in the poetry; which is the short poem in 42:2–6. The author himself fifnishes
the whole by taking on the role of narrator once more and by adding a page
of his own prose.
The short conversation between God and Job takes place in 40:1–5. Both
before and after it, God speaks two poems. In principle the fifrst two are to
be found in chs. 38 and 39, but because the medieval chapter-division once
erred here, the last three verses of ch. 38 belong to the chapter after it. So
God’s fifrst speech is in 38:2–38, a long poem of fiffteen strophes; the second
speech contains fourteen strophes and comprises 38:38–41 plus the whole
of ch. 39.
God’s First Round: Two Poems
Chapter 38
This is a long poem and there is great regularity. The 37 verses fifll fiffteen
strophes. First there is a series of seven short units; then follows a series of
seven long strophes, with one short one in their midst. The verses are all
bipartite.
The main characteristic of this piece is obvious at once. From beginning
to end, questions and more questions are asked, more than thirty of them.
They are all of a rhetorical nature, and the answer which they always presup-
pose is ‘no’ or ‘not me’. God is the speaker, and with this barrage of questions
he drives Job into a corner. The nature of the questions mostly deals with
knowledge and skill. So some of them begin with ‘do you know …?’ and oth-
ers with ‘can you …?’ There is also a series that begins with the interrogative
302 climax ii: god’s answer from the storm and job’s final words
pronoun, ‘who does’ and ‘who has …?’ These who-questions take up strate-
gic positions, for they are the beginnings of stanzas I and II, and of strophes
(k) and (o).
The theme and the matter are the same everywhere: in short, God’s
interrogation is about the miracles of creation. In the fifrst half of the poem
there are many lines which enrich and explain the question with details,
but in the second half the pace of questioning is constantly quickened. Job
is being pressured increasingly with questions fifred off in pairs, for example
vv. 16–17, 28–29, 31–32, and 36–37.
There are many questions with a length of only one line, for example in
vv. 4a, 5a, 6a, 16a and 16b, 19a and 19b, 33a and 33b. There are questions
which take up an entire verse, for example vv. 2, 24, and 34. But now and
then there are also much longer ones which, being one enormous sentence,
fifll as much as an entire strophe. That is the case in strophe (d), which begins
with a main clause, the question itself, and subsequently joins three lines
to it (subordinate clauses of time). In strophe (k) there is even a six-line
sentence.
The poet avoids monotony by applying a number of variants, too. There
are indicative sentences, in which God sarcastically states that Job knows
everything precisely, for example the mockery in vv. 20–21. There are units
that do not ask questions, but offer explanations; strophes (e) and (g) do this,
being descriptive in character. Then there are lines in which the questioning
has been replaced by the imperative mood, see vv. 3a, 3b, 4b, and 18b. These
are sentences whose main function is to challenge Job.
The extensive poem has three parts:

part A (vv. 2–11) has two stanzas, fifve strophes and ten verses;
part B (vv. 12–21) also has two stanzas, but four strophes and ten verses;
part C (vv. 22–38) has two stanzas again, but this time six strophes and
seventeen verses.
The whole is rounded off with the motifs of knowledge and understanding,
for that is what it is about from start to fifnish, thanks to the who-questions
in vv. 2 and 5 which determine stanza I and the two who-questions of the
fifnal strophe, each of which inquires after Job’s ‘wisdom’. Knowledge is
the key concept; it is the motor which keeps driving the steady stream of
interrogative sentences with their ‘do you know …?’ and ‘can you …?’
As so often, the fifrst strophe performs an introductory function by taking
up the matter of contact. This time the tone is at once defifant. “Gird up
your loins” in v. 3a is actually the vocabulary of war: the words with which a
climax ii: god’s answer from the storm and job’s final words 303
warrior is incited to prepare for battle. And v. 3b announces an exam almost

threateningly. The verdict on Job’s ‘knowing’ is by no means uncertain, for
it has been placed up front by God straight off, in v. 2. Already in the very
fifrst verse Job is blasted head-on: no knowledge. That spells trouble …
In the capacity of narrator, the author has written the introductory verse.
It is the formula of quotation, ‘Yahweh answered Job’ et cetera. This time a
paradox has arisen, for ‘the answer’ consists entirely of questions! So the
answers must come from the unknowing mortal …
The subject proper of stanza I is to be found in strophes (b) and (c): the
creation of the earth. There follow three short stanzas, which consist of two
strophes; the last two units, V and VI, are long, with three strophes each.
Stanza II places a threatening power opposite the earth: the sea, which,
however, has been brought to heel by God. Units III and IV form a pair. They
are about light and darkness and are kept nicely together by an inclusio: the
elements of lifespan and knowing one’s place in v. 12 return in reverse order
in v. 19b and v. 21, so that the cohesion of the two stanzas is guaranteed by the
abc-c’ba’ fifgure along their edges. The strophes of III have parallel endings,
for lines 13b and 15ab are both directed against crime. From that, we draw
the conclusion that creation, as far as God is concerned, is oriented towards
the good. Stanza IV links up well with the negative element ‘scoundrels’ by
treating of entities like the primeval flfood, death, and darkness.
Stanza V brings up what the earth needs, and therefore it deals with forms
of precipitation. The clauses of this stanza are striking as to their lengths.
Thus vv. 22–23 are one sentence and strophe (k) is a single sentence which
covers six lines. By contrast, in stanza VI we fifnd a great increase in tempo.
There, I count exactly twelve questions within eight verses. In strophe (m)
they look at the starry sky, and in strophes (n) and (o) the fifrmament with
its indispensable quantities of water is there for the earth.
The fifgure of speech which mentions two parts or two extremes to indi-
cate a whole, is called merism. The very fifrst verse of the Bible has the
all-encompassing merism which for the Israelite indicates the universe:
‘heaven and earth’. And Genesis 1 deals with creation. That is what God’s
fifrst speech (ch. 38) now does in its own way: via the verse form. The poem
ends with the interaction of heaven and earth. Verse 37 catches it in a beau-
tiful image: the tilting of the jars of the heavens derives its meaning from the
earth’s becoming inhabitable.
Chapter 39
This is also a long poem; it has 33 verses. There are fifve long and nine short
strophes, and it is the only one of God’s four speeches that has two tripar-
tite verses. The number of interrogative sentences is already decreasing, but
still there are twenty. The strategy of mocking and rhetorical interrogation
is easy to recognize in strophes a, b, d, f, g and j—that is to say, the interrog-
ative sentences form the beginnings of another four strophes. The majority
of the verses in this speech, however, are descriptive in nature, and the sub-
ject is abundantly clear: we are to see an animal parade, beasts which one by
one withdraw from any harness that man might want to put on them.30 The
speaker is the proud creator of all this exuberant and wild life, and while he
steers the parade into good channels (stanzas), he does not lose sight of his
point: Job’s powerlessness.
The cohesion of the poem is again ensured by an inclusio. Whereas
stanzas II–V are all devoted to a single animal, there are more of them along
the edges. Stanza I fifrst mentions lion and raven, next goat and deer, but it
keeps these animals together with the theme ‘survive’ and the motifs ‘prey’
in strophe (a) and ‘young ones’ in strophes (b) and (c). The last stanza (VI)
follows the fortunes of two birds of prey, and in the last strophe it ends again
with some attention for prey and young ones.
Verse 4 tells how the offspring, once they have grown up, spread to all
sides and go their own ways. Here we realize that the alternation of young
and old is a non-stop cycle. The independence of going out into the world
is a wonderful preparation for the ‘free run’ of the animals which now get
their turn: the wild ass and the wild ox. We now arrive at the stanzas which
sketch one animal each:
stanza animal strophes (lengths) number of cola

II wild ass SS 8
III wild ox SS 8
IV ostrich LL 12
V horse SLS 15
The animals show an interesting development. The wild ass and the wild
ox poke a little fun at their tame relations and do not let themselves be
oppressed. They do not serve man but enjoy their freedom. But then there
is the ostrich, which carries freedom too far and ends up in frivolity which
leads to indifference, foolishness and damage. The fifnal line (v. 18b) does
shrewd preparatory work by linking up with the climax, the long stanza
about the horse. The ostrich “laughs at horse and horseman”.
The horse contributes something quite new to the freedom motif. Where-
as we must make real efforts to catch any glimpse of human forms on
the battlefifeld, all the verses demonstrate the control and the indepen-
dence of the horse. What an infectious passage, with its description of
the energy and strength of the animal! And even more so because of its
belligerence and fearlessness. The poet stresses the climax by giving it a
rare tricolon as its fifnal verse. The content, too, is climactic: the end of
the stanza refrains from mentioning death, but is very close to it via the
element of ‘war’. And this is confifrmed by a parallel verse: the fifnal line
of the poem looks at ‘the fallen men’ without beating about the bush,
and it makes the birds of prey circle over the battlefifeld. Even more strik-
ing is the way the last verse of the next chapter toys with death explic-
itly.
The fifrst round of God’s intervention is about to end. Its two poems show
particular forms of regularity which can be measured. I count the syllables
in the original as follows:
in ch. 38 in ch. 39
stanzas I–II = 99+66 = 165
stanzas III–IV = 70+95 = 165 stanzas III–IV = 67+98 = 165
Stanzas V and VI of ch. 38 are identical in length: both have 136 syllables.
Surrounding the middle section of ch. 39 (stanzas III and IV) there is
balance on the flfanks: stanzas I–II (fifve strophes) have 187 syllables, and
stanzas III–IV (also fifve strophes) have 188. In ch. 40 stanzas III–IV (again
fifve strophes) continue this series with 189 syllables. In ch. 41 stanzas IV–VI
(six strophes) return to 187 syllables.
Conversation in the Middle: 40:1–5
The author is in full control. He introduces the two speakers in his capacity
as narrator: both times he puts in the formula of quotation to give them the
flfoor: v. 1 and v. 3. The conversation that arises consists of no more than one
verse by God and an answer by Job in two verses. God’s line is a bicolon and
consists of a rhetorical question in v. 2a plus a challenging sentence in v. 2b.
In the strophic system of the book, this single poetic line counts as an (ultra)
short strophe. Next there is a regular short strophe of two bicola, vv. 4–5, for
Job’s answer to God.
This intermezzo brings a welcome interruption after the barrage of ques-

tions and mockery in chs. 38–39. Job is given an opportunity to catch his
breath after so much pressure. But the conversation is much more than a
pleasant interval. It is a stopping-place of great importance. As the maker of
the Book of Job, the author is leading both his characters and the reader on
a long trajectory, which began with a drastic wager and must end in a clear
verdict. Job has had ample opportunity to express protest, sorrow and indig-
nation over the catastrophe which has struck him undeservedly. He longed
and longs for an honest trial in which his innocence can be established. God
has been silent all this time and, even in the two long speeches of chs. 38–39,
has not yet taken notice of the contents of Job’s complaints or of his demand
for a trial. Now things change.
In 40:1–2, God does open a conversation with Job, and at last he reacts to
Job’s claims by using the language of the court of justice himself. In Hebrew
the words ‘dispute’ and ‘summon’ are legal terms. Now he explicitly shows
that he takes Job’s demands for an explanation and satisfaction seriously.
But does he intend to meet Job halfway? No such thing!
God points out to Job the unbridgeable difference between creator and
creature. As they are incommensurable, it is absurd for the mortal to call
God to account. And so God turns the tables. Instead of giving account
himself, he demands account with the command in v. 2b (in the original
in the subjunctive mood). His tone is so clear and so unrelenting that Job at
once gives in and bears his loss.
His loss? In chs. 38–39 God has abundantly made use of the second per-
son singular to fifre all his rhetorical arrows at Job, in that sense addressing
him directly. But as the barrage was only about creation, nature, and his
own transcendence, it did not sound very personal. Now, at the beginning
of ch. 40, things are different. Now God refers to the matter which occupies
both, and opens a possibility to debate the nature of their contact. Job is
given the opportunity to respond directly. That is why this short exchange
sounds like a conversation in private, and we get the impression that God is
really addressing Job personally. In vv. 4–5 Job bears his loss, certainly; but
there has also been a gain: he knows that God has not turned away in indif-
ference, but is concerned with him. That is great news, along the route of
suffering and coming to terms which is leading towards an as yet unknown
outcome.
From 40:6 the second round of God’s intervention follows, again with
two speeches in verse form. The very fifrst verse, v. 7, is also of strategic
importance, being identical to 38:3, a verse from the very fifrst strophe that
God spoke. The introductory formula of v. 6 is a copy of 38:1. Here are
two repetitions back to back. They suggest that the second round of God’s
answer from the storm will be a parallel of the fifrst one. Job himself will
ultimately confifrm this in 42:3a and in 4ab. His reaction in the beginning
of ch. 42 is a very short poem, so that it is all the more striking that in it he
twice quotes half-verses by God.
When now, in 40:4b, Job at once reins in with the words “I lay my hand
on my mouth”, this answer, this one short strophe of his, is the bridge to
his fifnal word in chapter 42 and the outcome there. This answer in 40:4–5
already hints that Job will cross out his own colossal contribution in verse
form (to the debate of chapters 4 up to and including 31). Thus indeed the
little conversation is a stopping-off place on the route from problem (“is Job
faithful for nothing?”) to solution. It is a turning point in the hero’s growth
process.
Numerically speaking
Job’s fifnal word (one stanza, 42:2–6) is actually an elaboration of this one
strophe in 40:4–5, in both form (the choice of words and the quotations!)
and content. His fifnal word can be read as the second half of the personal
conversation with God. There are fifgures to support this idea. Job speaks
56 (seven times eight) words in his last strophes (40:4–5 plus 42:2–6) and
with this he fiflls eight (!) poetic lines. But Job, as we knew already, is the
one whose proper name occurs exactly 56 times in the book, the man who
closed the fifrst round of the debate with 560 words (chs. 12–14), and so also
the man who needs but one-tenth as many words when he meets God. All
that can hardly be attributed to coincidence.
God’s Second Round: Again Two Poems
Chapter 40 (Verses 7–32)

The barrage of rhetorical questions gets still less. True, it is limited, but the
questions remaining are strategically placed. We fifnd them mostly in the
fifrst strophe and the last stanza, so that this fifgure of speech forms a frame
for the composition. We can examine it more closely on the basis of the
question: where is the speaker’s fifrst-person—the forms I and my—and
where are the you-forms for Job? The I is actually only to be found in strophe
(a) and in v. 14a and v. 15a. The appearance of the forms you, your is much
more striking. The second person singular occurs forty times in chapter 40
(at least in the extensive speech after the intermezzo), and exactly in the
fifrst eight and the last eight verses at that, rather than in vv. 15–24, which
are more or less the centre.31 The middle of the speech, on the other hand,
is devoted to the introduction of a new character, an exceptional animal.
The three strophes of stanza I are nothing but challenge. God begins
with four questions in the fifrst strophe and continues with pinpricks in the
imperative mood, ten verbal forms. Strophe (a) is pregnant. In the fifrst verse
God says again: brace yourself, mate. The second verse refers to justice and
the third one to power.
In the intermezzo God had just responded to Job’s demand for a decent
lawsuit for the fifrst time, v. 2. Now in v. 8 he links up with this by looking
at the main issue and formulating it using the polarity of guilty/innocent. If
Job is right—“is proved to be right” the verse says—does that automatically
mean that God is guilty? Things are not as easy as all that. After which, at
once, God makes short work of the illusion that a mere mortal can drag him
before the cadi and in v. 9 presents an argument to which no mortal has an
answer ready: the incommensurability aspect. God’s existence and power
are beyond human comprehension.
Strophes (b) and (c) continue this, but they fifrst choose a creative point
of view. They play with and mock at the possibility that Job himself is God,
and they challenge him to make his power felt. The terms used in vv. 10
and 12 would be typical of songs celebrating God’s intervention, so they are
regularly to be found in the Psalms: for example, the “right hand [which]
brings you liberation”: we fifnd it in Ps. 44, v. 4, where it is likewise unmasked.
After the fiferce pinpricks and sarcasm of stanza I, the tone changes. God
introduces Job (and the poet introduces us) to his strongest creature, and at
fifrst he calls it ‘the Beast’. In Hebrew this word is often used for ‘cattle’; it is
not a (proper) name. In fact, the animal feeds like a cow, according to v. 15b.
His outward appearance makes one think—somewhat, but certainly not
imperatively so—of a hippopotamus, and so does his behaviour: plunging
and playing to his heart’s content with the currents of the river. But his limbs
are also hard, according to strophe (e), and there are three lines about war
which are of no uncertain kind, v. 19b and v. 32ab. And what is more: in v. 19a
the Beast is called ‘the fifrst one among the works of El’. This exceptional
status precisely coincides with the content of the very last half-verse from
God’s mouth, “he is king over all the sons of pride”, in 41:26. No wonder the
“mountains yield food for him”, as 40:20a has it.
For a short while there is relief, “all the wild beasts play”; this fifnal line of
strophe (f) is a nice lead-up to the delectable nature scene in strophe (g). But
then there is a reversal as expressive as it is bewildering, which introduces
the option of violence: strophe (h). All at once a lot of things are happening
here. The second person re-enters the text; the Beast now gets his proper
name, and each of the six lines (cola) becomes physical, speaking about the
perilous attempt, doomed in advance to fail, to overpower the animal.
It is striking how unobtrusively the highly-charged name of Leviathan
is introduced, as it were packed between the two verses which keep the
strophe together with their repetition of ‘pierce’. The indomitability and
incalculability of his power are the message of a strong series of mocking,
even derisive verses which fifll the long stanza IV. These are ten rhetorical
questions, all again presupposing the answer ‘no,’ which result in verse 32:
again mockery, this time with an imperative mood which prompts Job to do
the unthinkable and which ends with death (exactly by not mentioning it!).
The description of the animal in the next speech (ch. 41) reminds us espe-
cially of the armour and manoeuverability of the crocodile. Nevertheless I
think the Beast of 40:15 is none other than Leviathan. There is no way of get-
ting around the coupling of 40:19 and 41:26. He is a formidable monster, a
sea-dragon with great mythological prestige, above all: we have already met
him. In his prologue, Job was so furious that he tried to deploy the beast
against life itself. The pinnacle of the curses in his very fifrst stanza was as
follows:
May those who put spells on the day damn it,
those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
That is a rash and extraordinarily dangerous appeal to exactly the wrong

people, folk whose profession it is to commit black magic in order to wipe
out life itself; ‘the day’ is a metonym for life here.
Apparently God has listened in quite well right from the beginning and
now, in his turn (at least verbally so), he introduces the image of Leviathan
in order to deploy this sea-dragon against Job. In this way he gives us to
understand that Job must be rebuked for his big words in 3:8.
Let us now survey the composition. After the opening (stanza I, eight
verses which address Job directly) there are three stanzas with six verses
each. They belong together because they introduce a new player to us: the
mythological sea-dragon. Thus the parade of animals in ch. 39 gets a worthy
continuation, even an intimidating escalation. In their strophes, the three
stanzas show the scheme S S S/L L/S S S.
Numerically
In ch. 40 the poet plays with the central norm 8 in several ways. In the fifrst
place, the original has 416 syllables in 52 cola, so that this poem scores the
exact 8 as average number of syllables per colon—a score that had already
been attained earlier by chapters 8, 15, and 31. In the second place: the orator
uses the second-person male singular (you, your) forty (!) times in the fifrst
eight and in the last eight verses, that is, on either side of the strophes
d-e-f-g.32 In the third place: the strophes of the last stanza hover around the
default fifgure for the normal S-strophe, for these three units have 33–32–31
syllables in the original, 96 altogether, twelve times the norm of 8, a total
which also characterized the endings of chs. 17 and 18.
I feel justififed in pointing at the default number 32 here, considering
how many syllables the stanzas I–II–III have altogether. There are 320,
and they occur in twenty verses, forty cola and eight strophes. So here
each strophe has on average exactly forty syllables, and each verse has the
double of 8. The eight strophes show the balance LL / SSSS / LL. The two long
units at the beginning of this series have forty words, and so do the two
long ones at the end. So the L-strophes have eighty words altogether. The
rest (the four S-strophes in stanzas I–III) contains 96 words—twelve times
8.
Chapter 41
Several forms of basic regularity reach pinnacles in the fourth and last
speech. There are only binary verses in ch. 41, and mostly they are combined
in pairs, so that the short strophes are strongly in the majority; there are only
two L-strophes. The strophic units, twelve of them, also group themselves in
pairs, which produces six short stanzas. The barrage of rhetorical questions
also quiets down quickly. The fifnal line of strophe (a) is one of them,
witnessing that ‘every man may meet his match’. Strophe (c) contains the
last three questions. They are about the unapproachability of Leviathan, and
the fifnal line of the strophe (v. 6b) rounds them up by answering this time:
‘sheer terror’.
Every man may meet his match: the whole argument about the terrifying
monster serves as an argument to spotlight the true ruler all the more as the
decisive power. Verse 2 summarizes things well with its halves: of course no
one dares to defy this beast; how much more does this apply to the deity!
‘Rousing’ Leviathan is a verbal sequel to 3:8, and it conveys silent criticism
on the poet’s part (and fifrst of all on the speaker’s part) of the idea that
people might want to risk it.
Stanza I is a link between the description of the beast in ch. 40 (after
v. 14 there are three stanzas of six verses) and its continuation in ch. 41.
Here the description covers the stanzas II–IV, and they show a perfectly
balanced profifle in their strophes: the series SL / SS / SS / SS / LS. They are easy
to recognize and to demarcate by their subjects:
II the armour of scales

III fifre and smoke from mouth and nose
IV the hardness of the body
V no weapon can intimidate him
VI unsurpassed on land and sea.
In these passages poetry reaches its peak in concrete, plastic, physical de-
scription. The image that no air can come between the scales and their
rows can also serve for the cohesion of the verses and stanzas in this last
big speech.
Numerically
Chapter 41 arranges its twelve strophes in pairs, so that each stanza has
two of them. Four of the six stanzas show striking similarity in their lengths
(syllables in the original):
stanzas I + III = 62+60 syllables

stanzas IV + V = 62+60 syllables
How much the last two poems spoken by God belong together as a pair, is
immediately evident from their measures on three levels of the text:
ch. 40 26 verses, 52 cola, 176 words

ch. 41 26 verses, 52 cola, 176 words
The number of 52 cola is to be found in one other chapter, precisely in Job’s

fundamental poem which precedes the debate: his prologue in ch. 3. That
this specififc number of cola at the end of the poetry occurs twice in the fifnal
speech by God, suggests that the poet intended this as a prosodic inclusio.
And content-wise, the quantitative connection may mean that God wants
to react to the heavy curses of ch. 3 by means of this pair of poems. The reap-
pearance of Leviathan tells strongly in favour of this surmise. Then strophes
h-i-j-k of chapter 40 have even more clearly the function of threatening or
warning. They rebuke Job emphatically: he should not have come out with
the perilous thought of ‘conjuring up Leviathan’!
THE CONCLUDING CHAPTER, CH. 42
The author gives Job the last word in his poetic work, before he concludes
it in his capacity as narrator. Job was fifrst to be given the word in the
poetry, now he is also entrusted with its end. This decision of the author’s
is suggestive as to his relationship to the hero. Does he back him outright?
However this may be, the poem in vv. 2–6 is strikingly short, only one stanza,
but its importance is in inverse ratio to this. Within the text I have called
Climax II, chapters 38–42, the poem is of particular importance, forming
the conclusion of that part of the book, and at the same time laying down
Job’s position with words which are indispensable for a correct portrait of
the hero. These two aspects of course also hold good for the book as a whole.
This short poem has as it were a double density, and this should impel
us to read it closely, with attention for every detail. I will begin with the
keyword ‘know’. Just as in English, in Hebrew the verb to know can have
either a person or an impersonal fact as its object. It occurs four times,
according to the pattern 3+1: three times in the fifrst strophe and the fourth
time as the high point of a doubly long quotation, the embedded text of v. 4.
Each time Job speaks of knowledge here, it is signififcant. Right at the
beginning, the keyword sets up an inclusio: it occupies the fifrst and the last
positions of strophe (a). It is also the decisive word of the fifrst embedded
speech: it has been placed strategically as the fifnal word of line v. 3a, and
that line has remarkable qualities. Like verse 4 it is embedded speech, again
a quotation of God’s words, and the form is unique: v. 3a is the only verse
in the entire book that consists of only one colon. It is a monocolon—a
clear sign from the maker that we are to pay extra attention to it. The text
of the fifrst strophe deserves to be repeated here, and this time I will make
the keyword stand out typographically:
I know that You can do everything
and that no scheme of yours can be thwarted.
[You said,]
“Who is this who obscures counsel without knowledge?”
Indeed, I spoke—but do not understand—
of things too wonderful for me—and I do not know.
The framework has a paradoxical effect: Job commutes from knowing to
not-knowing. The not-knowing wins, for it gets the last word; the ellipsis
at the end of v. 3c suggests that the ignorance is total and moreover, Job
314 the concluding chapter, ch. 42
has already quoted God in v. 3a, a verse which also ends in not-knowing:
‘without knowledge’. This embedded speech implies approval by Job: he
recognizes that God is right.
An ellipsis (as I wrote earlier) occurs when a transitive verb ‘is used
absolutely’, that is, does not get its direct object. This form of leaving out is a
main characteristic of the style in this fifnal poem. It accounts for the drastic
end of the fifrst strophe: I do not understand, I do not know. The ellipsis of the
object means that my not-knowing is all-sided. And this confession by Job
is buttressed in an original way by the rest of the two half-verses. The poet
has split up the grammatical unity of ‘speaking of wonderful things,’ and he
has spread the two parts over the half-verses 3b and 3c. The effect is that
the elliptic clause “I do not understand” can intervene with an intentionally
disruptive effect, which impels us to confront the negative aspect and the
infringement. The meaning, i.e. the content of the (restored) sentence “I
spoke of things too wonderful for me” confifrms the peak of the strophe, Job’s
point of ‘ignorance’ all the more.
The fifrst strophe is an admittance, a recognition. Again a paradox: the
content of what is admitted is an object of possessed knowledge, fiflling the
fifrst verse. The fifrst two lines (2ab) are positive and refer to God; the last
two lines (mind you, v. 3bc) are negative and judge the speaker, Job. We
now notice that line 3a is the axis of the strophe. It is effectively marked
by its status: that of quotation, a pronouncement by God himself. Job here
quotes the very fifrst verse of the ‘answer from the storm’, 38:2; the slight
variation only underscores that 42:3a is virtually identical. It is striking how
plus and minus (for God and Job respectively) come together here. The
plus consists in God’s pronouncement being taken up in the strophe with
approval and acknowledgement; the minus coincides with the answer to
the rhetorical question “who is (…) without knowledge?” The minus goes to
Job himself.
The fifrst strophe covers a trajectory from everything to nothing. Nothing:
that is what I understood of God, Job says. Everything: that is what God can
do. Via the formula ‘minus times minus makes plus’ this is indicated in v. 2b.
“No scheme of Yours can be thwarted”—this description is explained and
further amplififed in v. 3c, by a new description which says ‘things too won-
derful for me’. Actually both combinations refer to the same thing, though
the fifnal line especially focuses on Job’s ability to know: it turns out to be
very limited. Passages from elsewhere, like Deuteronomy 17:8, 2 Samuel 1:26,
Proverbs 30:18, and in the Book of the Psalms especially 131:1 and 139:6, make
it clear that ‘too wonderful’ is synonymous with ‘incomprehensible for man’,
‘beyond my comprehension’.
the concluding chapter, ch. 42 315
Job has begun a small but in-depth exploration of his own ability to know,
and he continues that study in the second strophe. This time he puts quoting
God in the vanguard, and he allots it the space of not one but two lines: as
his fourth verse (here also number 4). The verse ends with the fourth time
that we hear of ‘knowing’. That keyword is the peak or point of the literary
pattern 3+1, partly because it stands alone in strophe (b), but especially
thanks to the irony and mockery with which it was originally spoken, by
God himself in 38:3b, and again in 40:7b. That half-verse is found here in its
third occurrence, this time as a quotation.
My rendering of verse 4 takes the target language into account; accord-
ingly, it could not show that this line contains no fewer than three ellipses.
This is a much more literal translation:
Hear now, for I, I am going to speak;
I will ask you and you must make me know.
The two sides of communication, your hearing and my speaking, do not

have direct objects, so that the emphasis is on the actions themselves. At
fifrst the B-colon shows a balance, an expression of reciprocity, with ‘I …
you’ and ‘you … me’, but on closer examination we notice that ‘knowing’ has
again been used absolutely. What then are the contents of that knowledge?
God mocks at Job’s knowledge, which was supposed to be all-sided. You are
the great knower, are you not? And you, Job, will you please inform me?
It is a sign of real class that Job repeats this sharp mockery. It is brave
and sportsmanlike because he is in the role of a try-your-strength machine.
He now uses the quotation as a leadup to a more profound study. In verse 5
there follow two modes of human knowledge, and of knowing God at that.
What matters now is the reach and the validity of hearing and seeing.
In v. 5a Job uses the root ‘hear’ strikingly, namely doubly. In this way
he links up with the fifrst word of v. 4, the imperative mood employed by
God. But there is a great difference: the hearing that he did took place in the
past, and the speaker was not God. They were the people who said all kinds
of hifalutin things about God, pretending to be experts. For all we know,
they propounded a set of teachings about God—what is called ‘theology,’
using an originally Greek word. But that sort of knowing is only by hearsay,
second-hand, Job discovers while speaking, and now he opposes fifrst-hand
knowledge to it. In his second half-verse (5b) he says: “but now my eye has
seen You.” With that we have arrived in the present. We are listening to an
‘experienced expert’.
“But now my eye has seen You.” These words are of crucial importance,
for they are the interpretation which Job gives of God’s intervention in the
storm. In the beginning of ch. 38, the author refrains from intruding as a
narrator; he does not himself present an impressive panorama of God’s
appearance. There is no narrator’s text picturing the event. Instead, the
narrator leaves it to his hero to indicate what God’s intervention means,
and Job uses visual terms to do justice to the force and immediacy of God’s
‘answer from the storm’.
This is Job’s position: God has addressed him directly with the speeches
in chs. 38–41. Job concludes: God has concerned himself with me personally,
addressed me personally. This turning towards him is appreciated by Job as
something surpassingly direct, and its immediacy can only be shown to full
advantage by the words “my eye has seen You”. There is yet another side to
this pronouncement in verse 5. With it, Job indicates that a fervid wish of his
has been complied with. I recall at this point how particular the strophes
at the end of ch. 19 are. There Job pleaded for a lawyer to defend his case
in heaven, and he also spoke the trenchant words: “But I—I know that my
redeemer lives/and afterwards he will rise against the dust, (…). And yet in
my flfesh I will behold God, in the sense that I myself will behold / and it will
be my eyes that [will] see.” With this splended passage to aid us, it becomes
clear that in 42:5 Job is saying: my hope and my longing were not in vain;
God has answered me.
The author has left the decisive interpretation of the climax to the pro-
tagonist of his book. That is a strong literary manoeuver, but not unique. He
had an illustrious predecessor: the author of the authoritative story about
the supreme patriarch. The author of the Book of Genesis tells us about
Jacob, the patriarch of the people of Israel, and how after twenty years of
avoidance—the period when he served his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia, a
kind of exile—he returns to the promised land. There he at last has to make
a clean sweep in his relationship with his twin brother Esau. In a terrify-
ing night, Jacob wrestles with a ‘man’ who gives him a new identity, ‘Israel’.
The sun rises on his life (Gen. 32:32), and on his way to Esau, Jacob gains
the insight that he must ask Esau for forgiveness. Looking back on the con-
frontation at the Jabbok, Jacob formulates its meaning: “I have seen God face
to face, and my life has been saved.” This is what Gen 32:31 says. The author
of Genesis has left it to the hero to give the decisive interpretation of the
turning point in his life.33 And Jacob’s words also imply that his prayer for
rescue (made in 32:12) was answered by God.
The words of Genesis 32:31 and the answer to Jacob’s prayer are a spectac-
ular precedent for the maker of the Book of Job. And in this book, that is to
say in the world evoked by the story about Job, the patriarch’s ‘homecoming’
via the seeing of God is an impressive precedent for the man Job.
The Conclusion of the Conclusion: Verse 6
Back to the text of Job 42. Now that, in v. 5, he has passed from the past to the
present and from second- to fifrst-hand knowledge of God, Job is able to put
his own turning point into words. He does so in v. 6, the poetic line which
concludes the fifnal poem. This verse, too, is of unusually great importance,
as is already suggested by the fact that Job is given the last word (of the
poetry) by the author. The verse begins by saying ‘that is why’. Thus Job
makes an explicit connection with verse 5, and he makes it clear that the
fifrst-hand knowledge of God which he has got is the basis, the reason and
the motivation for saying: I quit, I am consoled.
Few verses in the Bible have been maltreated so much and rendered
so misleadingly as verse 6 of Job 42. In practically all commentaries an
enormous clumsiness in dealing with the A-colon can be found, and until
recently, in all translations and commentaries the rendering of the B-colon
was sickening, whimpering and cowardly.
The result was that the hero’s portrait was decisively mutilated at the
last moment. A typical example of such a translation is: “Therefore I detest
myself; I regret everything, sitting in dust and ashes.” This rendering contains
three glaring errors, and they all have to do with (and lead to) a wrong judge-
ment of the speaker. The man Job, as we have heard from the two highest
authorities themselves—the narrator and the character God—was “blame-
less and sincere, God-fearing and shunning evil”. For forty chapters, Job has
kept his head up, for he was entirely aware of his qualities; as a speaker he
has said it out loud a number of times: I am innocent. He has even under-
scored this with an oath: I shall stick to my integrity. Moreover, to all the
parties which were blessed with more knowledge, that was nothing new:
to the narrator, to God, to the heavenly council including the Prosecutor,
and lastly and especially: to us readers, who had been well informed right
from the beginning. Therefore it is absolutely cuckoo in 42:6 to present a Job
who buckles under pressure and to make him moan words that are totally
unfounded and completely contrary to his character and personality. I am
afraid that this sad distortion of Job springs from the disgusting portrayal of
mankind upheld by an obstinate tradition (represented by the commenta-
tors and translators I have here objected to).
The strictly literal translation of verse 6 is as follows:
Therefore I reject
and/but I am consoled about dust and ashes.
The wrong translation started from the very beginning of the passage: appar-
ently people could not cope with the ellipse which determines the fifrst
half-verse. They had neither the courage nor the insight to sustain such
an ellipse, and so they just fiflled in something.34 Too bad, for we have
already seen that this poem is characterized by a frequent use of that fifgure
of speech. Maintaining the ellipse in translation, however, does not alter
the fact that every interpreter must take sides as regards the question:
what exactly does Job reject as a speaker? The context itself suggests an
answer: Job’s approach so far, his behaviour in protesting and demanding a
lawsuit. Job is throwing the towel in: “I am tired of it.”35 And again there is a
precedent which helps us fifnd the correct explanation. Essentially, verse 6a
says nothing else than 40:4b, when Job answered in the intermezzo between
the speeches of Yahweh: “I lay my hand on my mouth.”
In my translation proper I have rendered v. 6a as “therefore I quit”. The
rendering of the end of verse 6 by “in dust and ashes” is a blunder, as if
the line ended with a mere designation of place. The word ‘dust’ stands
for futility, mortality, about a hundred times in the First Testament; now
compare chs. 7:5 and 21, 10:9 and 16:15, all spoken by Job himself. The
combination of ‘dust and ashes’ also had already been used by Job himself to
indicate his situation: standing with one leg in the grave. That was precisely
in the poem which was to present the defifnitive summary of his misfortune,
in 30:19. That is why the combination of ‘dust and ashes’ here in 42:6 is of
much more importance than just an adjunct of place. The double metaphor
stands for his suffering and his condition of humiliation. It is that for which
and about which he is consoled.36
“I am consoled about [my state of] dust and ashes”—this statement,
too, can be explained with the aid of the context, namely by words from
the immediate textual vicinity. That I myself have now seen God, Job says,
means to me “that I am consoled about my misfortune”. So with this half-
verse Job indicates what the personal meeting with God means to him.
Verse 6b explains verse 5b and 5b explains 6b. Verse 6b is the authoritative
interpretation which the hero gives to the turning-point at which he now
fifnds himself after God’s intervention. He realizes that he is not going to die
within a few hours or days. He interprets the personal approach which he
has received from God as a form of approval, and he even already senses
that God is on the point of clearing him of blame completely. And that is
what happens, one moment later: the author takes the flfoor and tells us how
much God appreciates Job’s integrity and love of truth. He even makes God
say this twice explicitly, in v. 7 and again in v. 8.
Being consoled—this appears to be a keyword. It occurred immediately
before the poetry, when the friends visited Job ‘to console him’ (2:11), but
the consolation failed then. Further along the way, during the series of
poems, he called the men ‘miserable comforters’ (16:2, compare 21:34), and
the pain led him to beg for pity (19:21). Now the verb ‘comforting’ returns in
42:11, and now in a context of success: “they shook their heads [as a sign of
sympathy] and comforted him about all the evil which Yahweh had made
happen to him.” The keyword functions as beginning and ending of the
whole trajectory, thus giving a slender but identififable frame to the whole
book.
Many believers are attached to the doctrine of original sin, thinking it
comes from the Bible. It is a dismal theory with a ditto portrayal of mankind,
which are both wrongly traced back to the story of Paradise. The Book of Job
puts an end to the idea that man is ‘by nature inclined to all evil’. It shows,
by setting and working out an extreme example, that integrity exists, even
if it is faced with an ultimate test.
The Narrator Concludes the Book, Verses 7–17
No sooner has the poetry been completed with Job’s fifnal words than the
author at once returns the flfoor to the deity. He does so in the role of narrator
with which he also opened the book. Now he writes his fifnal word, but we
still fifnd ourselves in Climax II, which must be called by that name owing to
the four speeches/poems by God which were his answer from the storm. But
now that all that is over, God is given the flfoor again, at the very beginning
of the prose ending, 42:7–17. And the one he addresses is Eliphaz.
That is quite an honour for him! Eliphaz … was not he the friend with
such a nice image of mankind? Man … “a disgusting and dirty person / who
drinks injustice like water”, we heard in 15:16. Eliphaz, the man with the
dismal image of God based on projection: “He does not even trust his own
servants/and on his angels he blames foolishness”—according to 4:18. What
this friend is now told by God is that he needs the intercession of the very
person whom he, Eliphaz, menaced with fiferce and mean criticism: Job of
all people. And to be perfectly clear, God justififes this twice, with the words:
“you have not spoken to me correctly, as did my servant Job.”
This sentence, together with the ends of both verses 7 and 8, is also
rendered wrongly by all translations and commentators as regards one
revealing detail. The heart of the matter is usually translated as “you have
not spoken correctly about me”. But that is not what it says.37 The original
says: you have not spoken correctly ‘to me’, and that is quite a difference.
Anyone searching through the entire debate in pursuit of ‘speak to’ will
discover that, indeed, the friends nowhere used the second person singular
for God; nowhere did they address him directly. What they did show was a
banal ‘one good turn deserves another’ theology, with a simplistic theory of
retaliation and an image of God in keeping with that. When we go through
the debate again, we fifnd that Job, on the contrary, has addressed God
directly several times, with ‘You’ and ‘Your’. In spite of his terrible pain,
despair and incomprehension, Job has a living, well-founded and sincere
relationship with God, and this has enabled him to flfing his anger, his
despair and his sadness in God’s face directly, in verbal form. God can
appreciate this. And now only an intercession by Job can shield the friends
from a deserved thrashing …
In the same sentences at the ends of verses 7 and 8, God calls the man
Job ‘my servant’. This choice of words also deserves attention. It is a title
of honour, as appears from the fact that in God’s mouth it hardly occurs.
Elsewhere God gives it only to Moses and David, the two greatest leaders
in the history of biblical Israel. Now he confers it on Job, indicating both
respect and warmth.
The writer has explored quite a few caverns of the human spirit with us.
Therefore he decides to fifll his last two paragraphs with a treat for us: all
those folkloristic and fairy-tale-like all-’s-well-that-ends-well details which
surely no one would want to deny Job. Little of it needs explanation … well,
perhaps the name of Job’s third daughter, Keren-happuch. It means Powder
Puff. Surely we can leave it at that.
NOTES TO PART III
1. For those that love numbers: here are the fifgures which a count of the
syllables in the original Hebrew yields, for the strophes and the stanzas.
The stanzas do not differ much, with 90–85–88–87 syllables; the halves have
175+175 syllables. One level down, the fifgures for the strophes: 51 + 39 / 53 +
32 //34+54/33+54. The total is a good round number, 350 syllables for the
poem as a whole. Would there be a connection with the proportions of
Eliphaz’ next speech? Now see note 2. The number of words per stanza in
Job 4 is 34–36–37–38.
2. The fifgures for the strophes in Job ch. 4 are (again I am counting syl-
lables in the original): 31–60–34 in stanza I, 33–34–54–30 in stanza II and
35–33–54–54–18 in stanza III.
3. The twelve verses after 11c are 13 up to and including 21a–d. The number
of verses before 11c comes out as the same fifgure 12 if we include v. 11ab. In
cola: before 11c there are 24, after it the same number.
Mind you: the total of 49 cola occurs another two times, in the crucial
chapters 10 and 29, and again colon number 25 is extra important, being
the middle one. In 10:12a, the august commentators have missed the deadly
sarcasm, and 29:14a indicates the heart of Job’s ethics and behaviour as
the pivot of the argument, with remarkable sentence structure and seman-
tics.
4. I assume this passage was not in the mind of the famous Dutch writer
Harry Mulisch (1927–2010) when he wrote his early novel Het zwarte licht
(The Black Light); his title is an example of the same device: oxymoron.
Another example is the poet Paul Celan’s use of ‘black snow’.
5. For those that love fifgures: the writer does not grant Zophar the round
number of forty cola. The addition to the fifnal line of the only C-colon
(with seven syllables) of the poem makes 41, a number which suits 328
well, in the light of eight’s being the average per colon. In v. 20b the poet
could of course have chosen his words so that one more syllable had come
about, after which the forty cola would have contained a neat clean 320
syllables.
322 notes to part iii
6. I refer readers of Hebrew to an elaborate diagram of all fifgures, with

the relevant counts, on p. 380 of my Major Poems, vol. II and on p. 12 of
volume IV, where I also corrected an error of notation (which does not affect
the overall scheme).
7. For those that read Hebrew: something curious is going on with ‘to kill’
in 13:15a. Most beginning students of Hebrew get the verb qatal served
up as the paradigm of the strong verb and as the starting point for the
verbal system. However, a concordance reveals that this verb occurs in
only a few places in the Bible! So where? That is even more surprising:
twice in the Book of Job, as exactly the middle word of two poems, here
in ch. 13 and later in ch. 24:14b; elsewhere only once, in Ps. 139. The noun
is to be found once only, in Obadiah. Another remark about the second
clause of v. 15a: the verb yachel has ‘to wait’ as its original meaning, not
‘to hope,’ and I follow the Ketib in favouring the negation. Traditional
renderings like ‘I hope for him’ are dismally half-baked and they clash with
the context.
8. Just for the record: this polite form is my choice in the target language.
The source language, Hebrew, does not have honorififc forms, any more than
does present-day English.
9. Psalms 111 and 112 (already twins as regards contents) are acrostic per
colon. Psalms 25 and 145 are acrostics, each with 22 verses; Psalm 37 is one
with 22 S-strophes, and Psalm 119 (the longest psalm of all) consists of a
full 22 octets = stanzas (groups of eight verses). Chs. 1–4 of the Book of
Lamentations are also alphabetical acrostics.
10. The ‘vindicator’ is found in the rendering of Job in the Tanakh-version

of the Jewish Publication Society of America (1985), and the rendering
by ‘champion’ is by David Clines (Sheffifeld) in his commentary on Job in
the series Word Biblical Commentary (1989, 2006). Alonso Schökel (in the
Nueva Biblia Española) has “Yo sé que está vivo mi Vengador”: an avenger,
and the Bible de Jérusalem (1998) here says: “Je sais, moi, que mon Défenseur
est vivant.” Martin Buber, in his idiosyncratic German version, has “mein
Auslöser”.
11. For the real enthusiasts: the poet has perfected this arrangement with
his numbers of syllables: the four L-strophes in the corner positions (that
is, the units that open stanzas I–II and IV–V) are exactly of the same length
notes to part iii 323
by pairs: strophes a+c = 51+48 =  syllables//strophes i + k = 44 + 55 = 

syllables.
And as if this were not enough, he also twice combines three S-strophes
in such a way that their totals before and after the middle are exactly the
same: strophes b + e + f =  syllables//strophes j + l + m =  syllables.
12. In the Book of the Psalms there are three poems of eighteen cola which
contain 144 syllables: psalms 3, 11, and 14. Psalm 1 has 144 syllables in six-
teen cola, and that yields the exact fifgure 9 as the average length of the
colon.
13. The Israelite ‘orientates’ himself: ‘forward’ is the orient, the east (where
the sun rises), so ‘backward’ is the west. With respect to this axis, left and
right are indications for the north and the south.
14. For those that know Hebrew: the strikingly divergent rendering in the
NBV is based on emendation of both places: in v. 12 its translators do
not read *choq but *cheq (bosom, womb), and in v. 14a they wish to read
chuqqo instead of chuqqi. In my rendering, I have decided not to make this
‘improvement’ in the original text, as it fifnds no support in the Hebrew
manuscripts, and almost none in the Versiones.
15. Both poems have three stanzas comprising fifve short and two long stro-
phes. They have sixteen bicolic verses each: 32 cola. The 512 syllables they
have altogether are the number 2 to the ninth power. I remind the reader of
ch. 9, the number of words of which amounted to 2 to the eighth power.
The numerical precision in ch. 23: the fifve S-strophes have strikingly
equal measures, with 33–32–33–33–32 syllables. So the norm of 32 for two
bicola has here been exceeded by three. Now the fifve S-strophes of ch. 17:
they have 31–30–31–34–31 syllables; that is, three fewer than fifve times 32
would be, clearly to counterbalance ch. 23.
There is an amazing symmetry in stanza I with its three short strophes.
This is the syllable count for (the cola of) these units:
(a) (b) (c)

6+9 8+8 9+6
11+7 8+8 7+11
The three strophes in ch. 17, which have 31 syllables each, reach this sum via
17 +14 or the reverse for their two verses.
16. For readers of Hebrew: the root qtl is, as said before, very rare in the
Hebrew Bible. Therefore it is relevant that the poet has not employed hrg
or r-tz-ch here in 24:14. The form yiqtəléni in 13:15a looks very much like
the yiqtol ʿani in 24:14b! Chapter 24 has 203 words in the MT, and then ʿani
is exactly the middle word, viz. no. 102. But ch. 24 actually has 202 words,
for the combination qal hu of v. 18 (so two words) is an error of hearing or
notation for one word, the perfect qállu, as is quite generally recognized.
Thus nos. 101+102 become the central pair, and that is yiqtol ʿani. See further
Major Poems, volume IV, p. 123.
17. The translation of the Jewish Publication Society has made volitive sen-
tences of practically all sentences in stanza IV. The motivation is not made
explicit, but I share the thought behind this decision.
18. Moreover, strophes (e) and (j) have the same measures on three levels
(syllables counted per colon, verse, and strophe). Notice how the fifgures of
the cola mirror each other:
Strophe (e) 7+9 = 16 strophe (j) 9+7 = 16

9+8 = 17 8+9 = 17
33 33
For the symmetries in strophes a, b and d see Major Poems, vol. IV, p. 146.
19. I can mention some precedents. See, along with v. 2, verses like 7:11c, 9:18,
10:1c, 19:6a, and especially 23:16; for the pair injustice/deceit see 13:7; along
with v. 4 see 6:30; for ‘to say someone is right’ (that is, to recognize someone’s
rightful position and the like) compare the frequent ‘be in the right’ in 9:15,
20, 10:15, 13:18. The integrity had been prominent right from the start, in the
mouth of the narrator and of God in ch. 1, and ‘stick to’ was spoken by the
spouse in ch. 2.
20. In this extensive speech in chs. 29–31 there is not a second person to
be found, no ‘you’ and but for one moment, no ‘You’ or ‘Your’ for God
either. That one moment (of course in itself signififcant) is the complaint
in strophes (i) and (j) of ch. 30, approximately in the middle of the whole
complex.
21. Chapters 28 and 29 work together numerically. Together they have 58 +

49 = 107 cola, with 448+408 = 856 syllables. When we divide the 856 by 107,
the average number of syllables per colon turns out to be exactly 8. See for
an account of the fifgure 58, attained by keeping the formula of quotation
in 28:28a between brackets as a case of anacrusis: Major Poems, vol. IV,
pp. 161–162.
22. One of the fruitless questions in the commentaries is: how many sins
are mentioned in ch. 31? Agreement has never been reached on that. The
reason is that it is an approach based on content only. If, on the other hand,
we take the formal design seriously, we make an important discovery: there
are twelve strophes which begin with the word (conjunction/interrogative
particle/negation) ʾim. So it functions as an important anaphora for the
articulation of the whole.
23. For readers of Hebrew: in verses 11 and 12, tradition reads bicola. The
result is that v. 12a supposedly has two clauses and that ‘fifre’ becomes the
subject of ‘consume’ in v. 12a. The NIV and Alter, among others, have this.
Then the poem would have 83 cola. In reality, the three monosyllabic words
at the beginning of v. 12a are a nominal clause which splendidly fifts in
v. 11 as a C-colon, on semantic, syntactic, phonological, and colometrical
grounds. The result is that ‘consuming’ has a different subject! And that is
‘debauchery/lechery’, precisely also the subject of the entire section A! So
my word ‘it’ in v. 12a refers back to the word ‘lechery’ of v. 11a, and the correct
number of 84 cola is thereby restored.
24. Charles Taylor, Hegel (1975), p. 104: “The life of the absolute subject is
essentially a process, a movement, in which it posits its own conditions of
existence, and then overcomes the opposition of these same conditions to
realize its goal of self-knowledge.”
25. The rhythm short—long—long is confifrmed by a form of numerical

perfection. Chs. 32 and 35 (that is, the two shorter units) have 544 syllables
altogether in the original, yielding exactly eight as the average number of
syllables per colon.
26. Here, too, the poet has been working with numbers, as this arrangement
(of syllable counts) shows:
stanza I III II + IV V VI
syllables 116 117 118 119 78
27. To be precise, ch. 34 competes with God’s fifrst speech (ch. 38), for it has
more words and cola, but fewer verses and syllables in the Hebrew:
chapter strophes verses cola words syllables

34 15 36 78 294 596
38 15 37 74 267 602
28. There is one exception: in v. 17b the second person for Job occurs just for
a moment: a vicious thrust between the lines.
29. A touch of numerical perfection: stanzas III–IV–V have an identical

word count: each has 62. Stanzas I, III, and V have sixteen cola each.
30. There is one (more or less) exception: it is true that of the animals
mentioned, the horse is the only tame one, but that is certainly not evident
in the impressive stanza V which is devoted to it. On the contrary, the animal
is shown as an independent warrior on the battlefifeld.
31. Only at the beginning of the central ten verses is ‘I’ to be found once, and,
as the exception which proves the rule, ‘you’ once: at the end of v. 15a, only
in a subordinate clause.
32. It is attractive to consider yet another riposte by God. The poems that
flfank the intermezzo join in particular combination with a fundamental
pair in climax I: with the exemplary song about the catastrophe and Job’s
eventual statement of principles:
chs. 30+39 68+68 = 136 cola

chs. 31+40 84+52 = 136 cola
In both pairs there is one poem having the normative 8 as its average
number of syllables per colon. Here they are shown side by side: chs. 31 and
40. I do not know if the number 136 is of special importance, but I fifnd it
intriguing that it had already just occurred, on a different text level. It was
exactly the measure of each of the two stanzas which immediately precede
ch. 39: stanzas V and VI of ch. 38 (God’s fifrst speech) have 136 syllables
each.
33. The NBV, the New Dutch Bible translation of 2004, makes a colossal
blunder in the outcome of the scene on the Jabbok, by translating: “I have
stood face to face with God and yet I have stayed alive.” The word ‘yet’
distorts the content of the sentence, turning it around 180 degrees, and must
be deleted.
With the words “my life has been saved,” Jacob is saying that his prayer in
32:11 has been answered. The heart of the long text and of his fear of Esau was
only one word in Hebrew: “[please,] save me”. So the NBV failed to pick up
the Leitwortstil. In my 1975 dissertation I had already described exhaustively
the connection with v. 11 and its meaning.
34. The myself in italics which I have used is one of those forms of interpre-
tation; it is from the King James version (and is due to embarrassment). Also
compare La Bible de Jérusalem, which has here “Aussi je me rétracte”.
35. One of the fifrst interpreters who suspected that v. 6 must be read posi-
tively was the Old Testament scholar at Leiden University, P.A.H. de Boer. In
1977 he devoted the dies (Anniversary) speech at his university to Job 42:6,
and the words “I am tired of it” (in his Dutch: “ik heb er genoeg van”) are
close to my ‘I quit’. As discussed above, a transitive verb without an object is
enabled to radiate to all sides. Some translations recognize this when they
here render “everything I revoke”. Filling in the object with ‘everything’ is
both correct (as an explanation) and wrong (as a translation); fiflling it in is
not necessary (compare the ends of v. 3b and 3c).
36. A remark for those who read Hebrew: in 42:6b the original has the form
we nichámti. The penultimate stress, which I endorse, indicates that we have
here not a perfectum consecutivum, but an ‘ordinary’ copulative verb: the
conjunction ‘and’ plus a completed action.
37. For readers of Hebrew: the preposition ʾel occurs promiscuously in some
Bible books instead of (that is, with the meaning of) ‘al, as we know, e.g. in
Kings and in Jeremiah. But that does not hold good for the Book of Job. The
combination dibber ʾel occurs in Job seven times, always meaning ‘speak to’.
This is clearly so in 42:7a, and it would be bizarre to understand it differently
in v. 7b.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Some Bible Translations
TANAKH, a New Translation of The Holy Scriptures according to the Traditional

Hebrew Text, Philadelphia (Jewish Publication Society of America), 1985
La Bible de Jérusalem, traduite en français sous la direction de l’École biblique de
Jérusalem, Paris 1998, les Éditions du Cerf
Nueva Biblia Española, translated by Luis Alonso Schökel and Juan Mateos, Madrid
(Ediciones Cristiandad), 1975
The ‘Verdeutschung’, in four volumes, of the holy scriptures by Martin Buber, in
co-operation with Franz Rosenzweig, Die Schrift, 4 volumes: Die Bücher der
Weisung, Die Bücher der Geschichte, Die Bücher der Kündung, Die Schriftwerke,
Köln/Olten (Jakob Hegner), 1936–1962; revised edition 1954–1962.
Robert Alter, Three Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, New York 2010
Versions in the Dutch language area:

the widely spread translation by the Dutch Bible Society (NBG), 1951
the three editions (1974, 1981, and 1995) of the so-called Willibrord translation by
the Roman Catholic Bible Foundation (KBS) in Boxtel,
and since Oct. 2004 the NBV = the ecumenical New Bible Translation.
Works Cited
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fourth edition edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph,

1967/1977
Clines, David, Job 1–20, Word Biblical Commentary 17, Dallas, Texas (Word Books),
1989
Clines, David, Job 21–37, Word Biblical Commentary 18A, Nashville, Tennessee
(Thomas Nelson), 2006
Clines, David, Job 38–42, Word Biblical Commentary 18B, Nashville, Tennessee
(Thomas Nelson), 2011
Delsman, W.C., Die Datierung des Buches Qoheleth, Eine sprachwissenschaftliche
Analyse, Dissertation Roman Catholic University, Nijmegen, (Nijmegen Univer-
sity Press), 2000
Fokkelman, J.P., Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible, at the Interface of Prosody and
Structural Analysis, 4 volumes, Assen (van Gorcum) 1998–2004; Job 3 is discussed
in vol. I, Job 4–14 in vol. II and Job 15–42 in vol. IV. The complete Hebrew text of
the poetry of the Book of Job (without vowels and strophically articulated) is to
be found as an appendix in vol. IV.
Fokkelman, J.P., The Psalms in Form, The Hebrew Psalter in its Poetic Shape, Tools
for Biblical Studies 4, Leiderdorp, (Deo), 2002
Fokkelman, Jan, Reading Biblical Poetry, An Introductory Guide, Louisville KE,
(Westminster John Knox Press), 2001
330 bibliography
Habel, Norman C., The Book of Job, A Commentary, Old Testament Library (OTL),
Louisville, Kentucky (Westminster John Knox Press), 1985
Lugt, Pieter van der, Rhetorical Criticism & the Poetry of the Book of Job, Oudtesta-
mentische Studiën 32, Leiden (Brill), 1995
Mies, Françoise, L’espérance de Job, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum
Lovaniensium # 193, Leuven (Peeters), 2006, 653 pages
Newsom, Carol, The Book of Job, A contest of moral imaginations, Oxford UP 2003
Rozelaar, Marc, Mijn leven is een ademtocht, Het boek Job, (ed. Kok, Kampen), 1984
and 1998
Taylor, Charles, Hegel, Cambridge, Mass. (Cambridge University Press), 1975
Of course scholars and students will fifnd more bibliographical data concerning the
Book of Job and studies about it in vols. II and IV of my Major Poems.
Two major articles from my hand are:
The Structural and Numerical Perfection of Job 31, pp. 215–232 of Hamlet on a Hill,
the Festschrift with Semitic and Greek Studies presented to Prof. T. Muraoka, eds.
M.F.J. Baasten & W.Th. van Peursen, Leuven (Peeters), 2003,
Job 28 and the Climax in Chapters 29–31: Crisis and Identity, pp. 301–322 of a
book with the proceedings of a Heidelberg (July 2006) conference: Literary Con-
struction of Identity in the Ancient World, eds. Hanna Liss and Manfred Oeming,
Winona Lake, Indiana (Eisenbrauns), 2010
GLOSSARY (LITERARY TERMS)
anaphora repetition of a word as the beginning of half-verses, verses or higher

text units
bicolon two-part poetic line
bible verse the traditionally numbered small text unit, as distinct from the real
(i.e. literary) verse (= the complete poetic line)
caesura interruption of the poetic line, often somewhere about the middle,
which occurs in a lot of poetry and which is usually indicated with
a slash by interpreters
chiasm fifgure which organizes four elements according to the pattern
AB–B’A’; so a form of mirroring, called after the Greek letter chi
which looks like an X
colon (Greek, lit. member, part) section of a line, mostly a half-verse
ellipsis the missing out of one or more words from a sentence
homonym a word that sounds like another word, but that has a different stem
and meaning, e.g. the word ‘bank’
hyperbole exaggeration as a fifgure of speech
iconic term from semiotics and the adjective of icon (the Greek word for
likeness, picture)
inclusio ‘locking in’, frame
irrealis the counterfactual mode: (in verbs, in sentences) the mood of what
does/did not really happen, uses the auxiliary verb ‘would’ (have);
litotes meaning something most positively by negation of the opposite
metaphor lit. transference; speak metaphorically, i.e. fifguratively with the
help of an image
metonymy fifgure of speech on the basis of shifting: something is said and the
contiguous thing is meant
object (as a grammatical term) the direct object of a sentence
(in)transitive a verb with(out) a direct object
oxymoron expressive combination of contradictory words, like ‘black snow’
or ‘honest thief’
prosody the arrangement of quantity and rhythm on several levels of text
rhetorics the art of persuasion with language
semiotics the study of human communication, of using signs and symbols
stanza unit of text which mostly consists of two or three strophes
strophe unit of text which consists of two or three complete poetic lines
subject (as a grammatical term) subject of a sentence
tricolon three-part poetic line
verse in a literary sense (as distinct from ‘biblical verse’): the complete
poetic line, (nearly always bi- or tripartite)
vocative form of address (e.g. in English or Hebrew: ‘oh king!’)
SUBJECT INDEX TO PARTS I AND III
alliteration, 221 concentric, 11, 214, 221, 235, 256, 276

allusion, 219, 236, 239, 254 conjunction, 273, 274, 275, 281, 292
alternating, 200, 203, 209, 211, 220, 251, curse, 21, 200, 201, 204, 205, 222, 257,
256, 277 258, 288, 309, 311
ambiguity, 206, 213, 237, 245, 286
anacrusis, 325 debate, 3, 4, 13, 14, 18, 204, 205, 209,
anaphora, 256, 281, 285, 325 210, 211, 225, 230, 233, 241, 248, 249,
antithesis, 12, 201, 216, 273, 274, 286, 251, 252, 259, 262, 263, 265, 283, 289,
287, 288, 289 294, 311, 320
Aristotle, 4 dialectic, 262, 270, 273, 274, 286, 287
author, 3, 4, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 199, 200, dialogue, 3, 214, 218, 219, 229, 234, 243,
204, 205, 218, 220, 265, 317, 319 246
authority, 16, 17, 236, 269, 316 didactic, 4, 21
axis, 16, 206, 242, 243, 287, 295, 314 direct discourse, 3, 295
disjunction, 273, 274, 278, 281
balance, 8, 12, 201, 209, 224, 247, 263,
276, 279, 310 ellipsis, 266, 300, 313, 314, 315, 317, 318
bicolic, 5, 237, 240, 246, 248, 260, 263 embedded, 4, 15, 210, 313, 314
binary, 6, 228, 297, 299, 310 envelope, 4, 211, 212, 261
blank lines, 5, 7, 10, 11, 23, 25, 26 epic, 4, 29
boundaries, 23, 26, 214, 247 epithet, 296
epiphora, 213, 239
centre, 11, 12, 27, 205, 206, 212, 217, 218, euphemism, 200
220, 228, 234, 236, 241, 242, 243, 247,
248, 251, 252, 253, 260, 261, 262, 276, fifgurative, 238, 267
297, 308 foreknowledge, 15, 19
character(izing), 4, 16, 17, 20, 28, 199, frame, framing, 204, 213, 217, 220, 221,
219, 222, 226, 229, 249 223, 226, 228, 233, 234, 237, 239, 244,
chiasm, 213, 218, 221, 245, 253, 271, 284, 245, 249, 256, 257, 269, 283, 290, 291,
295, 299 292, 294, 299, 307, 313
cliché, 209, 216, 228
climax, climactic, 200, 211, 213, 219, 220, generalizing, 210, 211, 213, 214, 230, 231,
222, 225, 230, 241, 243, 244, 253, 257, 234, 252, 273
258, 260, 274, 275, 279, 281, 283, 289, genre, 4, 20, 22, 25, 221, 298
304, 305, 316, 326
colon, cola, 5, 6, 7, 8 half-verse, 5, 6, 10, 12, 23, 201, 206, 213,
competence, 4, 204 215, 224, 227, 254, 260, 270, 275, 295
composition, 3, 10, 11, 20, 209, 226, 239, hero, 3, 4, 8, 12, 16, 19, 204, 218, 235, 254,
247, 250, 252, 265, 275, 284, 294, 300, 259, 263, 264, 265, 269, 286
309 hierarchy, 7, 17
concatenation, 255, 281 holy number, 9, 203, 220, 225, 279
334 subject index to parts i and iii
homonym, 237, 245 numerical, 10, 12, 13, 27, 203, 217, 246,
hymn(ic), 22, 211, 217, 225, 226, 227, 248, 252, 255, 270
228, 260, 261, 266, 296, 298, 300 numerical perfection, 8, 26, 224, 239,
277, 279, 284, 323, 325, 326
iconic, 223, 237, 239, 284
image, 206, 210, 211, 212, 216, 218, 230, oath, 204, 263, 264, 283, 287, 294
231, 234, 239, 240, 242, 247, 249, 255, omniscient, 15, 17, 19
256, 259, 260, 263, 275, 278, 282, oxymoron, 222, 321
296, 298, 303, 310
inclusio, 224, 228, 234, 236, 243, 244, parable, 20
250, 256, 270, 277, 297, 303, 304, 311, paradox, 207, 287, 303, 313, 314
313 parallelism, 12, 216, 221, 224, 230, 239,
indented, 5, 6 275, 277, 298
integer, 9 pattern, 17
intertextual, 28, 215, 261 perspective, 18, 219, 220
irony, 201, 250, 260, 263, 265, 315 pivot, 11, 28, 214, 222, 225, 227, 229, 230,
irrealis, 204, 205, 206, 218, 231, 278, 280, 247, 257, 275
283 Plato, 3
plot, 18, 19
keyword, 217, 218, 226, 235, 240, 242, poetics, 5, 23, 25, 268
247, 257, 266, 270, 290, 299, 300, 315, poetry, 3, 4, 14, 21, 259
318, 319 point of view, 18, 248
knowledge, 3, 15, 18, 220, 245, 246, 268, polarity, 201, 292
287, 290, 291, 302, 303, 313, 314, 315, projection, 211, 234, 260
317 proportions, 4, 7, 8, 13, 27, 203, 251, 253,
255, 284, 321
litotes, 280, 287 prose, 3, 14, 15, 19, 231
L-strophe, 7, 8, 9, 12, 27, 203, 211, 223, prosody, 5, 7, 9, 25, 204, 246, 251, 253,
226, 233, 239, 251, 260, 279, 285, 291, 255, 262, 284, 285, 287, 311
292, 301, 310 proverb, 4, 211, 223
lyrical, 21
quotation, 3, 210, 223, 241, 248, 249,
magic, 205, 207 252, 253, 269, 274, 276, 291, 292, 293,
meditation, 239, 269 294, 303, 305, 313, 314, 315, 325
merism, 11, 303
metaphor, 216, 238, 274, 276, 292, 318 reader, 4, 15, 16 17, 18, 20, 21, 204, 220,
metonym, 200, 204, 213, 255, 292, 259
309 refrain, 266
motif, 8, 212, 216, 261, 285, 288, 297, rhetoric(al), 205, 212, 215, 238, 246, 252,
302, 304, 305 301, 304, 305
rhetorical question, 23, 206, 210, 211,
narrative, 3, 4, 15, 16, 17 217, 234, 249, 280, 283, 295, 299, 305,
narratological, 15, 16 307, 309, 310, 314
narrator, 4, 15, 16, 17, 199, 287, 289, 301, ring, 12, 27, 218, 226, 243, 250, 266, 267,
303, 305, 313, 316, 319 275
negation, 17, 269, 280, 286, 299 rhyme, 213, 242, 260, 277, 281, 282
normative, 7, 8, 9, 12, 215, 270, 279 rhythm, 4, 6, 23, 215, 226, 251, 291, 298
subject index to parts i and iii 335
sarcasm, 222, 235, 236, 243, 257, 294, symmetrical, 9, 10, 12, 214, 224, 228,
302, 308 235, 236, 251, 258, 285, 291, 324
self-curse, 280, 281, 282 synonym, 10, 17, 214, 220, 222, 239, 245,
Socrates, 3 249, 255, 265, 268, 271, 275, 296, 314
stanza, passim, e.g. 5, 7, 10, 13, 23, 27, synthesis, 201, 273, 274, 286, 287
206, 220, 235, 246, 266, 278, 294,
297, 298, 304, 309, 311 theodicy, 3, 19, 278, 286, 292
strategic, 13, 212, 235, 263, 266, 269, thesis, 201, 273, 274, 277, 286, 287, 288,
283, 291, 294, 297, 302, 305, 307 289
S-strophe, 7, 12, 27, 203, 211, 223, 233, tricolic, 5, 6, 235, 241, 246, 247, 248,
239, 279, 285, 291, 292, 301, 310 256, 276, 277, 290, 291, 292, 297, 305
strophe, passim, e.g. 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14,
22, 23, 27, 28, 203, 209, 235, 251, 277, verse, 6, 7, 9, 12, passim
278, 294
structure, 9, 10, 11, 13, 22, 25, 26, 203, wager, 15, 18, 19, 306
209, 238, 248, 249, 265, 292, 297 wisdom, 3, 4, 21, 216, 227, 233, 238, 260,
style, 22, 25, 26, 261, 292, 314 265, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 289,
substanza, 13, 14, 218 290, 292, 296
syllables, passim, e.g. 8, 9, 13, 26, 224, word-pair, 205, 216, 221, 228, 230, 236,
270, 285, 305, 311 241, 257, 261, 282, 292, 293, 294, 300
symbolic, 237, 245, 262, 267 writer, 15, 18, 21, 289

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The Book of Job in Form

Studia Semitica Neerlandica

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ssn

Translated from the Hebrew, Annotated and Introduced by

Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

A Great Work of Poetry and the Competent Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introductory Prose and Job’s Prologue (Curses and Complaint),

The Third Round of the Debate, Chs. 22–28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Introductory Prose, Chs. 1–2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

First Climax After Debate: Survey In Three Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

This English Version

The original version of this book is in Dutch, appeared in October 2009 in

Poetics and Competent Reading

How Quality and Quantity Work Together: Two Examples

has been composing with a concentric structure in mind. This surmise is

Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nought; (strophe 5)

Yahweh looks down from heaven, (strophe 6)

(strophe 2) 7+9 = 16 8+8 = 16 (strophe 3)

The Way to the Text Itself:

The prose that leads us up to the work of poetry is an indispensable requisite

offers a primary text. A reader with some learning practises narratology

make things somewhat palatable to themselves by a logical operation in

Remarks on the Translation

4. We are, it is true, offered a little comfort by the small (and superscript)

5. This elaborate investigation has been done in my tetralogy Major Poems

7. The original Hebrew of centuries before Christ sounded somewhat differ-

11. They are Psalms 3, 11 and 14.

12. In order to arrive at this number 40 a manipulation is needed which

summed up in present-day commentaries on Daniel), which only indicates

20. Good documentation of this is to be found in W.C. Delsman, Die Datie-

THE BOOK OF JOB

‫‪֣ 17‬ﬠוֹד ׀ ֶז֣ה ְמ ַד ֵ֗בּר ְו ֶז֮ה ָ֣בּא ַויּ ֹאַמר֒‬

Naked I came out of my mother’s womb

First Speech by Eliphaz, Chs. 4–5

 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke up and said:

 1Call now, but is there anyone to answer you? (a) I

‫‪ 8‬אוָּ֗לם ֲ֭א ִני ֶא ְד ֣ר ֹשׁ ֶאל־ ֵ֑אל ְוֶאל־ֱ֝א􀀉ִ֗הים ָאִ֥שׂים ִדְּב ָר ִֽתי‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 6:1‬ו ַ֥יַּﬠן ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬

Job’s Answer to Eliphaz, Chs. 6–7

 1Job answered and said:

‫‪ַ 11‬מה־כֹּ ִ֥חי ִֽכי־ֲא ַי ֵ֑חל וַּמה־ִ֝קִּ֗צּי ִֽכּי־ַאֲא ִ֥רי􀀇 ַנְפִֽשׁי‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 14‬ל ָ ֣מּס ֵמ ֵר ֵ֣ﬠהוּ ָ֑חֶסד ְו ִי ְר ַ֖את ַשׁ ַ֣דּי ַיֲﬠ ֽזוֹב‪:‬‬

‫‪֭ ְ 17‬בֵּﬠת ְיזֹ ְר֣בוּ ִנְצ ָ ֑מתוּ ְ֝בֻּח֗מּוֹ ִנ ְדֲﬠ֥כוּ ִמְמּקוָֹֽמם‪:‬‬

‫‪ְ֭ 28‬וַﬠָתּה הוֹ ִ֣אילוּ ְפנוּ־ ִ֑בי ְוַﬠל־ְ֝פּ ֵניֶ֗כם ִאם־ֲאַכ ֵֽזּב‪:‬‬

 1Does not man have a hard service on earth? (a) I

‫‪ָֽ 17‬מה־ֱ֭אנוֹשׁ ִ֣כּי ְת ַג ְדּ ֶ֑לנּוּ ְוִכי־ָתִ֖שׁית ֵא ָ֣ליו ִל ֶֽבּ􀀈‪:‬‬

‫‪ 21‬וּ ֶ ֤מה ׀ ל ֹא־ִת ָ ֣שּׂא ִפְשִׁﬠ֮י ְוַתֲﬠ ִ֢ביר ֶאת־ֲﬠ֫וֹ ִ֥ני‬

And why do you not pardon my crime

‫‪ַ֭ 8:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן ִבְּל ַ֥דּד ַהשּׁוּ ִ֗חי ַוי ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬

‫‪ִֽ 8‬כּי־ְשַׁאל־ ָ֭נא ְל ֣ד ֹר ִרי֑שׁוֹן ְ֝וכוֹ ֵ֗נן ְל ֵ֣חֶקר ֲאבוֹ ָֽתם‪:‬‬

First Speech by Bildad, Ch. 8

 1Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said:

‫‪ַ 9:1‬ו ַֽיַּﬠן ִא ֗יּוֹב ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 5‬הַמְּﬠ ִ֣תּיק ָ ֭ה ִרים ְו ֣ל ֹא ָי ָ֑דﬠוּ ֲא ֶ ֖שׁר ֲהָפ ָ֣כם ְבַּאֽפּוֹ‪:‬‬

Job’s Answer to Bildad, Chs. 9–10

 1Job answered and said:

‫‪ִ 30‬אם־ִהְת ָר ַ֥חְצִתּי ְבמוֹ־ ָ ֑שֶׁלג ַ֝וֲה ִז֗כּוִֹתי ְבּ ֣בֹר ַכּ ָֽפּי‪:‬‬

‫‪֣ 33‬ל ֹא ֵישׁ־ֵבּי ֵ֣נינוּ מוֹ ִ֑כיַח ָי ֵ ֖שׁת ָי ֣דוֹ ַﬠל־ְשׁ ֵֽנינוּ‪:‬‬

‫‪ַ 4‬הֵﬠי ֵ֣ני ָב ָ ֣שׂר ָ֑ל􀀇 ִאם־ִכּ ְר֖אוֹת ֱא ֣נוֹשׁ ִתּ ְר ֶֽאה‪:‬‬

‫‪ַֽ 7‬ﬠל־ ַ ֭דְּﬠְתּ􀀈 ִכּי־ ֣ל ֹא ֶא ְר ָ ֑שׁﬠ ְו ֵ֖אין ִמ ָיּ ְד֣􀀈 ַמ ִֽצּיל‪:‬‬

 1Deeply inside I loathe my life; (a) I

‫‪ַ֭ 11:1‬ו ַיַּﬠן צֹ ַ֥פר ַֽה ַנֲּﬠָמִ֗תי ַויּ ֹאַֽמר‪:‬‬