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  • From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Job 13:15
  • Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 21:17:45 +0000


On Sat 7 Oct 2000 (13:55:08), rvining AT log.on.ca wrote:
> Query. What is the best rendering of Job 13:15?
>
> "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." KJV and others similar, or
>
> "He may well slay me; I may have no hope;
> Yet I will argue my case before Him". JPS

Dear Robert,

The KJV translation, followed by the NIV text, is difficult to justify; it
follows the Vulgate /etiam si occiderit me, in ipso sperabo/. The NIV margin,
"He will surely slay me; I have no hope" retains the KeTiB (negative Lo').
The
JPS agrees.

HeN YiQ:+:LeNiY is not the form with the Infinitive Absolute. The particle
HeN implies "There now! He will kill me!" rather than "He shall surely kill
me". HeN means Seeing (behold!); but 'Even if' or 'Although' can be its
force.

Perhaps we could render it "He may kill me for this, but my hope is in him"
(LoW, with the QeRe'). Or, keeping the KeTiB, "He's going to kill me; I
cannot
hold out". However, verses 16-19 show that Job has not given up hope; so I
plump for the Qere' here. He's going to defend himself against his miserable
comforters; he will die by default if he keeps silent (verse 19). A man
facing
capital charges is not going to give up without defending himself in court,
especially if he is sure he is innocent of all charges (verse 18).

Job is going to pin his hope in YHWH, and in his Go'eL (19:25).

Francis I Andersen has an interesting paragraph on Job 13:15 in his Tyndale
OT Commentary, /Job/, IVP Leicester and Downers Grove IL, 1974, p 166f.

Shalom,
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
<ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm







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