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LXX Job

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 42

1 Then Job answered and said to the Lord, 2 I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible with you.⁠ 3 For who is he that hides counsel from you? or who keeps back his words, and thinks to hide them from you? and who will tell me what I did not know, great and wonderful things which I did not understand? 4 But hear me, Lord, that I also may speak: and I will ask you, and teach me. 5 I have heard the report of you by the ear before; but now my eye has seen you. 6 Therefore I have counted myself vile, and have fainted: and I esteem myself dust and ashes. 7 And it happened after the Lord had spoken all these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, You have sinned, and your two friends: for you have not said anything true before me, as my servant Job has. 8 Now then take seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and he shall offer a burnt offering for you. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept only him: for but for his sake, I would have destroyed you, for you have not spoken the truth against my servant Job. 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Minaean, went and did as the Lord commanded them: and he pardoned their sin for the sake of Job.⁠ 10 And the Lord prospered Job: and when he prayed also for his friends, he forgave them their sin: and the Lord gave Job twice as much, even the double of what he had before. 11 And all his brothers and his sisters heard all that had happened to him, and they came to him, and so did all that had known him from the first: and they ate and drank with him, and comforted him, and wondered at all that the Lord had brought upon him: and each one gave him a lamb, and four drachmas' weight of gold, even of unstamped gold. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than the beginning: and his cattle were fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, a thousand female donkeys of the pastures. 13 And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the first Day, and the second Casia, and the third Amalthaea's horn. 15 And there were not found in comparison with the daughters of Job, fairer women than they in all the world: and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And Job lived after his affliction one hundred and seventy years:⁠ and all the years he lived were two hundred and forty-eight: and Job saw his sons and his sons' sons, the fourth generation. 17 And Job died, an old man and full of days: 17a and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. 17b This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Uz, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab;⁠ 17c and having taken an Arabian wife, he fathered a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zerah, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bozrah, so that he was the fifth from Abraham. 17d And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over: first, Balak, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dinhabah: but after Balak, Jobab, who is called Job, and after him Husham, who was governor out of the country of Teman: and after him Hadad, the son of Bered, who destroyed Midian in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gittaim. 17e And his friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Temanites, Bildad sovereign of the Shuhites, Zophar king of the Minaeans.

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Compare Job 42:2 and LXX Job 42:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Job 42 says that no divine purpose can be stopped, using a word that can also mean “schemes” or “plots.” The Greek Septuagint avoids this potentially negative ambiguity by using the neutral translation that “nothing is impossible for you.”

Passages

Job 42:2

Hebrew Bible
1 Then Job answered the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted; 3 you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

LXX Job 42:2

Septuagint
1 Then Job answered and said to the Lord, 2 I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible with you. 3 For who is he that hides counsel from you? or who keeps back his words, and thinks to hide them from you? and who will tell me what I did not know, great and wonderful things which I did not understand?
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Job

References

"... it is likely that the targumist simply shrunk from the idea that Job could actually instruct or inform the all-knowing God about anything. Another example is found in Job 42:2 ... Here, too, the Septuagint paraphrases: “Nothing is impossible for you.” What difficulty did the ancient translators see? It is possible that the Hebrew word which is frequently used in malem partem in the Bible, had negative overtones for the targumist. He did not want to impugn God’s holiness by attributing to him an evil “plot” or “scheme” and therefore put “strength and wisdom” in its place ..."
Edward M. Cook, “The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums,” in A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, ed. Matthias Henze (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 92–117.

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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