[B-Greek] Job 3:24

mrt mrt at hisurfer.net
Sat Dec 13 03:40:41 EST 2003


> Does PRO sometimes occur in the sense of exchange?   Would you
> suggest this rendering of Job 3:24?    Or is there another/better way
> to view the passage?

Assuming that the Vorlage of the LXX translator read like the MT here i.e.
PRO is reflecting LFNY of the Masoretic Text (MT).

(1) did the translator get it right?  i.e. did he translate in a manner that
best reflects the Hebrew original.  Posibly he did not understand the text
and simply gave a generic rendering of LFNY - "before" for "before"

(2) did PRO at that time have a broader semantic range?  Perhaps
encompassing a meaning such as "in the manner of" or "as if it were"  cf.
HALOT s.v. 4. g. LFNY.  Or others mentioned.

(3) does PRO understood as "before" (LFNY) reflect the correct
interpretation.


If #1 is correct and PRO did not have semantic range of "as if it were"(#2)
etc. then PRO for LFNY is too literal and probably not best choice.  Right
now this view is my opinion and that the translator chose a generic PRO for
LFNY.  Which can be argued whether this was a good decision or not.

Throughout the LXX (bar most of the Deuterocanonical writings that were
composed in Grk.) we're dealing a language that is translation Greek.  Does
the LXX have to be inspired or correct?  Sometimes the text of Job is
rendered with free expansion (cf. 2:9f).  At other times it is very wooden
i.e. literal, as the first line of this phrase.  Which I render: "For my
groaning comes as my food" (following HALOT's def.) and gives a stronger
cohesion to the parallel line in the Hebrew.
The wooden rendering of the first line compels me to believe in #1.

Michael Tarver
Oregon USA
<'\\><  laus Deo




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