I began to comment on Job 28 strophe by
strophe in earlier posts (here,
here,
here,
and here),
but rather than go that route any further, I herewith lay out the Hebrew of the
whole chapter according to its poetic form as I understand it, offer a fresh
translation, and reflect on what the poem seems to say. Hebrew not your thing?
Skip over it and go straight to the translation and explanation.
Dave,
Ros, Eclexia, Bob, and Lingamish, this is for you. Perhaps
others will enjoy taking a fresh look at Job 28.
1כִּי־יֵשׁ לַכֶּסֶף מוֹצָא
וּמָקוֹם לַזָּהָב יָזֹקּוּ
2 בַּרְזֶל מֵעָפָר
יֻקָּח
וְאֶבֶן יָצוּק נְחוּשָׁה
3 קֵץ שָׂם לַחֹשֶׁךְ
וּלְכֹל תַּכְלִית
הוּא חוֹקֵר אֶבֶן
אֹפֶל וְצַלְמָוֶת
4פָּרַץ נַחַל מֵעִם־גָּר
הַנִּשְׁכָּחִים מִנִּי־רָגֶל
דַּלּוּ מֵאֱנוֹשׁ
* 5נָעוּ אֶרֶץ
מִמֶּנָּה יֵצֵא לְחֻם†
וְתַחְתֶּיהָ נֶהְפַּךְ כְּמוֹ־אֵשׁ
6מְקוֹם סַפִּיר אֲבָנֶיהָ
וְעַפְרֹת זָהָב לֹו
7 נָתִיב לֹא־יְדָעֹו עָיִט
וְלֹא שְׁזָפַתּוּ
עֵין אַיָּה
8לֹא הִדְרִיכֻהוּ בְנֵי־שָׁחַץ
לֹא עָדָה
עָלָיו שָׁחַל
9 בַּחַלָּמִישׁ שָׁלַח יָדֹו
הָפַךְ מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ הָרִים
10 בַּצּוּרוֹת יְאֹרִים בִּקֵּעַ
וְכָל־יְקָר רָאֲתָה עֵינֹו
11 מִבְּכִי נְהָרוֹת חִבֵּשׁ
וְתַעֲלֻמָהּ יֹצִא אוֹר
12וְהַחָכְמָה מֵאַיִן תִּמָּצֵא
וְאֵי־זֶה מְקוֹם בִּינָה
13 לֹא יָדַע
אֱנוֹשׁ עֶרְכָּהּ
וְלֹא תִמָּצֵא
בְּאֶרֶץ הַחַיִּים
14תְּהוֹם אָמַר
לֹא בִי הִיא
וְיָם אָמַר
אֵין עִמָּדִי
15 לֹא יֻתַּן
סְגוֹר תַּחְתֶּיהָ
וְלֹא יִשָּׁקֵל
כֶּסֶף מְחִירָהּ
16 לֹא תְסֻלֶּה
בְּכֶתֶם אוֹפִיר
בְּשֹׁהַם יָקָר וְסַפִּיר
17 לֹא יַעַרְכֶנָּה
זָהָב וּזְכוֹכִית
וּתְמוּרָתָהּ כְּלִי־פָז
18 רָאמוֹת וְגָבִישׁ
לֹא יִזָּכֵר
וּמֶשֶׁךְ חָכְמָה מִפְּנִינִים
19 לֹא יַעַרְכֶנָּה פִּטְדַת־כּוּשׁ
בְּכֶתֶם טָהוֹר
לֹא תְסֻלֶּה
20וְהַחָכְמָה מֵאַיִן תָּבוֹא
וְאֵי־זֶה מְקוֹם בִּינָה
21וְנֶעֶלְמָה מֵעֵינֵי כָל־חָי
וּמֵעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם נִסְתָּרָה
22 אֲבַדּוֹן וָמָוֶת אָמְרוּ
בְּאָזְנֵינוּ שָׁמַעְנוּ שִׁמְעָהּ
23 אֱלֹהִים הֵבִין דַּרְכָּהּ
וְהוּא יָדַע אֶת־מְקוֹמָהּ
24כִּי‡־לִקְצוֹת הָאָרֶץ יַבִּיט
תַּחַת כָּל־הַשָּׁמַיִם יִרְאֶה
25 לַעֲשׂוֹת לָרוּחַ מִשְׁקָל
וּמַיִם תִּכֵּן בְּמִדָּה
26בַּעֲשֹׂתֹו לַמָּטָר חֹק
וְדֶרֶךְ לַחֲזִיז קֹלוֹת
27 אָז־רָאָהּ וַיְסַפְּרָהּ
הֱכִינָהּ וְגַם־חֲקָרָהּ
28וַיֹּאמֶר לָאָדָם
הֵן־יִרְאַת אֲדֹנָי
הִיא חָכְמָה
וְסוּר מֵרָע בִּינָה
*Redivision of text; †revocalization; ‡omission of word
(assuming a dittography)
1 Now silver has a source,
there’s a place they refine gold;
2 iron is taken from the ground,
rock smelted into copper.
3 He puts an end to the darkness,
to every limit -
the explorer, that is, of rock,
of gloom and murk.
4 He breaks open a channel in a hollow,
places forgotten
destitute of humanity;
5 they wander a land
from which heat comes forth,
its lower regions convulsed
by fire;
6 a place whose rocks are lapis,
the specks of which are gold.
7 The path to it no raptor knows,
the falcon’s eye
has not seen it;
8 proud
beasts have trod it not,
nor has the lion
traversed it.
9 He sets his hand against the flint,
overturns mountains at their root;
10 cleaves Niles in the rocks,
every precious thing his eye sees;
11 he dams up the flow of streams
that he might bring hidden things
to light.
12 But where can wisdom be found,
where is the source of
understanding?
13 Her location humankind
does not know;
she cannot be found
in the land of the living.
14 The deep says:
she’s not in me;
the sea says:
not with me.
15 She cannot be bought
in exchange for gold;
her price in silver
cannot be weighed out.
16 She cannot be compared
to Ophir’s fine gold,
precious onyx and lapis.
17 Not gold, not glass
are equal in value,
not vessels of gold, to her
worth;
18 not coral and crystal
to be mentioned beside her,
better than rubies a pouch
of wisdom.
19 Topaz of Nubia
unequal in value,
Pure gold
not to be compared with her.
20 And where does wisdom come from,
where the source of
understanding,
21 that it be hidden from the eyes of the
living,
concealed from the fowl of
heaven?
22 Abaddon and Death say:
we heard hearsay;
23 God knows the way to her,
it’s he that knows her
location,
24 because he spies the earth’s ends,
he sees what’s beneath the
entire heavens.
25 While assigning a weight to the wind,
while he meted out the waters by
measure,
26 when he imposed a limit on the rain,
a path on bolts of thunder,
27 he saw her and described her,
he established her and fathomed
her.
28 He said to humankind:
the fear of the Lord
that is wisdom,
understanding, the avoidance of
evil.
It is said of the first kind of wisdom that
God, while assigning limits to the wind and the waters, “saw her and described
her, established her and fathomed her.” This wisdom, though the poem does not
say so, is, from a logical point of view, a divine attribute. The poem describes
her as a distinct entity.
The poem’s way of speaking, I would suggest, reflects
a phenomenology of religious experience. A divine attribute is apprehended as
an entity unto itself. In the tradition and theology to which the author of Job
28 was indebted, a part of God could be described by God as if it existed apart
from God. Similarly, Wisdom elsewhere speaks of herself as a work of God (Prov
8:22).
The poem’s way of putting things is more than
a literary trope. A close reading of Proverbs 1-9 suggests that it has roots in
the piety of the wise vis-à-vis the object of their desire. A deontological
mysticism as it were, comes to the fore in the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is
apprehended as a person with a personality and voice. In the categories of that
experience, she addresses human beings and tells them what they should do.
This kind of piety and epistemology has had repercussions
in the history of Judaism and Christianity. The end result in Judaism: an
apprehension of God via his attributes as described in the Zohar and other
traditional Jewish sources. The end result in Christianity: the apprehension of
God in three persons. My main point here: the divine hypostases in the Zohar
and the doctrine of the Trinity in Christianity are literary and theological
reflexes of piety, or religious experience. They are not the inventions of
scholars.
Where on earth is the Wisdom God described
and fathomed on the day of creation? He established her, says Job 28. He saw
her, but human beings cannot see her. She became, it seems, the order
underlying the universe. She became its unsearchable subtext. She may be seen,
but only by God, at earth’s limina.
In terms of the book of Job’s plot, Job’s
acknowledgement of the unsearchability of first-order wisdom is part and parcel
of his coming to senses. Job’s maturation occurs midway through the book (Job
26-31 on). Before that, Job loses it and accuses God of all manner of evil (Job
3 on). While still berating God, he defers his case to God all the same, and
insists on his innocence (the last instance is in Job 23-24). Given his
friends’ accusations, he needs God to judge in his favor. Otherwise, his
friends will not be condemned and he will not be justified. Job 28 helps
explain why Job appeals his case to the highest court he knew.
In the book of Job as it has come down to us,
Job acknowledges the unsearchability of wisdom before God reveals himself to
Job in a theophany. The result: God in his speeches reinforces what Job already
knows. Indeed, God says to Job, “Who fixed the earth’s dimensions? You know!”
(38:5). Job does know. In fact he knows how much he doesn’t know. The ontological
chasm which separates Job from God is something of which he is aware. God does
not need to impart this knowledge to Job, and he does not. He simply asks
rhetorical questions (38:4-39:30; 40:9-41:26). The answers are obvious.
The second kind of wisdom of which Job 28
speaks is the primary theme of wisdom instruction in the book of Proverbs and of
wisdom literature of all times and places. According to the final form of the
books of Proverbs and Job, this kind of wisdom – we might call it second-order
wisdom – is a gift of God to human beings. It takes the form of an attitude –
fear of God – and has practical consequences – summarily referred to as the
avoidance of evil.
Failure to distinguish between the two kinds
of wisdom issues in a misconstrual of the limits of human knowledge. In response
to unmotivated human suffering, it might provoke a neglect of the centrality of
the ethical task. The function of Job 28: to head these errors off at the pass.
The book of Job makes sense without Job 28. But its presence in the book enriches it and rounds out the portrayal of the turnaround Job effects in the course of his struggle with the demons that congregated under his skin in the wake of the tragedy and sickness he experienced.
Really helpful, and I think I agree with much of this, especially on the role of ch 28 in the whole book. It seems to me that one of the things this chapter does is rework the whole debate in wisdom terms in a way that we otherwise might not think to do. It makes us see that Job really is wisdom literature.
Posted by: Ros | November 12, 2007 at 11:13 PM
I'm so glad to read your translation and the thoughts you've shared along with it. What an amazing book! I didn't have a felt need to have the book make sense (which sometimes makes me wonder what's wrong with me NOT to see the obvious discrepancies and tensions others see and need to have resolved :) ). Job made sense to me on an emotional reasoning level in a way that other books don't. Now, however, I'm glad to read words from you that articulate HOW and WHY it makes sense! Because the only answer I would have had if challenged was, "Well, it feels like it makes sense to me," which is not very convincing to most people :)
The message in Job that keeps flooring me (and again you stated it so well in one of your recent posts) is that Job discovered (1) that God was even more frightening than Job had made him out to be, but (2) that Job was right that he could trust Him, even though there is certainly a terror that comes from humanly choosing to trust Almighty God who is sovereign, powerful and can do what He wants. When I choose to trust God, I don't have a backup/escape plan.
Job encourages my hope that that's okay. Things may get incomprehensibly worse. And I also may feel and think and express things which one would assume should never even be thought in the presence of such a God. But, even while I fear God, I don't have to be afraid. I am somehow simultaneously more careful in my "avoidance of evil" because of Who God Is, but also more able to rest in a trusting relationship with Him even when I'm fearful.
It's hard to explain, but I live this tension--in one way more afraid of God's Sovereign Will than of anything/anyone else and yet more truly and deeply safe and confident in resting and trusting Him than I am in any other relationship. So, I'm either a bona fide whacko, or maybe I'm beginning to understand the delights of learning to trust a God who is not made in my own image. I go back and forth on that one.
Thanks again for this lovely and powerful translation and the insights you've given that make me jump for joy in my spirit. I feel like I'm getting an education from a great professor without having the pressure of exams, papers and grades!
Posted by: eclexia | November 13, 2007 at 08:30 AM