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LXX Job

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 38

1 And after Elihu had ceased from speaking, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind and clouds, saying, 2 Who is this that hides counsel from me, and confines words in his heart, and thinks to conceal them from me? 3 Secure your clothing at your waist like a man; and I will ask you, and answer me.⁠ 4 Where were you when I founded the earth? tell me now, if you have knowledge, 5 who set the measures of it, if you know? or who stretched a line upon it? 6 On what are its rings fastened? and who is he that laid the corner-stone upon it? 7 When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. 8 And I shut up the sea with gates, when it rushed out, coming forth out of its mother's womb. 9 And I made a cloud its clothing, and swathed it in mist. 10 And I set bounds to it, surrounding it with bars and gates. 11 And I said to it, This far you will come, but you shall not go beyond, but your waves shall be broken within you.⁠ 12 Or did I order the morning light in your time; and did the morning star then first see his appointed place; 13 to lay hold of the extremities of the earth, to cast out the ungodly out of it? 14 Or did you take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, and set it with the power of speech upon the earth? 15 And have you removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud? 16 Or have you gone to the source of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep? 17 And do the gates of death open to you for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw you? 18 And have you been instructed in the breadth of the whole earth under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it? 19 And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? and of what kind is the place of darkness? 20 If you could bring me to their utmost boundaries, and if also you know their paths; 21 I know then that you were born at that time, and the number of your years is great. 22 But have you gone to the treasures of snow? and have you seen the treasures of hail? 23 And is there a store of them, for you against the time of your enemies, for the day of wars and battle? 24 And from where proceeds the frost? or from where is the south wind dispersed over the whole world under heaven? 25 And who prepared a course for the violent rain, and a way for the thunders; 26 to rain upon the land where there is no man, the wilderness, where there is not a man in it; 27 so as to feed the untrodden and uninhabited land, and cause it to send forth a crop of green herbs? 28 Who is the rain's father? and who has generated the drops of dew? 29 And out of whose womb comes the ice? and who has produced the frost in the sky, 30 which descends like flowing water? who has congealed the face of the deep? 31 And do you understand the band of the Pleiades, and have you opened the barrier of Orion?⁠ 32 Or will you reveal Mazzaroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Will you guide them? 33 And do you know the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven? 34 And will you call a cloud with your voice, and will it obey you with a violent shower of much rain? 35 And will you send lightnings, and they shall go? and shall they say to you, What is your pleasure? 36 And who has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery? 37 And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, and has bowed the heaven down to the earth? 38 For it is spread out as dusty earth, and I have cemented it like a squared block to a stone.⁠ 39 And will you hunt a prey for the lions? and satisfy the desires of the serpents? 40 For they fear in their lairs, and lying in wait couch in the woods. 41 And who has prepared food for the raven? for its young ones wander and cry to the Lord, in search of food.

Texts in conversation

Compare Job 38:38 and LXX Job 38:38

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Job 38 describes creation as dust becoming solid, with the Greek Septuagint describing it being formed like a square block. The Greek translation draws on the language of Hellenistic cosmology to describe the universe’s structure.

Passages

Job 38:38

Hebrew Bible
36 Who has put wisdom in the heart or has imparted understanding to the mind? 37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds, and who can tip over the water jars of heaven, 38 when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together? 39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness and satisfy the appetite of the lions 40 when they crouch in their dens, when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

LXX Job 38:38

Septuagint
36 And who has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery? 37 And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, and has bowed the heaven down to the earth? 38 For it is spread out as dusty earth, and I have cemented it like a squared block to a stone. 39 And will you hunt a prey for the lions? and satisfy the desires of the serpents? 40 For they fear in their lairs, and lying in wait couch in the woods.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Job

References

"... The verses quoted in both the Apostolic Constitutions and the Christian Topography to describe the structure of the universe are taken from the books of Psalms, Isaiah, and Job rather than from the account of the Creation in Genesis, giving them a homiletic application to articulate and illustrate a specific physical shape of the cosmos. Both texts refer to the heavens as a curtain creating a tentlike structure above the earth and above the firmament, as in Isaiah 40:22,29 “... who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in,” and in Psalms 104:2, “Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment, Who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent.” Both describe the earth as suspended over nothingness and surrounded by oceans, as in Job 26:7, “He stretcheth out the north over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing.” In both, the dust of the earth is gathered into a square box, as in Job 38:38, “When the dust runneth into a mass and the clods cleave fast together?,” which relies on the Septuagint translation used by Constantine of Antioch: “He has inclined heaven to earth and it has been poured out as the dust of the earth I have welded it as a square block of stone.” The use of the same verses suggests a common homiletic understanding of the biblical text as well as a shared conception of the structure of the universe ..."
Shulamith Laderman, “Cosmology, Art, and Liturgy,” in Between Judaism and Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 124.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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