Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Reginald Wallace Ponder, Jr." <rwponder AT lycos.com>]

>Bill -- Thanks for posting your translation.  I have marked my statements
with my initials. I hope my comments here will help clarify my position,
which is much different than Robert's notion which started this whole
discussion, but also is different than yours.
 Shalom, Reggie 

  Lawrence asked for my translation. So here it is:-
> 
> 1 Then Job answered YHWH and said   (prose)
> 2 I know that you can do everything 
>   Nothing you plan can be prevented 
> 3 Who is this who raises up(1) council without knowledge?
>   Therefore I have declared, but I did not understand
>   Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know
> 4 Listen please, and I will speak 
>   I will ask you and you will teach me
> 5 By the hearing of my ear I heard you
>   But now my eye sees you
> 6 Therefore I melt away(2) and repent
>   In dust and ashes
>   
> Notes:
> 
> (1) The raising up of council seems to be in the sense of putting it
>     out of reach of people. Other translators have said suching things
>     as obscures or hides. Like the debater who can win on the strength
>     of his rhetoric without understanding the topic.
> (2) A bit of laziness here. In my opinion Job has had his protesting streak
>     demolished. He argued against his friends' assessment of his position

RWP: As does YHWH Himself in vv7-9.  Frankly, this may be the crux of my
disagreement with your position.  It is the one significant bit of context
which does not seem to square at all with your understanding, as you have
presented it both in your translation and in your earlier comments about
this passage.

>     and declared his willingness to stand before God and make his case.

RWP: Those who understand 42:1-6 in terms of Job's repenting of sin or
impiety seem to view his willingness to stand before God as impiety. 
Although a verse or two here and there might be understandable on those
terms, in the main Job's position seems to be consistent with YHWH's own
position as articulated  in Chapter 1 and in 42:7-9.
     My own sense is that Job repents, not of sin or impiety, but of his
mournful despair. Shalom, Reggie

 But given the chance he finds he has nothing to say except to
>     acknowledge YHWH power v2 and wisdom v3 and ask that he be taught
>     v4. Melting away is how he would feel, but it is not a common
>     idiom, so perhaps difficult to understand without a long-winded
>     footnote :-). 
>     
> Bill Rea, Information Technology Dept., Canterbury  University  \_ 
> E-Mail b dot rea at it dot canterbury dot ac dot nz             </   New
> Phone   64-3-364-2331, Fax     64-3-364-2332                   /)  Zealand
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