Spreads his wings to the south?
27Does the eagle soar at your command,
Building his nest high,
28Dwelling in the rock,
Lodging upon the fastness of a jutting rock?
29From there he spies out his food;
From afar his eyes see it.
30His young gulp blood;
Where the slain are, there is he.
40
The LORD said in reply to Job.
2a-Shall one who should be disciplined complain against
Shaddai?-a
He who arraigns God must respond.
3Job said in reply to the LORD:
4See, I am of small worth; what can I answer You?
I clap my hand to my mouth.
5I have spoken once, and will not reply;
Twice, and will do so no more.
6Then the LORD replied to Job out of the tempest and said:
7Gird your loins like a man;
I will ask, and you will inform Me.
8Would you impugn My justice?
Would you condemn Me that you may be right?
9Have you an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like His?
10Deck yourself now with grandeur and eminence;
Clothe yourself in glory and majesty.
11Scatter wide your raging anger;
See every proud man and bring him low.
12See every proud man and humble him,
And bring them down where they stand.
13Bury them all in the earth;
Hide their faces in obscurity.
14Then even I would praise you
For the triumph your right hand won you.
15Take now behemoth, whom I made as I did you;
He eats grass, like the cattle.
16His strength is in his loins,
His might in the muscles of his belly.
17a-He makes his tail stand up-a like a cedar;
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18His bones are like tubes of bronze,
His limbs like iron rods.
19He is the first of God’s works;
Only his Maker can draw the sword against him.
20The mountains yield him produce,
Where all the beasts of the field play.
21He lies down beneath the lotuses,
In the cover of the swamp reeds.
22The lotuses embower him with shade;
The willows of the brook surround him.
23He can restrain the river from its rushing;
He is confident the streamb will gush at his command.
24Can he be taken by his eyes?
Can his nose be pierced by hooks?
25Can you draw out Leviathan by a fishhook?
Can you press down his tongue by a rope?
26Can you put a ring through his nose,
Or pierce his jaw with a barb?
27Will he plead with you at length?
Will he speak soft words to you?
28Will he make an agreement with you
To be taken as your lifelong slave?
29Will you play with him like a bird,
And tie him down for your girls?
30a-Shall traders traffic in him?-a
Will he be divided up among merchants?
31Can you fill his skin with darts
Or his head with fish-spears?
32Lay a hand on him,
And you will never think of battle again.
41
See, any hope [of capturing] him must be disappointed;
One is prostrated by the very sight of him.
2There is no one so fierce as to rouse him;
Who then can stand up to Me?
3Whoever confronts Me I will requite,
For everything under the heavens is Mine.
4a-I will not be silent concerning him
Or the praise of his martial exploits.-a
5Who can uncover his outer garment?
Who can penetrate the folds of his jowls?
6Who can pry open the doors of his face?
His bared teeth strike terror.
7His protective scales are his pride,
Locked with a binding seal.
8One scale touches the other;
Not even a breath can enter between them.
9Each clings to each;
They are interlocked so they cannot be parted.
10His sneezings flash lightning,
And his eyes are like the glimmerings of dawn.
11Firebrands stream from his mouth;
Fiery sparks escape.
12Out of his nostrils comes smoke
As from a steaming, boiling cauldron.
13His breath ignites coals;
Flames blaze from his mouth.
14Strength resides in his neck;
Power leaps before him.
15The layers of his flesh stick together;
He is as though cast hard; he does not totter.
16His heart is cast hard as a stone,
Hard as the nether millstone.
17Divine beings are in dread as he rears up;
As he crashes down, they cringe.
18No sword that overtakes him can prevail,
Nor spear, nor missile, nor lance.
19He regards iron as straw,
Bronze, as rotted wood.
20No arrow can put him to flight;
Slingstones turn into stubble for him.
21Clubsa are regarded as stubble;
He scoffs at the quivering javelin.
22His underpart is jagged shards;
It spreads a threshing-sledge on the mud.
23He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;
He makes the sea [boil] like an ointment-pot.
24His wake is a luminous path;
He makes the deep seem white-haired.
25There is no one on land who can dominate him,
Made as he is without fear.
26He sees all that is haughty;
He is king over all proud beasts.
42
Job said in reply to the LORD:
2I know that You can do everything,
That nothing you propose is impossible for You.
3Who is this who obscures counsel without knowledge?
Indeed, I spoke without understanding
Of things beyond me, which I did not know.
4Hear now, and I will speak;
I will ask, and You will inform me.
5I had heard You with my ears,
But now I see You with my eyes;
6Therefore, I recant and relent,
Being but dust and ashes.
7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am incensed at you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job. 8Now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. And let Job, My servant, pray for you; for to him I will show favor and not treat you vilely, since you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job.” 9Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them, and the LORD showed favor to Job. 10The LORD restored Job’s fortunes when he prayed on behalf of his friends, and the LORD gave Job twice what he had before.
11All his brothers and sisters and all his former friends came to him and had a meal with him in his house. They consoled and comforted him for all the misfortune that the LORD had brought upon him. Each gave him one kesitaha and each one gold ring. 12Thus the LORD blessed the latter years of Job’s life more than the former. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand she-asses. 13He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14The first he named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.
15Nowhere in the land were women as beautiful as Job’s daughters to be found. Their father gave them estates together with their brothers. 16Afterward, Job lived one hundred and forty years to see four generations of sons and grandsons. 17So Job died old and contented.
a-a Heb. ha-satan.
a-a Apparently a proverb whose meaning is uncertain.
a There are many difficulties in the poetry of Job, making the interpretation of words, verses, and even chapters uncertain. The rubric “Meaning of Heb. uncertain” in this book indicates only some of the extreme instances.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Or “sea,” taking Heb. yom as equivalent of yam; compare the combination of sea with Leviathan in Ps. 74.13, 14 and with Dragon in Job 7.12; cf. also Isa. 27.1.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Lit. “home.”
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain; others “deny the words of the Holy One.”
c Following kethib, with Targum; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Or “when the thread runs out.”
c See note at 3.8.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b A primeval monster.
c-c With Targum and Peshitta; or “with a storm.”
d Lit. “face.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Or “make sport of”; cf. Pal. Aram. ’afli.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Heb. muṣaq; other Heb. editions muṣṣaq, “you will be firm.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b A sign of madness.
c Cf. Ugaritic ytnm, a class of temple servants; others “the mighty.”
a-a Lit. “secret.”
b Lit. “ashen.”
c Lit. “clayey.”
d-d So with kethib; others with qere “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
e-e Lit. “inherit.”
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Lit. “with neck.”
a Lit. “my mouth.”
b-b Lit. “made my horn enter into.”
c-c Or “Though I did no injustice, / And my prayer was pure.”
a That consumed children; cf. Jer. 7.31.
a-a Lit. “the earth be abandoned.”
b Lit. “rib” (cf. Gen. 2.22); or “stumbling.”
c Viz., of the netherworld.
a-a Lit. “Ten times.”
b-b Lit. “You are not satisfied with my flesh.”
c Lit. “kidneys.”
d With many mss. and versions; printed editions, “me.”
a For this meaning of beten and hamud, cf. Hos. 9.16.
a Referring to v. 16.
a-a Lit. “My hand is heavy.”
a Lit. “days.”
b This verse belongs to the description of the wicked in vv. 2–4a.
c-c Cf. Mishnaic Heb. ‘or, Aramaic ‘orta, “evening”; others “with the light.”
d From here to the end of the chapter the translation is largely conjectural.
a Used for heaven; cf. Isa. 14.13; Ps. 48.3.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Cf. Isa. 27.1.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Lit. “nest.”
b-b Others “multiply days like sand.”
c Taking yappilun as from pll; cf. Gen. 48.11.
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Lit. “He.”
c Lit. “loosened my [bow] string.”
d Heb. yeshu‘athi taken as related to shoa’, “noble.”
a Lit. “the eyes of a.”
b Viz., the widow’s.
c-c Lit. “from its shaft,” i.e., the humerus.
d Lit. “palate.”
a-a Lit. “once … twice.”
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c I.e., the contrite man.
d-d Or with kethib, “me … I.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a As Aramaic ’urya.
b Evidently a constellation.
c Or “rooster”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Lit. “They …”
b Or “digs up.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Lit. “Jordan.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a A unit of unknown value.
The Song of Songs
1 The Song of Songs, bya Solomon.
2b-Oh, give me of the kisses of your mouth,-b
For your love is more delightful than wine.
3Your ointments yield a sweet fragrance,
Your name is like finestc oil—
Therefore do maidens love you.
4Draw me after you, let us run!
d-The king has brought me to his chambers.-d
Let us delight
