[B-Greek] Job 3:24

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Fri Dec 12 14:13:14 EST 2003


Dear Rick,
My reason for referring to LSL III. 1. was to indicate that 
semantically certain uses of PRO approximate ANTI (with which you were 
playing), underlining just how semantically fluid such structural  
markers can be.  Though at the Greek level I would not equate PRO with 
ANTI, at the level of English translation (of a literary text) I could 
opt for: "For groaning has come instead of my food" if I thought that 
would better convey the idea.
On Friday, December 12, 2003, at 01:26 PM, Rick Duggin wrote:

> Many thanks to Paul and Albert for their responses to my
> questions on Job 3:24.    I can live with your answers.   But
> would you mind a follow-up just for my own benefit?
>
> Both of you mention section III in LSJ, "in other relations:  1. of
> Preference..."    I saw this in my earlier research, but ruled it out
> because of the context in Job.   Perhaps I was misunderstanding this
> category.   I thought that this category of preference in this case 
> would
> imply that Job preferred sighing/groaning to food.
No, the idea would be that sighing comes to him [note that Rahlfs 
contra Ziegler has MOI] before food comes / rather than that foods 
comes.
> This sounded so
> strange to me that I dismissed it as a possiblity.
> Now that I think c. it, however, we have to grant some license to 
> poetry.
> IF we understand PRO in this preferential sense, then is poetic 
> license the
> key (as if Job is saying, "I prefer groaning to eating")?    OR, on a 
> more
> prosaic note, is he saying that his present lowly circumstances have 
> so affected
> his appetite that he prefers groaning over eating?   OR, am I 
> misunderstanding
> this preferential category in LSJ?
It is not what Job prefers that is at issue here, but what he sees 
happening to him in his dejected state. Thus one might paraphrase: Ah, 
things that cause me to groan have come my way, rather than food that I 
might enjoy! All I can do is weep in fear.
Al
> Thanks again for your responses.
>
> Rick Duggin
>
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—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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