Re-Translating Job 15

See link at Revivedbyhisword readings for Job

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

Devotional Short Notes on Job 15:  Readers need to know what all this scholasticism fuss is all about. Adventists were since their beginning conscientiously harmonious with their wholesome lifestyle and their dealings with the Word of God. Job was that way too. In South Korea is a South African Xhosa young pastor Zonke who makes his audience say the following: Pastor Zonke: “God is great . . . ” – Audience: “All the time”. Pastor Zonke: “ All the time. . . ” – Audience: “God is great”. This is Job message with his friends disagreeing. Ever since modern universities started from the Middle Ages, challengers of faith were seen as heroes. Those who kick the heel against God in the tongue and thought were seen as not narrow-minded and “progressive” so at prestigious universities of the World, Yale, Tübingen, Harvard, Princeton, Fuller, Basel, Bonn, Oxford et al. the networks of skeptics placed biblical literature like Daniel from the lions’ den with his Book to the critics den and Job from the friends criticism with his book to the critics den. They used scissors and glue with much delight among themselves and to the horror of faithful majority they clung to each other laughing and enjoying the waves they created in men like Hengstenberg (who came just like Gerhard Hasel in Adventism in the sixties, to Berlin University in 1825 to let conservatism reign). The network was broken and they fled around in chaos very critical of Hengstenberg. All modern commentaries at all universities and seminaries today are tapping into this ongoing network of scissors and glue for the Word of God. The South African Calvinist Christian Philosopher Hendrik Stoker said in the 1930’s in his book: Oorsprong en Rigting, that the way you live determines the way you think and the way you think determines the way you put together your methodology and the way you put together your methodology determines the outcome or product whether it be a sermon, lecture, opinion, book, research, translation. And translation of Job is what it is all about. Elizabeth Smith 1810, said her editor, unfortunately did not live long to correct some errors she made, and he felt she could have benefited from enlightened professors [scissors and glue boys] who could have helped her with her translation. It is good that she never were thrown into the critics den for so-called help. For those who missed previous notes, we took her straightforward translation and edited it with removal of Arabisms ad substitution of Egyptionisms (the second language of Moses: ESL of Moses was Egyptian as a Second Language). That is the translation-rule here.

Translating Job 15 with the proper methodology removing Arabisms and exchange them with Egyptianisms or Akkadianisms where necessary or possible.

1 And Eliphaz the Temanite [answered] and said,

2 Shall a wise man be answered with windy knowledge?

And will the east wind fill his belly?

3 [To debate in a matter will not *weaken* [Middle Egyptian sgnn meaning “weaken” for Hebrew יסכון] and words will not [benefit]/profit.

4 [Even will you break respect/fear and you will diminish *boast* [Middle Egyptian swh which means “boast” for Hebrew שיחה] before God;

5 For [your iniquity will *rotten* [Middle Egyptian rpw meaning “rot” and which appears as ìrp and also a word in which one must use an /r/ for an /l/ since Egyptians did not use /l/; for the Hebrew form יאלף (any meaning that reads *guide*, *learn*, *teach* like the Middle Age Rabbis chose, should be cancelled since, it is derived from the Arabic and Arabic is 2100 years too late to provide a meaning what Moses had in mind). The Septuagint of the Byzantine era of 400 A.D. survival of the 50 copies that Constantine ordered ‘to be translated in a haste’ provides “make you liable” and similarly Jerome in 398 A.D. translated “make you a debtor”] your mouth.

And you will choose the tongue of the naked [see Moses use of this word in Genesis 3:1 in his first Book before he started Job and he was referring to the *nakedness* of the snake] (The word is used a couple of times by Moses in Genesis 2:25 and in Job but it also appears in prophets, who used Moses in their writings, like Hosea 2:5 a contemporary of Isaiah).

6 Your mouth [will condemn you, [and] not I,

And your lips [will] answer [in you].

7 [The first one], [Adam], were you born? And before the hills, were you *content* [Middle Egyptian hrw as hrr meaning “to be content” for the Hebrew simulation as חולל] (Adam was happy when he was created and that is what the Egyptian word is implying here). The Septuagint read “brought on” and the Vulgate of Jerome in 398 A.D. read “were you compounded”. The guessed the meaning by parallelism. Sometimes it works but not always. Adam was created and happy different than people after the Fall.

8 The in the Hast thou overheard the secret of God ?

And dost thou confine wisdom to thyself?

9 What do you know, and we know not?

You understand, and it is not with us?

10 Even the grey-headed, even the bowed-down are

[with] us, more are they [than] from your father’s days.

11 Are the *war-shout* [Middle Egyptian hmhmt meaning “war-shout” for the Hebrew simulation of this Egyptian word as תנחומות] of God beneath you?

And a word *affliction* [Middle Egyptian ì3dt meaning “affliction” or “lack” simulated in the Hebrew word by Moses as לאט] with you?

(In this verse both the Septuagint of the Byzantine times [400 A.D. preserved texts] and the translation of Jerome in the Vulgate [398 A.D.] used a Hebrew text that has copying problems. Due to persecutions, bookburning, library stealings, good texts were difficult to get. Jerome’s text was copied by dictation so that a slip of the ear can be seen in his first word that is heard meod מאד instead of the Word of God form hameath המעט. Instead of “little” Jerome read “great”. The Septuagint’s original Hebrew was without breaks between the letters so he divided the letters as  לא טעם  meaning “tasteless” instead of the division לאט עמך. The Septuagint did not know what the word תנחומות means and suggested “vengeance”. So Dhorme 1926: 212).

12 [What will your heart give you and what will your eyes *watch* [Middle Egyptian rsw meaning “watch” for the Hebrew simulation by Moses as ירזמון]. (The Septuagint of the Byzantine period [400 A.D.] changed one consonant /z/ to /w/ as ירומון. Red card is given by Adventists immediately. The Word of God cannot be changed just because the meaning will be more sensible. Sensus plenior is not a rule. It is a convenience. That can be dangerous. Translations that read *hint* or *blink* are following the suggestion of Rabbi Rashi of the Middle Ages [1040-1105] who switched the order of the consonants from ירזמון to ירמזון.  Definitely a red card since Aramaic words may look the same but if the consonants are switched around one has to be very careful. In any event, Aramaic’s earliest semantics and word-forms we have dates to about the 9^th century BCE. That is still 600 years from Moses).

13 [For you will turn unto God your *breath*/*wind*/spirit (Jerome)* and you caused from your mouth words to come out].  

14 [What is mankind, that he will be pure?

And that he will be righteous, woman delivered?]

15 Behold in His holy ones* He trust not.

And the heavens are not pure in His [eyes].

16 How much more a man is abominable and corrupted,

Who drinks iniquity like water.

17 I will *please* you [Middle Egyptian 3ḥ meaning “please” simulated by Moses in Hebrew as אחוך], [listen to me]

And [this] which I have seen, I will [enumerate].

18 What wise men [have told] and not hide from their fathers.

19 To them alone was given the land

And not passed a stranger in their midst.

20 All the days of the wicked, he *content himself* [see supra in verse 7, from a Middle Egyptian word for this Hebrew word מתחולל] with pain, And numerous years are laid up for *works* [Middle Egyptian ìrwt meaning “work” or “proceedings” or “deeds” simulated by Moses with the Hebrew word לעריץ].

(The ancient translations were at loss about the meaning of מתחולל: Septuagint of 400 A.D. “in thought”; Jerome in 398 A.D. “in anxiety”; Aquila’s private Greek translation of 130 A.D. “in pain”; Symmachus private Greek Translation of 150 A.D. “false pretensions”; Theodotion private Greek Translation of 190 A.D. “showing himself to be mad”. Targum “seized”; Syriac “exalting himself”. In modern times scholars translated “shuddered”; “he torments himself”; “shows himself mad” [Margolis]; “boasts” [Beer]). Correct methodology is thus a key component of getting back to the original meaning of Moses. Otherwise people grope in the dark.

21 The voice of terrros is in his ears,

In peace, the destroyer [will come] to him.

22 He will not believe the returning from darkness,

And they *slay* [Middle Egyptian word sp meaning “to slay”/”to fight” which Moses simulated in the Hebrew form of צפו] he, the [gods] of the sword. (No one has noticed the extra yod after what appeared for scholars to be a preposition “to” = אל. Not so, there is the extra yod, אלי. “My god”. What about “And they slay: He, My God of the sword”. The syntax is very difficult here. This last reading is literal and more sensible.

23 " He *asks* [Middle Egyptian word nḏ meaning “to ask, to inquire, to question, to consult, to ask advice” which was simulated by Moses as the Hebrew word נﬢﬢ] for bread, where is it? He knows that [*it is prepared* (It is the word נכון used later by Daniel also in the word מכון] in Daniel 8:11 where Daniel penetrated into the essence of the Little Horn passed the vicarius filii dei function of the Papacy as Little Horn (feminine verb) to Satan himself (as in Ezechiel 28 and Isaiah 14 with masculine verbs). Satan brought low the “preparation/tranquility/equilibrium of His sanctuary”), in His hand is the day of darkness. (Here the network of the Enlightenment did not know and changed the Hebrew consonants with scissors and glue to translate: “fixed” [Duhm, Beer] “decreed” [Duhm, Beer], “handed over to” [Siegfried, Ball], “thrown” [Duhm 1926]). Red cards for all of them are coming from true Adventist scholarship.

24 Trouble and anguish terrify him,

They surround him, like a king [ready] for *incense* [Middle Egyptian word ḳtrw als known in Akkadian which was Moses’ third language as ḳu-ta-ru and which Moses simulated here in Hebrew as כידור]. (*Attack* is from the Arabic and a red card is given. The other meaning of Arabic is *swoop down* and Syriac used *for battle*. The Targum also did not know and guessed “for death”). With the right methodology one does not have to guess. Throw out the scissors and glue method of Wellhausen (1860) and kie, date Moses’ books according to the biblical chronology, utilize Egyptian dictionaries and meaning creeps in with the help of the Holy Spirit understanding comes closer. 

25 [For he stretched unto God his hand and his hand unto the Almighty he showed his strength].

26 He will run unto Him with a neck *boasting* [Middle Egyptian `b` meaning “boasting” which Moses simulated in Hebrew as עבי] *deprived* [Middle Egyptian gbì meaning “to be deprived, to be short, to be lame, to be weak” which Moses simulated with the Hebrew form גבי], *from his weakness* [Middle Egyptian word gnn meaning “to be weak, to grow weak” which Moses simulated in Hebrew as גניו]. An Enlightenment scholar Ehrlich (meaning ‘honest’) who was a salted critic kept frowning on this verse and then said: the text is irretrievably corrupt. That is what one gets when one reject Mosaic authorship, reliability of Scripture and the Word of God as source. The wrong methods were used.

27 For he has covered his face in his fat,

And he has made *exhaustion* [Middle Egyptian word pnḳ meaning “to exhaust, to bail out, to give vent to indignation” which Moses simulated with the Hebrew פימה] of the *Most High* [the word is common in Daniel for the Most High (see Daniel 3:26; 4:2/3, 17/14, 24/21, 25/22, 34/31) of Orion [The Syriac read it the same as 9:9 כסיל instead of כסל as here and there the constellations of Pleiades and Orion is in mind thus they read Orion here too. A red card for the Syriac for changing the consonant of the previous word from a /p/ to a /k/]. Ellen White saw in vision that when the Lord comes at the Second Coming He will come through an opening at the Orion. She did not know about this special translation of Job 15:26 here but somehow Moses and Ellen White could speak the same language in thought if this translation is correct.

28 And he shall dwell in destroyed cities,

In houses not will they inhabit, that is to be [למו אשר], they were [destined/prepared/determined] to heaps.

29 He will not grow rich and not shall stand his possessions,

And not shall lengthen to the earth *his beacon tower* [Late Egyptian from the Judges time reading mnrt meaning “watchtower or beacon tower” or ḫnrt in Middle Egyptian meaning “fortress” which Moses simulated as מנלם for the Egyptians did not use an /l/] (Scholars did not know what to do with מנלם and changed it with words like “roots” [Wellhausen]; “their ear of corn” [Hitzig]; “their fullness” [Bötscher]; “ears of corn” [Dillmann]; Septuagint “shadow”; “their shadow” [Graetz]; “his shadow” [Duhm]. All are getting red cards for changing the consonants of the Word of God).

30 He shall not remove *the fortress* [Middle Egyptian mnw meaning fortress which Moses simulated in Hebrew as מני] of darkness,

And his branches shall be dried-up by the flame

And he shall turn aside with the breath of His mouth.

31 Not will he trust in *a day* [Middle Egyptian of sw meaning “day/time period” simulated by Moses in Hebrew as שו], a sky [Middle Egyptian nwt meaning “sky” or nwti which is the sky halves of the day and night simulated by Moses in Hebrew as נתע (Scholars of the Enlightenment Period of critical studies of Job felt that נתעה made no sense [Duhm 1926])], for *cut down* [Middle Egyptian word sw3 for “cut off/cut down” which is simulated by Moses in Hebrew as שוא] shall be his *desire* [Middle Egyptian mrwt meaning “love/desire/wish” simulated by Moses in Hebrew as תמורת]. (This last word the scholars are all at loss, even the Septuagint substituted the /t/ with a /z/).

32 Before his day it will be full and his branches will not be green

33 [He shall cut off like a vine his unripe fruit,

And will cast down like an olive its blossom].

34 For the congregation of the hypocrite is *ashes* [Middle Egyptian ḳrmt which means “ashes” and Moses simulated it in Hebrew as גלמות] and fire consumes the tent of bribery.

35 Conceiving mischief and bringing forth iniquity,

And their belly prepares deceit. (The Septuagint of the Byzantine times of Constantine, survived as codices in 400 A.D. get a red card here for changing the consonants of the Hebrew from /n/ to /l/ namely instead of תכין the Greek quick translating and copying team of Constantine read תכיל). Red card of course.