Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

No. This is not what is written and not what is meant by Job 42:6
עַל-כֵּן אֶמְאַס וְנִחַמְתִּי עַל- 
עָפָר וָאֵפֶר
What Job is saying is
"Therefore I will decay and be reposing on dust and ashes."
Job is foreseeing now his inevitable termination after admittedly  
reaching the ultimate in beholding [my eye has seen you] God Himself.
This is parallel to the encounter in Exodus 33:20 between Moses and  
God, where God is saying
וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת- 
פָּנָי כִּי לֹא-יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם  
וָחָי
"But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives."

Isaac Fried, Boston University