Texts in Conversation
Job 14 describes God longing for the creature he made, suggesting an emotional feeling or reaction. The Greek Septuagint removes this language of longing, reflecting a later theological preference to avoid giving human emotions to God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Job 14:15
Hebrew Bible
13 “O that you would hide me in Sheol, and conceal me till your anger has passed! O that you would set me a time and then remember me! 14 If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait until my release comes. 15 You will call and I—I will answer you; you will long for the creature you have made. 16 “Surely now you count my steps; then you would not mark my sin. 17 My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin.
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Job 14:15
Septuagint
13 For if only you had kept me in the grave, and had hidden me until your fierce anger should cease, and you should set me a time in which you would remember me! 14 For if a man should die, shall he live again, having accomplished the days of his life? I will wait till I exist again? 15 Then you will call, and I will listen to you: but do not reject the work of your hands. 16 But you have numbered my devices: and not one of my sins shall escape you? 17 And you have sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In Job 14:15, תכסף למעשה ידיך (“You would long for the work of your hands”) can be misunderstood, as if God would be bound to his emotions. The Septuagint offers τὰ δὲ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου µὴ ἀποποιοῦ (“do not reject the works of your hands”). This alteration perhaps took place in the Hebrew Vorlage, if כסף is understood as “to be ashamed” and if the introduction did contain not only ל but אל. ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 13.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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