From: "Ashley Crane" <acrane AT harvestwest.wa.edu.au>
To: "Reginald Wallace Ponder, Jr." <rwponder AT lycos.com>, "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Job 42:5,6
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 21:21:41 +0800
Dear Reginald
You noted -Friday, November 03, 2000 10:48 PM
Subject: Re: Job 42:5,6
> Of course, *nun-heht-mem* in v6 could be translated "repent," so that
Job would be refusing to repent -- essentially what you are saying, Robert.
But I think that Job does repent: He repents of his despair. (Note that in
Ex. 13:17 this same verb means something like "become discouraged.)
I did a thesis on this verb (NHM) - and it does flex in meaning in the
niphal (as it is in Job 42) which causes different words to be used when
translating into a receptor language. It first occurs (in canonical
sequence) in Gen.6:6. In most of the occurrences of NHM in the niphal it
means 'to change ones mind or attitude.' This appears to be what Job is
doing here. (FYI- NHM in the piel is consistently translated 'comfort/ed.'