5
Strategically Leverage Your Breaks

We have a section of our yard where the kids play kickball or baseball constantly in the summer. Home plate, the pitcher’s mound, and the bases are all well established, primarily because those are grassless patches. Last spring, I tilled the ground and planted new grass. We (I) had to nurture and care for these new plots of grass. We (I) had to water them and keep harmful creatures (my children) off the “baby grass” as we called it. One particular week it rained incessantly, so the new grass was both watered and relieved of the Canaanites stomping all over it. After that week, I looked out at the grass, and it was thick and lush because it had been nurtured (by God himself!). We want the results of your efforts to maintain and improve your Hebrew to be “thick and lush” like those baby grass patches in my yard.

Like new grass, houseplants need water, or they will die. If you neglect your Hebrew, your knowledge will also wither, oftentimes faster than you would like. Hebrew students can draw wisdom from the many studies that have been done on elementary school children’s reading loss during the summer months. Amazingly, a child who reads only four or five books over the course of the summer has no decline in reading-achievement scores.1 In fact, the children of more involved (and usually affluent) parents make small gains in reading over the summer months, according to studies.2

Below are listed the factors that help many kids preserve their reading ability over the summer. For the remainder of this chapter, we will explore these dynamics with specific application to keeping one’s Hebrew.

“Another result when pastors do not study the Bible in Greek and Hebrew is that they, and their churches with them, tend to become second-handers. The harder it is for us to get at the original meaning of the Bible, the more we will revert to the secondary literature. For one thing, it is easier to read. It also gives us a superficial glow that we are ‘keeping up’ on things. And it provides us with ideas and insights which we can’t dig out of the original for ourselves.

We may impress one another for a while by dropping the name of the latest book we’ve read, but secondhand food will not sustain and deepen our people’s faith and holiness.

Weakness in Greek and Hebrew also gives rise to exegetical imprecision and carelessness. And exegetical imprecision is the mother of liberal theology.”

—John Pipera

We will now apply these principles to the maintaining of Hebrew skills over extended breaks between academic semesters. Of course, these principles equally apply to the long-lasting “postgraduation break” (also known as “real life”).

Accountability

Before we consider accountability during a break, we need to think about the state of students entering that break—the mental, emotional, and spiritual realities of the students headed into a hiatus. Students are often weary after a long semester, and the excitement of engaging a new language may have waned significantly since week one of the semester. As a teacher of Hebrew, I join other language professors in two main objectives: (1) to take students successfully to the appropriate language competency level and (2) to infect them with my passion for the Hebrew Bible. If you are a professor and have fallen prey to just going through the motions (lecturing from twenty-year-old notes with no new input or passion), then consider what it may take to reignite your initial joys in Hebrew! Otherwise you may be missing your calling and injuring young souls. If you are a student whose teacher is perhaps not instructing or inspiring you effectively, you must supplement your own Hebrew diet. Don’t blame a slothful professor for your lack of Hebrew joy, but seek out a more balanced diet of inspiration that you are not currently receiving. Reading through this book will point you to many outside resources that can complement your current Hebrew education so that your end-of-semester burnout can transition into the delight of reading God’s word in the original Hebrew.

While one piece of this discussion is recognizing the reality of your emotional state at the end of a semester, the other factor is knowing that you will not likely pursue the joy of reading Hebrew without some accountability structure in place. You may need friends to come alongside you and ask you about your progress. You may need a reading group that is going to work through a few verses each Saturday morning. Whatever that strategy may be, in order to enjoy Hebrew, you must actually read Hebrew! For many of us, accountability is necessary in order to reach that level of delight.

So, accountability for the summer (or winter) must reflect the skill and passion of the student entering the break. If skill and passion are lacking, accountability becomes more difficult. It’s unlikely that a new runner will faithfully train for a race if he or she has only read about other people’s passion for running. I personally have never experienced the mystical “runner’s high.” That’s largely because I have never disciplined myself through accountability structures to run long enough to warrant the release of endorphins associated with this physiological phenomenon. That’s not running’s fault. That’s my fault! If we are going to experience a “reader’s high” in Hebrew, we must put ourselves under accountability structures that will move us closer and closer to the desired goal of delight in the Hebrew Bible, and these structures must begin at our current skill level.

There are two main types of accountability: (1) accountability that is authoritatively imposed from the outside and (2) accountability that is self-imposed. We will consider these two categories in succession.

Formal Accountability

Hebrew teachers should make use of class structures, as well as incentives and disincentives, to encourage students to read and study Hebrew during the breaks. Below are some recommended formalized or institutionalized forms of accountability:

Self-Imposed Accountability

If a teacher does not formally impose accountability to keep students in the Hebrew language, or if students have graduated, it will be necessary for the Hebrew students to impose accountability on themselves. Warning—the cliché is true: “The road to failure is paved with good intentions.” You may sincerely say, “I plan to read my Hebrew Bible every day,” but without accountability, you are likely to fail. Below is a list of suggestions for informal or self-imposed accountability:

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A Plan

Every late December, nearly all media outlets discuss how to keep your New Year’s resolutions. It turns out that one of the key ingredients in successfully keeping one’s resolutions is adopting clear and measurable goals. What’s true for New Year’s resolutions more generally applies directly to keeping your Hebrew. Here is a basic truth that will change your life: write down your Hebrew plan with undeniable, measurable specificity. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down. Then, have a method of regularly reminding yourself of that commitment (an automated reminder on your phone, for example, or a handwritten card taped to the shower door). Also, be realistic. For example, commit to read the Hebrew Bible for ten minutes every morning as part of your devotional time. Use a timer and make it a habit.

Dan Wallace recommends employing “the revolving door principle” in your original language reading plan. He explains, “Rotate some chapters in and rotate some out.”4 This is considered an upper-level reading plan, especially if you intend to read/translate whole chapters per day. Yet the “revolving door” approach could be prudently applied to smaller chunks of the Old Testament—say five verses per day. See the chart below for a sample of how overlapping with previous readings can be systematically applied to your daily reading plan. This same structure was used to develop the summer reading plan that was listed previously. In this plan, the student reads five verses per day, but only one new verse is encountered each day (after the first day, of course). From a pedagogical perspective, this repetition is a great way to review vocabulary and syntactical constructions while you continue to branch out into longer and longer sections of the Hebrew Bible. The reading plan above (see fig. 5.1) employs this same concept with options for Jonah, Ruth, and Deuteronomy 1 and 6.

Day Reading for the Day
June 1 Ruth 1:1–5
June 2 Ruth 1:2–6
June 3 Ruth 1:3–7
June 4 Ruth 1:4–8
June 5 Ruth 1:5–9
June 6 Ruth 1:6–10
June 7 Ruth 1:7–11

Does this plan seem manageable and appealing? Write it down. Find some level of accountability. Post it humbly in a public place. Now, do it.

Another simple plan is to follow someone else’s plan. There are several good “graded readers” that guide students through biblical texts with varying levels of assistance. If a student uses a “summer reader,” I recommend committing to a certain amount of daily study time rather than to specific lessons. For example, commit to work in the reader for fifteen minutes of your lunch break, Monday through Friday. After fifteen minutes, stop and close the book. Eat your dessert. Move on. Below are three recommended readers:

“Several things happen as the original languages fall into disuse among pastors. First, the confidence of pastors to determine the precise meaning of biblical texts diminishes. And with the confidence to interpret rigorously goes the confidence to preach powerfully. It is difficult to preach week in and week out over the whole range of God’s revelation with depth and power if you are plagued with uncertainty when you venture beyond basic gospel generalities. . . . So the preacher often contents himself with the general focus or flavor of the text, and his exposition lacks the precision and clarity which excite a congregation with the Word of God. Boring generalities are a curse in many pulpits.”

—John Piperb

If you have already taken a class in Hebrew syntax (for example, you’ve worked through an intermediate grammar and know what a verbless clause and temporal ב are), then a good prepackaged plan for you might be to read through a volume of the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible (BHHB) series (see fig. 5.2). These volumes provide detailed, phrase-by-phrase analysis of several books in the Hebrew Bible. They are essentially Hebrew exegesis classes in paperback format. Depending on the author, the Baylor Handbook series offers insights at the level of microsyntax (word and clause structures) as well as macrosyntax (paragraphs and discourse structures). I recommend the Baylor series to anyone who has had a year of Hebrew. Such students will not know everything they can know about Hebrew, but the handbook gives them a phrase-by-phrase explanation so that they can learn more Hebrew grammar and syntax in an inductive manner.

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If you are reading a BHHB volume and syntactical categories are fuzzy in your brain, you should consider having an intermediate grammar or some laminated reference sheets near you. Also, Todd Murphy’s Pocket Dictionary for the Study of Biblical Hebrew (InterVarsity, 2003) provides brief definitions and examples of a variety of grammatical terms. You will never regret buying Murphy’s book and having it close at hand. Finally, Miles Van Pelt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide, 2nd ed. (Zondervan, 2019) is a great resource to have on hand while continuing to read your Hebrew Bible.

Realistic Goals

Recently my (Rob’s) friend Charles was telling me about his ninety-five-year-old neighbor. When Charles greeted the neighbor and asked, “How are you doing?” the gentleman replied, “Well, I woke up this morning. It’s a good day!” Setting realistic goals (like waking up, if you are ninety-five) can go a long way toward preventing discouragement.

Take an honest assessment of your prior ability to form new habits, your time management skills, and your passion about Hebrew. Is the only thing you can commit to two minutes per day? Then do that. If you stick to your commitment for three months, that success will give you momentum to broaden and deepen your goals for reading the Hebrew Bible. The key is to be honest with yourself about your skill level, but not to be discouraged if your goals feel too small initially. For most of us, smaller goals up front will be more beneficial because we might actually reach them. After reaching several reading goals, we can then write down more extravagant goals.

Frank Farley, a specialist in motivation and risk-taking and professor of psychological studies and education at Philadelphia’s Temple University, speaks specifically to the importance of making realistic goals when committing to New Year’s resolutions. His advice applies equally well to “Hebrew resolutions” over the summer or winter break. Farley gives the following advice:

  1. Do not set impossible goals or goals too high to reasonably achieve.
  2. Make each resolution as specific as possible and time-stamped. For example, you might set a goal of reading Hebrew every weekday for ten minutes before breakfast for the next two months. That goal is both specific and time-stamped.
  3. Keep the number of goals you have small, check your progress often, and reward yourself for small successes along the way. Don’t set out to read the entire Hebrew Bible. Set several small, achievable goals so that you’re motivated by having obtained them. In addition, include some kind of metric for behavior as well as progress. Perhaps you didn’t read as far as you wanted in a biblical book, but you did indeed read ten minutes per weekday. Don’t be discouraged. The behavior of the goal was met even if the overall progress was slower than expected.
  4. Vary your resolutions each year so you don’t get stuck in a rut. You might want to adopt different Hebrew resolutions every summer in college or seminary. For example, you could vary the time you read, change between print or digital text, switch up outside study elements (commentaries, Hebrew handbooks), and so on. If you have simply been reading a Hebrew Bible, what about slowly rewriting by hand an entire book of the Hebrew Bible in your journal (with vowel points and cantillation marks!)? Maybe your goal could be to systematically walk through a different introductory grammar than the one you first learned with. This will help you solidify many basic concepts but from a different perspective.
  5. Don’t beat yourself up for failures. Farley comments, “Don’t catastrophize an occasional bad behavior. When you fall off your schedule, it isn’t the end of the world. Like Frank Sinatra said, dust yourself off and start all over again.”5

Enjoyment

Sometimes students suggest to me that they will review vocabulary and paradigms over the break. Generally, I think this is a bad idea. Unless you are linguistically inclined, bald language review will soon erode your motivation. What will keep you enjoying Hebrew? Staying close to the actual Hebrew Bible. It is through reading, meditating on, believing, loving, and obeying the Spirit-inspired words of the biblical authors that you will feast on food that non-Hebrew readers know not of. You will be able to declare with David, “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver” (Ps. 119:72;טֽוֹב־לִ֥י תֽוֹרַת־פִּ֑יךָ מֵ֝אַלְפֵ֗י זָהָ֥ב וָכָֽסֶף׃).

Tim Challies discussed in a 2016 article how self-discipline can lead to joy. Very often, “discipline” in our lives gets a negative connotation because we usually think of discipline as forcing ourselves to do the things in life we don’t want to do. Challies, however, suggests, “We don’t just need to discipline ourselves away from unpleasantness but toward joy.”6 He argues that often our self-discipline is designed to help us do less-than-desirable tasks so that we can avoid even more undesirable consequences. We discipline ourselves to do our personal finances so that we don’t overspend. We discipline ourselves to avoid sweets in order to fend off the negative consequences of overeating. But what would our lives look like if our self-discipline led to a delight in the task we had been disciplining ourselves to do? Perhaps we shouldn’t think of self-discipline as avoiding negative consequences, but maybe we could begin to think of it as a pursuit of joy.

I believe this is especially true with the biblical languages. If developing a joy of reading the Hebrew Bible comes with actually reading the Hebrew Bible, then there will be lots of self-discipline involved to get to that end goal. There will be a lot of sacrifice and hard work. However, we don’t put in those long hours of studying Hebrew just to avoid the consequences of not knowing Hebrew. In fact, I bet if you polled ten people, only one or two of them could come up with a tangible negative consequence of not knowing Hebrew (that’s unfortunate, I know). Therefore, our self-discipline in Hebrew studies needs to shift from avoiding negative consequences to pursuing the joy of reading God’s word in the original language. This will indeed take discipline and a plan, but once that plan is executed, we will find ourselves more on the joy end of the spectrum than on the frustration end.

Competition

The will to win might be one of the strongest motivators in the human person. It motivates perseverance and tenacity while one is playing Monopoly, and it may even motivate survival if someone is trying to “win” against some form of spiritual warfare or persecution. This will to win makes competition a strong asset in learning Hebrew. Let me clarify: let’s not induce sinful one-upmanship as we seek to learn Hebrew, but we can set up friendly competitions to see who will have to pay for the meal if he or she loses.

One way to compete is entering a head-to-head contest. Maybe you and a friend decide to hold each other accountable, but rather than just texting each other based on the reminders you set in your phones, you also decide that whoever can recite the largest chunk of the text you were reading that week gets two extra mulligans on the golf course next time you play. Maybe your positive incentive to read Hebrew daily is to get ice cream on Saturday. Join up with a friend (accountability) and decide that if one of you skips a day, that person has to pay for both ice creams. These kinds of friendly wagers can be a fun way to motivate each other to keep moving forward in learning Hebrew.

Another way to generate competition is by having a lofty goal to achieve. I (Rob) am the Grand Poo-Bah of a secret society. It is the A. T. Robertson Secret Society, so named for a famous Greek grammarian who taught at my school. To join the society, you must make 100 percent on one of my Greek exams. Members receive a personal induction letter with instructions about how to obtain the society’s secret password—which allows them access to the society’s website: www.atrsecretsociety.org. We also have a closed Facebook page, with more than three hundred active members. We have our own secret meetings, T-shirts, a secret handshake, and secret greetings.

“A great help for the investigation of truth is the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures in those languages in which they were written by the Holy Spirit. Not only is this the only well from which we can draw the original force and meaning of the words and phrases of Divine utterance, but also those languages possess a weight of their own—a vividness which brings to the understanding fine shades of meaning with a power which cannot survive the passage into another tongue. . . . There is in the originals of the Scripture a peculiar emphasis of words and expressions, and in them an especial energy, to intimate and insinuate the sense of the Holy Ghost unto the minds of men, which cannot be transduced into other languages by translations, so as to obtain the same power and efficacy. . . . What perplexities, mistakes, and errors, the ignorance of these original languages hath cast many expositors into, both of old and of late, especially among those who pertinaciously adhere unto one translation.”

—John Owenc

This secret society is not formally a head-to-head competition, but it does create in students the impetus to achieve excellence. As an educator, the key is to create competition without discouraging struggling students. Competition can be an intense motivator, but it can also be a discouragement for those who don’t achieve the desired, lofty goal. Be careful to find that balance, both in the classroom and in personal competitive relationships. Competition should help motivate us, not help us denigrate one another.

Community

Another sure way to enjoy Hebrew is either to study with others who are laboring to learn the language or to study in Hebrew the passages of Scripture that you are teaching in your ministry to benefit the local community of believers you serve. First, studying in a group may bring joy merely because of the camaraderie and motivation that comes with working in groups. Michael Austin, another member of the Greek and Hebrew reading group in Sioux Falls, said,

The reason I was so excited to join [the group] was because of my love of God and his word. I am no Greek or Hebrew scholar, but I do know enough to be dangerous, so I try to be careful. The fellowship and friendship have become very important to me. Gathering together around Scripture is the key. Randy, Donn, and Bruce have been so generous with their time. I tell my boys that if they ever want to find great friends, look for a Greek or Hebrew reading group! The instant fellowship with other believers who love God’s word is a wonderful thing.7

In his testimony, Michael highlights the fellowship and joy that can develop when people are gathered around God’s word. He also hints at the benefit of studying in groups in order to avoid errors. Both of these are significant reasons to study and read Hebrew with friends.

The second way Hebrew could become a community endeavor is by studying in Hebrew a lesson or passage you are preparing to teach. I never teach students to substitute their devotional Bible reading for academic work in the Bible, but the inverse of that should be encouraged. If you are studying the Old Testament to preach (quasi-academic work), then seek out new and rich devotional insights from the original Hebrew. You may need some additional commentaries or resources beside you so that you don’t misunderstand a Hebrew clause and teeter off the exegetical edge. These resources allow you to still wrestle with the text you are teaching, and I’d almost guarantee that you will gain some sort of devotional insight that is refreshing to your soul and will benefit your parishioners.

“The interpreter who interprets Scripture only in his modern language is always working with a linguistic veil between himself and original texts. And he never knows how thin or how thick this veil is.”

—Bernard Rammd

Last semester I had a student participate in an independent study on Hebrew exegesis of the Minor Prophets. One of the assignments was for him to write an exegetical paper on a passage of his choice. He chose Joel 2, and during the course of his exegetical work, he prepared a block diagram of the structure of Joel 2 using Biblearc.com. Only a month later, he was asked to preach at the church where he now serves. He sent me the sermon on Joel 2, and I was incredibly encouraged to hear his grammatical diagram in his sermon. The church members didn’t know he was thinking Hebrew in his mind or that he was visualizing the block diagram as he preached. He didn’t reference Hebrew or the grammatical structure. But I could hear it. I had seen him labor with the Hebrew text so as to produce an exegetical diagram, and I could hear how he was walking through that structure as he preached. He told me later that his work in the Hebrew made that sermon so much more enjoyable because he was confident that he delivered a solid message that was based on the text itself, not on someone else’s commentary on the text.

No matter how much work we put into making our desires to know Hebrew a reality, we can all do more. We can have one more goal, or one more plan in place, to know and enjoy Hebrew. Many of us need to take the first step toward developing a plan to leverage our academic breaks to our advantage. Develop a plan, write it down, and then let your breaks work for you as you continue this journey of learning to love the Hebrew Bible.

Chapter Reflections

  1. Do you have a break coming up in your formal academic studies (e.g., a winter or summer vacation)? Take some time to prayerfully visualize (a) how you want to stay in your Hebrew Bible and (b) what failure and regret would look like.
  2. Skim back over some of the reading plan ideas. Which approach appeals to you? Wallace’s revolving door? One of the “summer readers” or Hebrew exegetical guidebooks with a commitment of fifteen minutes each day? Consider writing down your commitment to one of these reading plans right now. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down. Right now. What’s the next step? Ordering a book? Entering a daily reminder on your smartphone calendar?
  3. Where are you employing your Hebrew in your ministry to others? If you currently are not doing so, where can you start connecting your reading of the Hebrew Bible with your practical study?
  4. Is there someone else to whom you can teach Hebrew? A group at church? Your children? A homeschooling cooperative?
  5. Jot down three forms of increased accountability for your study and reading of Hebrew (e.g., certain incentives or disincentives, a public record of your habits, or the active involvement of a friend or fellow student).

The Double-Edged Sword of Biblical Languages:
The Case of Job’s “Repentance”

Dominick Hernández

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The book of Job is sui generis in its rhetoric, style, and theology, making it arguably the most difficult biblical book to translate and thereby interpret. Modern students of the Bible have the advantage of the recovery and decipherment of related “pious sufferer” texts from the ancient Near East (e.g., Ludlul bel nemeqi; “The Babylonian Theodicy”), written in related Semitic languages (e.g., Akkadian), which shed considerable light on the language, structure, and content of Job. This, along with modern advancements in grammatical and syntactical analyses of Biblical Hebrew, should make translation and interpretation of biblical texts remarkably easier, right?

Well, it depends on which text.

Sometimes knowledge of biblical languages clarifies previously challenging texts, facilitating interpretation and consequently permitting readers to apply the principles of the text to their lives in relevant ways. On other occasions, however, proficiency in biblical languages calls traditional interpretation into question, demanding that the reader reexamine the text, reconsider its meaning, and perhaps dissent from a previously long-standing interpretation. As readers, we generally prefer the first option over the second—that is, we prefer clarification over complication. However, as Bible students who are bound to the authoritative words of the biblical text, an improved knowledge of the biblical languages compels us to perpetually reconsider even those deeply rooted interpretations of passages. In this sense, knowledge of biblical languages is functionally a double-edged sword: it permits the reader to profoundly engage with and understand intricacies of the biblical text, yet it simultaneously humbles the reader by forcing a perpetual reexamination of conclusions relating to the text.

The book of Job requires more reexamination than any other book in the Bible. Edward L. Greenstein concisely states one of the primary reasons this is the case: “The greatest obstacle before the translator of Job, however, is the necessity to overcome the many presuppositions that have accompanied the book since antiquity.”8 One of the most common assumptions concerning Job relates to 42:6:

“Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (ESV, NIV) עַל־כֵּ֭ן אֶמְאַ֣ס וְנִחַ֑מְתִּי עַל־עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃

Following the above translations, many commentators suggest that Job repents of the comments that he made about God during the dialogues with his companions. If this is the case, then why does God, twice in 42:7–8, speak favorably about Job’s speech?

“The LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.’” (42:7 ESV) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־אֱלִיפַ֣ז הַתֵּֽימָנִ֗י חָרָ֨ה אַפִּ֤י בְךָ֙ וּבִשְׁנֵ֣י רֵעֶ֔יךָ כִּ֠י לֹ֣א דִבַּרְתֶּ֥ם אֵלַ֛י נְכוֹנָ֖ה כְּעַבְדִּ֥י אִיּֽוֹב׃
“For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (42:8b ESV) כִּי לֹ֣א דִבַּרְתֶּ֥ם אֵלַ֛י נְכוֹנָ֖ה כְּעַבְדִּ֥י אִיּֽוֹב׃

These positive comments relating to Job’s speech appear in the context of God’s rebuke of Job’s companions’ speeches. This fact precludes the suggestion that God is commending Job’s statement of “repentance” in 42:6. God is actually endorsing Job’s speech from the dialogues, in which he engages in a discussion with his friends about their view of an incontrovertible system of just retribution. While Job’s friends direct their comments toward Job—initially striving to convince Job to return to God and then condemning Job as one of the wicked—Job directs his complaints (mostly) toward God. It is apparently this speech that God is commending.

For readers familiar with Job’s complaints toward God, this is a hard sell. It is unquestionably more theologically comfortable to somehow conclude that Job said “sorry” about the bad things he said when he was complaining about his tragic situation. So don’t take my word for it! Let us briefly take a look at the facts of the case.

As Job directs his complaint toward God, his speech is filled with hostile comments relating to how Job perceives God acting toward him. Job’s comments in chapter 9 are a perfect example of what not to say to God about God. For example, in Job 9:5–10, Job appears to be praising God for his immense power exhibited through his authority over creation. God can move mountains (v. 5), can shake the earth (v. 6), commands the sun and the stars (v. 7), stretches out the heavens, and creates constellations (vv. 8–9). At first glance, Job appears genuinely awestruck by the greatness of God . . . that is, until verse 10. In verse 10, it becomes evident that Job is not amazed by God’s power but is actually parodying one of his companion’s (Eliphaz’s) statements in order to assert that God’s “marvelous deeds” (נִפְלָאוֹת) are manifested in God’s abuse of creation. This is evident through the almost exact quotation of Eliphaz’s words relating to God’s “marvelous deeds”:

Eliphaz in 5:9 עֹשֶׂ֣ה גְ֭דֹלוֹת וְאֵ֣ין חֵ֑קֶר נִ֝פְלָא֗וֹת עַד־אֵ֥ין מִסְפָּֽר׃
Job in 9:10 עֹשֶׂ֣ה גְ֭דֹלוֹת עַד־אֵ֣ין חֵ֑קֶר וְנִפְלָא֗וֹת עַד־אֵ֥ין מִסְפָּֽר׃

Job proceeds to explicitly state that God is more interested in continually mistreating him for no apparent reason than in helping him in his pathetic state (9:14–19). As if this were not enough, Job then claims that God is indiscriminate in judgment (9:22), bringing the righteous and the wicked to the same end (תָּ֥ם וְ֝רָשָׁ֗ע ה֣וּא מְכַלֶּֽה׃). Since Job’s fate in the present life is not contingent on his righteousness, he concludes that God is apathetic about the fates of human beings in the afterlife. All must meet the same fate, whether righteous or wicked (cf. 3:13–15). According to Job, God is a violent and capricious mocker, who heartlessly scoffs at the innocent in their times of greatest need (9:23).

Not only is God indiscriminate in judgment according to Job, but God actively perverts justice (9:24)! God permits the wicked to inherit the earth, blessing them with dominion over all things (9:24: אֶ֤רֶץ ׀ נִתְּנָ֬ה בְֽיַד־רָשָׁ֗ע). Job’s assertion utterly contrasts with traditional biblical wisdom that indicates that the wicked are cut off from the face of the earth (cf. Ps. 37:9). To Job, God bestowing the land on the wicked demonstrates God’s arbitrariness, which is exemplified by God actively impairing judgment on the earth by “covering the faces of its judges” (פְּנֵֽי־שֹׁפְטֶ֥יהָ יְכַסֶּ֑ה; Job 9:24).

Now, does this sound like a person ready to “repent”? Even after the whirlwind speeches, Job lacks the answers to the issues that he repeatedly presents throughout the dialogues. Job never finds out why he is suffering and is apparently never privy to the details of the prologue. Job is essentially left in ignorance with regard to why his tragic circumstances came upon him. Thus, even after the whirlwind speeches, Job is disheartened and prepared to make a statement expressing his wretched emotional condition. Lo and behold, taking a fresh look at Job 42:6 discloses a statement that fits this context. In fact, an analysis of the Hebrew of 42:6 demonstrates that its traditional interpretation is anything but obvious.

First, translators seem to have an issue with the verb מאס being used intransitively (i.e., without a direct object). Since this verb frequently appears with a direct object (i.e., it is used transitively), translators tend to supply a direct object, rendering the conjugated form אֶמְאַס as something akin to “I despise myself.” This is obviously interpretive, as “myself” is simply nowhere to be found in the Hebrew text. In fact, a cursory look at Job 7:16 demonstrates that מאס can mean something like “to be fed up” when used intransitively in the qal (מָאַסְתִּי לֹא־לְעֹלָ֣ם אֶֽחְיֶ֑ה [“I am fed up! I will not live forever!”]).9 Job being fed up with his circumstances after being humbled by God through the whirlwind speeches and still not receiving any answers regarding his personal situation seems to distinctly fit the context of Job 42.

Second, translators grapple with the meaning of the word נחם in the niphal, which is frequently translated “to repent.” A cursory look at the dictionary reveals that this verb is multivalent (see, e.g., BDB, 636–37, niphal). For example, in 1 Samuel 15:29, the writer indicates that God does not lie or “repent” (לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר וְלֹ֣א יִנָּחֵ֑ם), and in verse 35 of the very same chapter, presumably the same author asserts that God does indeed “repent” that he made Saul king over Israel (וַיהוָ֣ה נִחָ֔ם כִּֽי־הִמְלִ֥יךְ אֶת־שָׁא֖וּל). So, wait, does God repent or not?

Clearly, the word נחם is being used differently in these two neighboring verses. In the case of 1 Samuel 15:29, נחם means to confess some sort of wrongdoing—which God cannot do. In the case of 1 Samuel 15:35, the word represents God as being “sorry”—a sentiment reflecting Israel’s unfortunate situation resulting from Saul’s poor leadership. In fact, the translators of the Septuagint of 1 Samuel understood that נחם was being used differently in these verses, rendering the word in 1 Samuel 15:29 as μετανοέω, “to repent” (LSJ, 1115), and in 1 Samuel 15:35 as μεταμέλομαι, “to regret” (LSJ, 1114).

Third, translators wrestle with the phrase עָפָר וָאֵפֶר in Job 42:6. Many translations render this phrase literally as “dust and ashes,” perhaps depicting Job’s condition at the beginning of the book (cf. 2:8). However, עָפָר וָאֵפֶר can also simply refer to the human condition. For example, Job seems to use this phrase in this manner in 30:19, while Abraham makes clear that he is only a human being in the presence of the deity by using this exact phrase (Gen. 18:27).

Perhaps instead of the understanding that Job “repents” in the sense of asking for forgiveness, a better understanding of Job 42:6 in the context of God’s commendation of Job’s speech (42:7–8) portrays Job as fed up and feeling sorry about the human condition. This makes sense in light of God’s revelation through the whirlwind speeches leaving Job without any semblance of a reason for his calamitous situation. In this context, Job does not appear to repent but, rather, states:

“Therefore, I am fed up. I am sorry about dust and ashes” (i.e., the human condition). עַל־כֵּ֭ן אֶמְאַ֣ס וְנִחַ֑מְתִּי עַל־עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃

This is admittedly a difficult verse with weighty theological implications. Nevertheless, regardless of where one stands on this issue of Job’s “repentance,” this matter is more intricate than most translations portray, which pragmatically demonstrates the necessity to utilize biblical languages in preaching and teaching the Scriptures. As teachers, it is impossible to sufficiently explicate the message of a text unless we first engage with the critical issues therein.

One final point must be accentuated: upon encountering difficult biblical texts, it is especially important to refrain from importing traditional understandings of the text, despite the fact that they might facilitate a simplified translation and fortify established interpretation. The student of the Bible must recognize the nature of the double-edged sword of biblical languages and appropriately divide the text, even if that same sword slashes our traditional interpretation and chisels a new understanding.

  

1. So reports James Kim of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who is referenced in Annie Murphy Paul, “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss’?,” Time, July 1, 2013, http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/01/do-kids-really-have-summer-learning-loss/.

2. Paul, “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss’?”

3. E.g., Robert W. Lent, Steven D. Brown, and Kevin C. Larkin, “Relation of Self-Efficacy Expectations to Academic Achievement and Persistence,” Journal of Counseling Psychology 31, no. 3 (1984): 356–62.

4. Daniel B. Wallace, “Reading through the Greek New Testament,” Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (blog), December 29, 2013, https://danielbwallace.com/2013/12/29/reading-through-the-greek-new-testament/.

5. Interview by Heidi Mitchell, “Burning Question: What’s the Best Way to Keep Up a New Year’s Resolution?,” Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2016, D2.

6. Tim Challies, “The Joy of Self-Discipline,” May 13, 2016, https://www.challies.com/articles/the-joy-of-self-discipline/.

7. Michael Austin, email correspondence with Adam J. Howell, August 9, 2018.

8. Edward L. Greenstein, “Challenges in Translating the Book of Job,” in Found in Translation: Essays on Jewish Biblical Translation in Honor of Leonard J. Greenspoon, ed. James W. Barker, Anthony Le Donne, and Joel N. Lohr (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2018), 189.

9. Translators also frequently supply a direct object to the verb in this context, despite the fact that it is clearly being used intransitively (cf. ESV, NIV, NRSV).