Monday, May 18, 2009

Job 19:25-26 again

It is not surprising that with only half the doorway framed, I cannot yet see the shape of the whole building, i.e. the meaning of these verses, or why they were not used in the NT (or if they were, why the allusion is so hidden).

My first post on Job shows the stimulus for this series. We are about 1/2 way in the journey. And it would be foolish to make premature decisions on the translation of the last half of this chapter. My two main sources are completely at odds in their translations:

TS: Yes I, I want to know my redeemer while alive -
but he who cometh later will stand at my dust
After my body let them break it up!
Out of my flesh I want to see (my) God

Clines: But I know that my champion lives
and that he will rise last to speak for me on earth
even after my skin has thus been stripped from me
Yet to behold Eloah while still in my flesh - that is my desire

Clines has many pages of notes. Unfortunately, he will not be my companion for the last 22 chapters since his commentary ends at chapter 20.

The raw data:

וַאֲנִי יָדַעְתִּי גֹּאֲלִי חָי וְאַחֲרֹון עַל־עָפָר יָקֽוּם
וְאַחַר עֹורִי נִקְּפוּ־זֹאת וּמִבְּשָׂרִי אֶחֱזֶה אֱלֹֽוהַּ

Ultra literal:
and I I know one redeeming of me life and last on soil he shall arise
and after skin of me they encompass this and from flesh of me I shall perceive Eloah

my current trial:
And I - I know my vindicating of life
and at the last on dust it will rise
and after this my skin stripped
and from my flesh I will see God

So holding these extremes and uncertainties in tension, let's continue.

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