Devotional Short Notes on Job 12

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Devotional Short Notes on Job 12: The dear readers do not know that the word Satan that appears in chapters 1 and 2 of Job was actually the reason why modern scholars do not believe the Book to have originated from Moses. It was said that the appearance of the word “Satan” means that the word is late and dating to the Persian Period and thus Moses could not have written it. The Persian origin of the word Satan is very commonly explained in modern textbooks, but it is again the Middle Egyptian that throws light on this word: s3-t3 means “snake”. How suitable for someone like Moses who explained that the snake was used as instrument by Satan in Genesis 3. Hodges is quoted as saying that “the Book of Job has suffered as much as Job from critics”. Beza, Gerhard and Mercerus called the Book a tragedy. This book is not a tragedy when someone has so much faith. Tragedy is for someone without faith. This is about Victory not Tragedy. In the 18^th century it was common to refer to Job as an Epic Poem. It is definitely a classical work and epic would mean it has a story. The content of Job attracts the mind of a human so it is said that the Mishnah advised Job as a good Book to read to the High Priest on the night of the Atonement to prevent him from falling asleep (Yoma i. 6, see Reichert p. xx). Scholars took Arabic as a good language to understand rare words in Job and this tendency is going back to the days of Jerome in 399 A.D. when he said in the preface to the commentary to Daniel: “Job has a strong resemblance to the Arabic language”.

Job 12:2 “and with you wisdom will die”. Scholars and Translators were at loss for meaning so they created their own. In 130 A.D. Aquila in his Greek translation interpreted the word tmwt as related to tmm “perfect” and translated “and with you wisdom will be perfect”. In 150 A.D. Symmachus in his private Greek translation also read the same. In 190 A.D. Theodotion in his private Greek translation read instead tmwt correctly as “will die”. The Jewish tradition Mechilta, Yithro 2 interchanged two consonants tmwt as twmt and translated: “shall terminate” [תמות as תומת]. Adventists already provided a red card.

Rashi Rule of Interchangeability of consonants

Some of our Hebrew and Semitic professors at universities may disagree with me here, but I do not think that it is appropriate for Rabbi Rashi (10^th century) to argue for an interchangeability of zayin, sammech, shin, resh and zaddi [זסשרץ] to be used in the Book of Job for rare words and their meanings. Geographical dialects will have some interchangeability present at times, but when one deals with a Book remote in time from those where the geographical dialectics is applicable, like Kings and Isaiah compared to a Book of Moses like Job nearly 750 years before, then caution in the absolute is advised.