Devotional Short Note on Job 14

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Devotional Short Note on Job 14: The readers may well ask where they can get a good translation in English of Job? Miss. Elizabeth Smith’s translation of 1810 is online available for download. She is not perfect and made errors by adding some words that are not in the original or reading Arabic meanings instead of Egyptian and in one case suggested with scissors to cut the Word of God and moved it to another position. A red card of course. But, the simplicity of her translation and the attempt to be very literal at times is the beauty of it. I have thus provided her translation here and updated the English, removed the Arabisms for Egyptianisms and here and there translated more literal.

Adapted and Reworked Translation of Elizabeth Smith 1810:

1 Man born of a woman,

Short are his days, and full of *affliction* [*quaking*, so also the Rabbi Mezudath Zion].

2 He Cometh forth like a flower, and is cut off,

He [flees] away like a shadow, and [remains] not.

[3] Even upon such an one, will [You] open [Your] eyes?

And bring me into judgment with [You]?

[4] Who [gives a clean (thing) out of an unclean (one)?] Not one.

[5] If his days be cut *short [or *are limited],

the number of his months be with [You],

And [You] have [set] his [*scepter* (Middle Egyptian ḥḳ3t meaning “scepter” for Hebrew חקו). Haq in Hebrew means “ordinance, law, limit”] which he may not pass over,

[6] Look from off him [Elizabeth Smith 1810 is better here since it is more literal than “turn away”], that he may rest.

Till he [*acquit*, used by Moses in Leviticus 26:34, 41, 43 later when he wrote Leviticus between 1448-1410 BCE] his day, like a hireling'.

[7] For there is [to a tree] hope

If it be cut down, [*also still*] it may revive,

And its [sprouts] will not fail/[cease].

[8] [If] its root be grown old in the earth,

its stump also in the dust be dead.

[9] From the smell of water it will bud.

And [make] branches like a [young] plant/[sapling].

[10] [Also] the strong man will die, and will be [*defeated* as Moses used it after 1450 BCE in Exodus 17:13].

And [mankind] [*lack* (Middle Egyptian g3w meaning “lack” for Hebrew גוע). The Arabic would not do here], and where is he?

[11] The waters fail [*cease* or *fail* as used by Moses in his later book Deuteronomy 32:36] from the sea.

And the river [drained] and dry up.

[12] And man lies down, and shall not arise,

[Until] there be no heaven, he shall not be awakened

And he shall not be disturbed from his sleep.

[13] [Who will give in Sheol? You hide me.] You [veil/conceal] me [until] Your wrath turns away. Appoint to me a *scepter (see supra)*/*limit*/*set time* and remember me. [Keep in mind Moses lost his potential scepter from Hatshepsut when he manslaughtered the Egyptian in 1490 BCE, thus opening the chances for the illegal child Thutmosis III from a streetwoman Iset, to snatch the throne from him].

[14] If a strong man dies, shall he live again ?

All the days of my appointed time will I wait,

[Until] my renovation come:

[15] You will call, and I will answer,

To the work of Your hands You will *reckon with* [Middle Egyptian ḥsb for Hebrew simulationכסף ].

[16] [For] now You number my steps,

[Not will** You keep upon my sins]. (**Rabbi Rashi of the Middle Ages made this a present tense instead of Future)

[17] Sealing my transgression in a bundle,

And You have [*attached* or *tied up* (so the Rabbis of the Middle Ages) or *plastered*/*coat*/*paint over* so also Jerome in the Vulgate in 389 A.D.] Yourself upon my iniquity. (Think of Abraham fastening Isaac on the altar but Christ took his place in 31 A.D. fastened to a cross upon our iniquity).

[18] [And surely, a falling mountain will produce and a rock that moves from its place].

[19] The stones wears away. Water will flood its *remainder* [Middle Egyptian spyt meaning “remainder” for Hebrew ספיחיה](It is not the Arabic word saḥîfeh because the consonants are interchanged and the Word of God reads spḥ not like the Arabic here sḥp “rainstorm”. It is thus useless to refer to Assyrian saḫâpu as support for the Arabic meaning “overturn/devastate” because both words have the order different than the Word of God. Yet, despite the red card, scholars went ahead with their translations)], the dust of the earth.

[And the hope of mankind You have destroyed].

[20] [You] [*immerse* (Middle Egyptian tḫb for Hebrew simulation as תקף)] to eternity and he goes away, change his face and You send him away.

[21] His sons come to honor, and [he does not know],

They are brought low,[ and not do they *understand/perceive* unto it].

[22] Only his flesh upon him [will] corrupt.

And his soul [over it You shall mourn].